Oatmeal Cream Pies

My family wasn't one for junk food. Sugary cereals were outlawed, "pop" (MIDWEST!) was reserved for Saturday "Star Trek and Pizza" nights and never with caffeine, and my brother and I were charged with the chore of making a salad to accompany every dinner. But occasionally my dad would buy us Little Debbie treats to put in our lunch boxes.

Nutty Bars, Zebra Cakes, Star Crunch, and the Oatmeal Cream (or as they spell it "Creme") Pie. Less flashy than its other relations, the oatmeal cream pie was somehow more nostalgic, even then. Perhaps because it seemed like something you could actually make at home, pulled from a classic simple red, white, and blue box, without the galaxy background or wacky fonts. 

Indeed, Oatmeal Creme Pies were the first recipe the Little Debbie company launched in 1960. The concept was new-- a "family pack" of treats, individually wrapped so they could be stuffed in pockets or thrown in lunch bags. The entire carton sold for 49 cents. This was novel, but the pie itself was familiar. Little Debbie didn't of course invent the oatmeal cream pie (though you might be able to credit them with the Star Crunch). It was already a common recipe, with Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish roots-- essentially a whoopie pie with oatmeal cakes (see here).

I set out to make these for the nostalgia, as well as just a general desire to make something a little different for this space-- a pie, but not. I used pastry chef Stella Parks' recipe, which she claimed to be creepily accurate to the Little Debbie version. She was right--shockingly similar (though better). Hers calls for marshmallow cream, which is probably most accurate to Little Debbie; though on their website it's listed as simply "creme filling" it does contain egg whites. Not being much of a mallow fan, I opted for a simple buttercream, adapted here from Sally's Baking Addiction. 

I considered buying a box of Little Debbie's, just for comparison, but after tasting, I'm less inclined. My nostalgia pang was satiated, and replaced by a hunger for the homemade when all I want's just one more oatmeal pie.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Cookies from Stella Parks of BraveTart, buttercream from Sally's Baking Addiction

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients
For oatmeal cookies:
8 oz. all-purpose flour
4 oz. rolled oats
1/2 oz. cocoa powder
2 oz. dried apple rings
3 oz. unsalted butter
2 1/4 oz. safflower oil
7 oz. sugar
1 1/2 oz. molasses
3 oz. corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. mace
1 large egg
1 oz. whole milk

For buttercream:
6 oz. unsalted butter
12 oz. confectioner's sugar
3 Tblsp. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt

Directions
For oatmeal cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, oats, cocoa, and apple rings. Process for 2 minutes until incorporated and no oat or apple pieces remain. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter with oil, sugar, molasses, corn syrup, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices until well incorporated, approximately 2 minutes. Add egg and beat one minute more.

4. Reducing speed to low, add all of the dry ingredients, then drizzle in the milk. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula, then mix 30 seconds more until combined.

5. Scoop dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet using a small (2 tsp.) cookie scoop. Level off each scoop with the side of the bowl so that the cookie size remains relatively consistent. Leave 1-2 inches between dough scoops, as the cookies will spread considerably in the oven.

6. Bake for about 8 minutes, or until cookies are puffed, set around the edges, but still quite soft. They will crisp once cooled, so make sure they are not overdone, particularly if you want to simulate a Little Debbie oatmeal cream pie! Let cool completely while you prepare the buttercream.

For buttercream:
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter. Add the confectioner's sugar and mix on medium speed for about 1-2 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and vanilla extract, and beat on high 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add pinch of salt to taste, and mix to incorporate, about 1-2 minutes more.

2. To assemble the cookies, use the 2 tsp. cookie scoop to scoop buttercream onto the bottom of an oatmeal cookie. Sandwich with another cookie and press to disperse the buttercream. Cookies are best eaten within 2 days (if they last that long).

I made these for a little Nothing-in-the-House Baking Co. pop-up at the Daniel Bachman show at Red Onion Records two Sundays past. They were a top seller, perfect for nibbling while enjoying some driving fingerstyle guitar. Thanks to Josh and Alissa for hosting me (and keeping me plied with tea!), and to Daniel for playing and for being an ever-positive presence.

Related recipe: "Indiana" Amish Oatmeal Pie

Amish Shoo-Fly and Whoopie Pies

Amish shoo-fly pies "made from gooey molasses-based filling and sometimes topped with chocolate cream." 

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith c. 1980 from the Library of Congress.

One of my favorite things to do when I am bored is to troll the Library of Congress digital collections (pushes up invisible nerd glasses). Of course I tend to look up topics I have a passionate interest in-- folk songs, hobos, and you guessed it, pies (and somehow those are all related. hmm...). I think I may have looked at all 1,785 entries for pie in the catalog. It's true.

You'll be seeing more of my search results, but these two photos of Amish shoo-fly pies and whoopie pies from Lancaster, Pennsylvania caught my eye. Just today at work we were discussing the possibility of featuring Maryland Amish whoopie pie vendors at an event, and I've been doing some free-lance work transcribing interviews related to medicine in Amish communities. I also grew up in northern Indiana, where we went out for lunch at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, bought produce from Amish farmers at the Goshen Farmers' Market, and spotted buggies parked outside our local Target. When I lived here in D.C. previously, I once met up with my friend Francis Lam (of Gilt Taste and formerly of Salon.com and Gourmet Magazine, RIP) at the Dutch Country Farmers' Market in Burtonsville, Maryland. There we wandered through the rows of vendors, taking in the sights of blaze orange cheese mixtures, mayonnaise-based casseroles, and strange pickled things, and picked up some to take home. I definitely snagged a whoopie pie or two and remember thinking it interesting that the baker's crescent-shaped fried pies or hand pies were called "moon pies," which to most of America, or at least south of the Mason-Dixon line, means something else entirely. 

 Amish whoopie pies "a surprisingly sinful treat." 

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith c. 1980 from the Library of Congress.

 There's something weird about these photos (or is it just me?). Though they are lined up in almost perfect rows according to color and variety, they still seem to be shot without artifice, sans any of today's bloggy food styling, as if they could appear in your middle school home-ec class textbook with a simple caption "Amish desserts". All the while, there is something appealing about them--I'd totally chomp into one of those oatmeal whoopie pies or chocolate covered shoo-fly pies given the chance. I should probably plan a return trip to the Dutch Country Market or whip up some oatmeal pies of my own? Shoo fly, don't bother me.