Soft and Chewy High Altitude Oatmeal Cream Pies
These high altitude oatmeal cream pies are better than the classic boxed version! Brown butter, warm spices, and fluffy vanilla buttercream filling makes these soft and chewy oatmeal sandwich cookies completely irresistible.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tsp molasses, "original", not blackstrap
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 2 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Filling
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tsp meringue powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cookies
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally. When the butter starts to foam, and nutty golden brown solids have formed at the bottom of the pan, the butter is done. Scrape the browned butter, including all the browned bits, into a mixing bowl. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar and molasses to the butter, and whisk until combined.
- Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until the mixture is lightened in color, smooth, and ribbony.
- Separately, combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until all the dry bits are incorporated, and you have a thick dough.
- Divide the dough into 20 portions (use an ice cream scoop/cupcake scoop with a 3-tbsp capacity to measure the portions). Shape each portion into a ball, and slightly flatten the balls with your hands. Chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake for exactly 8 minutes. The cookies will be just set around the edges, with a light golden color, and a gooey center. They will continue to cook and set up after you take them out of the oven, so DO NOT OVER-BAKE, or you'll end up with dry, crumbly cookies.
- As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter (one that's larger than the circumference of the cookies), and "scoot" it around the hot cookie to pull in the edges - this will give you a perfectly round cookie.
- Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before filling with the buttercream.
Filling
- Use an electric mixer to beat all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.
- Match up the cookies into pairs, and turn half the cookies over.
- Fit a piping bag with a large tip, such as 6B or 1M, and pipe a thick layer of frosting onto the bottom of half the cookies. Top with another cookie and press down lightly.
Video
Notes
Place the cookies in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for 3 days, or freeze for 3-6 months.
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