Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies
If you love Little Debbie oatmeal creme pies, then this recipe is for YOU. And also for little Whitney, because her mom rarely bought them when she was a kid. I wish I had this recipe when I was younger! These homemade oatmeal creme pies sandwich two soft oatmeal cookies around a fluffy cream filling for a satisfying sweet treat that tastes JUST like the Little Debbie version.
For another delicious Little Debbie copycat, check out my Homemade Cosmic Brownies! Or if you’re after more oatmeal cookie goodness, make classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies.
Why This Recipe Works
- Best homemade oatmeal creme pies. I love soft and chewy oatmeal cookies. These cookies are made with quick oats, which help them be chewy but not too chewy, and we underbake them slightly to ensure they stay super soft.
- Tastes just like the Little Debbie snack. A touch of molasses in the cookie dough not only amps up the delicious flavor of these sandwich cookies, it also makes them a pretty spot-on copycat of the original snack!
- Easy, with few ingredients. I have always loved oatmeal creme pies, and they’re still a tasty treat to enjoy now and then, but we all know that there are a lot of ingredients in the store-bought version that we maybe don’t want to eat all the time. This homemade version takes just half an hour, and there’s no need to worry about preservatives. It’s a win-win.
Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted butter: The basis of any good cookie to provide moisture and richness in flavor.
- Sugar: A combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar will give us the flavor and texture we want in our cookie.
- Molasses: This ingredient adds a touch of sweetness, but mostly the warmth and taste we associate with an oatmeal cookie and especially with oatmeal creme pies.
- Salt: To balance the sweetness in the cookie.
- Egg: For binding ingredients together, helping the cookie rise, and a whole bunch of other critical things.
- Vanilla extract: The key to most delicious baked goods. Vanilla extract goes in the cookie and in the filling.
- All-purpose flour: To provide structure to our cookie and keep it from spreading too thin.
- Quick-cooking oats: Using quick oats instead of old-fashioned oats in this oatmeal creme pie recipe makes it so these cookies are chewy but not too chewy, the way they would be with regular rolled oats.
- Cinnamon: For more of that classic warmth in an oatmeal cookie and in an oatmeal creme pie.
- Powdered sugar: This makes up the bulk of our oatmeal creme pie filling, which is basically just a simple vanilla buttercream.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep oven and pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add ½ a cup of softened, unsalted butter, ¾ cup of light brown sugar, and ¼ cup granulated sugar. Mix together until creamy and smooth. You can also use a hand mixer and a large mixing bowl.
- Add salt and remaining wet ingredients. To the sugar-butter mixture, add 2 teaspoons of molasses, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 large egg, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Add dry ingredients. To the mixing bowl, add 1¼ cups of all-purpose flour, ⅔ cup of quick oats, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ¾ teaspoon of baking soda. Mix until all these ingredients are just combined.
- Scoop and bake. Use a 1½ tablespoon measure to scoop the dough into soft balls. Place the cookie dough balls on your lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges are set but the centers still look shiny and underbaked. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make creme filling. While your cookies cool, make the oatmeal creme pie filling. In a mixing bowl with a hand mixer, or in your stand mixer, beat ½ cup of softened unsalted butter until it is smooth and creamy. Add a pinch of salt, 2 cups of powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of heavy cream, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes, or until combined and fluffy. You may need to scrape down the sides of your bowl.
- Add creme to cookies. Spoon frosting into a piping bag with a large tip or a zip top bag with the corner cut off. Pipe some creamy filling onto the bottom of one cookie, then sandwich it with another cookie. Enjoy!
Recipe Tips
Apparently Little Debbie started making a “double decker oatmeal creme pie…” you can easily make these cookies into double decker creme pies by just adding more frosting and another cookie on top!
If you don’t have quick oats, you can pulse rolled oats in a blender or food processor to break them into smaller pieces. You can also use rolled oats, but the cookies will be much chewier. I find that the finer texture of quick oats gives makes for ideal chewy cookies.
Trust the process when it comes to underbaking these cookies! We want super tender oatmeal cookies, and underbaking is key for a soft texture.
I love the classic pairing of a simple vanilla buttercream with these oatmeal cookies, but you can definitely experiment with flavors. Add cinnamon to the buttercream for more warmth, nutmeg for an eggnog feel, or maybe brighten it up with some lemon zest. I’ve also seen some people use marshmallow fluff for the filling—buy some or make your own to fill these cookies with instead!
If you want a deeper molasses flavor, you can use dark brown sugar in place of light brown sugar.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
Make Ahead: These cookies keep well for 4-5 days, so you can make them ahead of time with no problems!
Storing: Store leftover homemade oatmeal creme pies in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days.
Freezing: Yes these cookies can be frozen! Wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store them in a zip top bag in the freezer for up to 2 months. Apparently some people also enjoy eating them frozen!
Recipe FAQs
You can probably freeze the store-bought kind, and you can definitely freeze these homemade ones for up to 2 months.
Oatmeal creme pies have a long history! Oather “O.D.” McKee created the cookie in 1935, when it sold for a nickel. Twenty-five years later, McKee founded the Little Debbie brand, making these cookies the first Little Debbie snack ever made.
Neither the original cookie nor my copycat recipe is gluten-free. However, if you have a favorite gluten-free flour, you should be able to use it in place of all purpose flour with no issues.
More Tasty Oatmeal Recipes
- Baked Oatmeal Cake
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
- White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- No Bake Cookies
Homemade Oatmeal Creme Pies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar - packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons molasses
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2/3 cups quick oats
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Creme Filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened to room temperature
- pinch salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and sugars until creamy. Add the molasses, salt, egg, and vanilla extract and mix again until smooth, about 1 minute on medium speed. Add the flour, quick oats, cinnamon and baking soda and mix until just combined.
- Using a 1 ½ T scoop the dough into balls. Place the balls on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing each ball about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are set but centers still appear shiny and underbaked (these are SOFT cookies.. we don’t want to overbake them). Remove from oven and let cool on sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the cream filling by beating the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the salt, powdered sugar and heavy cream and vanilla and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes or until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.
- Place the frosting in a piping bag or ziplock bag with the tip snipped off, and pipe some filling on the bottom half of a cookie, then top with another cookie, to create a sandwich. Store covered in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
Recipe adapted from Preppy Kitchen.
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