Oatmeal Creme Pies – Better than Little Debbies

Prepare to elevate your snack game with these homemade oatmeal creme pies that are leagues above the Little Debbie original. While the store-bought version may be special in our childhood memories, these made-from-scratch treats will create new, more delicious nostalgia.

Featuring soft, chewy oatmeal cookies sandwiched between luscious cream filling, these homemade delights offer a superior taste and texture that will make you wonder why you ever settled for the packaged version.

This was inspired by America’s Test Kitchen recipe for Oatmeal Creme Pies.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients – Here’s What You’ll Need for the Cookies
• Making the Cookie Dough – Step-by-Step
• Forming and Baking the Cookies
• Making the Creme Filling and Finishing the Oatmeal Creme Pies
• Comparison to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Recipe Tips and Tricks
• Other Copycat Recipes
• Recipe

Ingredients – Here’s What You’ll Need for the Cookies

• Dry Ingredients: For the dry ingredients, I used all-purpose flour, fine sea salt, baking soda, and ground cinnamon. You could easily substitute table salt for fine sea salt.

• Wet Ingredients: For the wet ingredients, I used dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, melted unsalted butter, molasses, a large egg, an egg yolk, and vanilla extract.

• Key Ingredients: Old-fashioned oats and raisins are the two key ingredients that contribute to the flavor and texture.

Making the Cookie Dough – Step-by-Step

An interesting aspect of this recipe is that the dough is all mixed by hand—no electric mixer is required!

1. I started by whisking the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Then, I set this aside.

2. Next, I processed the oats and raisins in a food processor with a steel blade until they were finely ground, which took about a minute. I set this aside as well.

3. Next, I whisked the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vegetable oil, melted butter, molasses, and cinnamon in a large bowl.

4. Then, I whisked in the egg and egg yolk.

5. After that, I stirred the flour mixture into the wet ingredients using a wooden spoon.

6. Finally, I stirred the oat/raisin mixture into the cookie dough until well incorporated.

Forming and Baking the Cookies

Once the cookie dough was made, it was time to form the cookies.

1. I started by portioning 12 pieces of dough onto a parchment-lined rimmed half-sheet pan using a cookie scoop that was just under 1 ½ tablespoons. For reference, the diameter of the cookie scoop was 1 10/16 inches.

2. To ensure the cookies were the same size, I weighed each piece of dough – 33 grams each (yes, I’m a foodie nerd!). Then, I rolled the dough into a ball in the palms of my hands and flattened it to about 2 ½ inches. This was to help produce perfectly round cookies.

3. Once the cookie dough was portioned, rolled, and flattened, I baked the cookies in a preheated 400°F until cracks started to develop around the edges. This took about 7 minutes.

4. After seven minutes, the cookies had developed the signature cracks on the top, and I removed the pan from the oven. No matter how careful I am in forming the cookie dough, some cookies inevitably end up a little misshaped. To correct for this, I took a knife and gently reformed the cookies while they were still hot and pliable.

5. I let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes. Then, I transferred the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Making the Creme Filling and Finishing the Oatmeal Creme Pies

1. Once the cookies were completely cooled, I made the creme filling, using the following ingredients.

2. I added the marshmallow Fluff, confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and salt to my food processor with the steel blade.

3. I processed the filling ingredients until they were well combined, and the filling was smooth and creamy. This took about 30 seconds.

4. Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, I added the filling to the center of the flat side of the cookies. Because of the consistency, the filling started spreading by itself. Then, I placed another cookie, flat side down on the filling. I lightly pressed the top cookie to further distribute the filling, being careful not to break the super-soft cookie.

Comparison to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies

To determine whether the homemade oatmeal creme pies were worth the trouble, I bought a box of Little Debbie’s and did a side-by-side comparison.

My cookie, which was 3 ¼ inches, is on the left, and the Little Debbie which was 2 ¾ inches is on the right.

• Appearance: Both cookies had cracks in the surface. The Little Debbie cookie was somewhat darker than mine. Overall, my cookie looked significantly more attractive than the Little Debbie.

• Texture: Both cookies were super soft. The Little Debbie had an almost mushy texture while mine had a nice chewy texture.

• Taste: There was no comparison here. Both the cookie and the filling of the Little Debbie were tasteless. My oatmeal creme pie cookies were packed with flavor from the oats, raisins, molasses, and Cdark brown sugar. The filling was to die for. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and perfectly complemented the cookies.

Bottom line – making this recipe for the oatmeal creme pies was totally worth the effort.

So there you have it! This homemade oatmeal creme pie recipe brings back the nostalgic flavors of your favorite childhood snack and elevates it to a whole new level.

With superior taste, texture, and quality ingredients, these cookies are an amazing upgrade from the store-bought Little Debbie version. Try making a batch today and experience the difference for yourself. Yum!

Other Copycat Recipes

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