Patriotic oatmeal creme pie cookies

Happy 4th July everyone! I wanted to make a few sweet treats for the family to make up for the inevitable bbq's and fireworks we're missing out on so I've been searching for a recipe that utilises my cupboard ingredients AND brings home the taste of America for me.

One of the tastes of my childhood were american snack cakes. We're all familiar with Twinkies and Hostess cupcakes but do you remember the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie? I don't remember being an oatmeal cookie type-a-gal but I think my Mum was and she no doubt shared them with us so they bring back chewy, cinnamony memories for me.

I found a few recipes online and they all seemed a bit overly long but trust me, the ingredients list is worth it! If you love oatmeal and like a nice chewy cookie then this is for you. The creme filling uses a jar of marshmallow fluff which is readily available in Tesco and Asda nowadays but if you don't have any then your standard stiff buttercream will suffice. I urge you to try the Fluff version though - it's utterly divine!

Stick with the 10min baking time too, the treacle will brown the edges of your cookie which gives a nice crispy edge but these cookie pies need soft, gooey edges so whip them out of your oven as soon as they start to turn a light brown.

I also experimented with cookie filling amounts and you will use a surprising amount of filling to get a nice sandwich look to your cookie. I also rolled a few edges in sprinkles to set off the theme :)

Perfecting the filling ratio wasn't easy...

Try not to make these cookies too far in advance (maybe 24hrs before they're being eaten?) as the creme filling does start to squish out of the sides a little and the cookie flavoured has really set in after only a few hrs out of the oven.

Go make them, I PROMISE you won't regret it.

Raw oats vs oats blended for 10secs - the blended oats make a denser cookie

The dough remains thick but scoopable

I used one ice cream scoop per cookie

Baked to perfection!

Oatmeal creme pie cookies

Cookie ingredients

• 280g soft unsalted butter
• 1 cup/200g dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup/110g caster sugar
• 1 egg (at room temp)
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp treacle (I used dark maple syrup as that's what I had on hand!)
• 1 and 1/2 cups/190g plain flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate/baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4tsp ground nutmeg (nutmeg brings out the flavour of the cinnamon)
• 3 cups/270g uncooked oats (I put mine in the blender for 10secs to make them 'finer')

Creme pie filling

• 2 cups marshmallow fluff (1 standard jar contains approx 2 cups as a guide)
• 120g soft unsalted butter
• ¾ cup/95g icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Few drops of milk (if needed to loosen consistency)

1. Preheat oven to 375F/180c degrees. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together at medium speed until light and creamy. Add the egg, vanilla, and treacle/syrup remembering to scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk together (whisk instead of sieving saves time) and then add oats.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients. The dough should come together and remain quite thick. This dough does not need to be refrigerated and I used my trusty ice cream scoop to drop one scoop onto my baking tray - leave a few inches between each cookie as they will spread.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are lightly golden around the edges. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies WILL be soft but this is OK!
6. To make the filling, combine the fluff and butter in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed until smooth.
7. Blend in the icing sugar and salt and whip until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add a couple of drops of milk if needed - I did not need to do this but then it was a warm day when I made this recipe.
8. Transfer the filling mixture to a disposable piping bag and fill one half of a cookie with the filling and sandwich together until the filling squishes out the sides. I rolled the edges of my cookies in sprinkles for a patriotic look but you could also colour the icing or even colour the cookie dough!