Homemade Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies: Your Ultimate Holiday Dessert Guide
There’s something truly magical about taking a beloved childhood treat and infusing it with the heartwarming flavors of the holiday season. These Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies do just that, transforming a nostalgic favorite into a festive masterpiece that captures the spirit of Christmas in every bite. The familiar chewiness of an oatmeal cookie, paired with a luscious cream filling, gets a delightful holiday twist with the warm, aromatic notes of gingerbread. It’s this blend of comfort and festive cheer that makes homemade baking so incredibly rewarding and creates lasting memories for everyone who enjoys them.
Baking from scratch offers the unique opportunity to personalize your treats and infuse them with extra love and special touches. For these cream pies, the addition of gingerbread spice elevates them from a simple snack to an irresistible holiday dessert, perfect for sharing at gatherings or enjoying with a hot cup of cocoa by the fire. Each bite promises a delightful journey back to cherished memories, wrapped in the comforting embrace of holiday spices.
If you’re passionate about homemade Christmas crafts and treats, don’t forget to explore other festive projects! You might love crafting my Gingerbread Salt Dough Ornaments or these charming Easy Pasta Ornaments – both are fantastic activities for adults and kids alike, adding to the joyful, handmade spirit of the season.
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Why You’ll Love These Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies
These cream pies are more than just a dessert; they’re an experience. You’ll adore them for their perfect blend of textures – the soft, chewy gingerbread-spiced oatmeal cookies hugging a sweet, airy cream filling. The gingerbread flavor is pronounced yet balanced, bringing warmth and holiday cheer without being overpowering. They’re visually appealing, especially with the optional gingerbread man cutouts, making them a fantastic addition to any holiday cookie platter or a delightful gift for friends and family. Plus, the joy of making them from scratch means you control every ingredient, ensuring the freshest, most delicious outcome.
Gather Your Ingredients for Festive Flavor
One of the best aspects of these Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies is that most of the cookie ingredients are likely already nestled in your pantry. This makes whipping up a batch of these delightful treats incredibly convenient, even on a whim. While you can certainly use a store-bought blend, I personally recommend making your own Homemade Gingerbread Spice Mix. It offers unparalleled freshness and allows for greater customization, ensuring the spice profile is exactly to your liking. The depth of flavor from a freshly blended mix truly makes a difference.
A handy tip to keep in mind, especially if you don’t frequently stock dark brown sugar, is a simple substitution. If you only have light brown sugar on hand, you can easily use it and enhance the molasses flavor by adding an extra tablespoon of molasses to your cookie dough. This clever trick helps achieve that rich, deep flavor profile characteristic of darker sugars, ensuring your gingerbread cookies have that unmistakable holiday warmth.
The sentiment for the cookie ingredients extends to the cream filling as well. The list of components is refreshingly simple: butter, vanilla extract, gingerbread spice, powdered sugar, and a touch of milk. The magic truly happens through technique, transforming these basic items into a smooth, fluffy, and incredibly flavorful cream that perfectly complements the spiced oatmeal cookies. We’ll delve deeper into the method shortly, but rest assured, with a few careful steps, you’ll achieve a filling that’s simply irresistible.
For precise ingredient measurements and detailed step-by-step instructions, use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top of the post, or scroll directly to the bottom to find the complete recipe card.
Crafting Your Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies: A Step-by-Step Guide
Making the Perfect Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies
Let’s begin with the heart of our cream pies: the gingerbread oatmeal cookies. As with any exceptional cookie, the foundation lies in properly creaming the butter and sugars. This crucial step involves beating them together until the mixture becomes incredibly light, fluffy, and noticeably paler in color. Don’t rush this process; it typically takes a solid 3-4 minutes. Setting a timer ensures you give it the full time it deserves, as this aeration is vital for a tender, chewy cookie texture. It incorporates air, which helps the cookies rise and creates a delightful crumb.
Once your wet ingredients are perfectly combined, gently incorporate the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, gingerbread spice, and quick-cooking oats. Mix just until everything is combined; overmixing can lead to tough cookies. After the dough comes together, it’s time to portion out your cookies. Using a scoop ensures uniform size, which is key for even baking. Place these dough portions on a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill them for a solid 20-30 minutes before they go into the oven. This chilling step is absolutely essential. It prevents the cookies from spreading too much, helps them maintain their shape, and allows the oats to fully hydrate, contributing to that wonderful chewy texture.
Bake the cookies until their edges just begin to turn a delicate golden brown. They might still seem a little soft in the center, but they will firm up as they cool. Crucially, let them cool completely on the baking tray before attempting to move them. This allows them to set properly, resulting in cookies that are perfectly crisp on the outside while remaining delightfully soft and chewy in the middle – the ideal texture for an oatmeal cream pie.
Whipping Up the Fluffy Cream Filling
Next, we turn our attention to the star of the sandwich: the rich and fluffy cream filling. Similar to the cookie dough, begin by creaming the unsalted butter until it is incredibly light, airy, and almost white in color. This takes another good few minutes and is vital for achieving a truly ethereal texture. Then, beat in the vanilla extract and your wonderful gingerbread spice mix until well combined. Gradually add the powdered sugar, about half a cup at a time, mixing on low speed to avoid a sugary cloud, until all of it is incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Finally, add the milk and beat the mixture on medium speed until it’s wonderfully light, fluffy, and perfectly spreadable – typically another 2 minutes. This gradual process ensures a silky, lump-free filling that holds its shape beautifully between the cookies.
Assembling Your Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies
With both the spiced cookies baked and cooled, and the creamy filling ready, it’s time for the best part: assembly! Lay out half of your cooled cookies, flipping them upside down. Take a generous, heaping tablespoon of the gingerbread cream filling and carefully place it onto the flat bottom of each upside-down cookie. Then, gently place a second cookie, right side up, on top of the filling, pressing down just enough so the cream spreads beautifully to the very edges. Repeat this process for all your cookies, creating delightful sandwiches.
For an extra touch of holiday whimsy, especially fun for kids or themed parties, consider using a mini gingerbread man cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the centers of some of your baked cookies. Then, fill these cut-out cookies in the same manner. As you press the top cookie down, some of the creamy filling will charmingly peek through the gingerbread man cutout, adding a delightful visual element. The small gingerbread cutouts themselves can also be filled with a tiny dollop of cream to create mini, bite-sized treats – perfect for little hands or as light party nibbles. This creative step adds a layer of literal festive fun that my nephew, for one, absolutely adores!
The charm of cutting out these festive shapes isn’t just about the visual appeal; it adds a touch of playful creativity and makes the “gingerbread” aspect quite literal, which I find incredibly appealing. It’s a simple detail that brings so much joy and delight, especially to younger enthusiasts, making these cream pies not just a treat, but a fun activity as well.
Expert Notes & Baking Tips for Success
Achieving bakery-quality Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies is easier than you think with a few expert tips:
- Dark Brown Sugar Substitute: If you typically only keep light brown sugar in your pantry, don’t fret! You can easily replicate the rich, deep flavor of dark brown sugar by adding an extra tablespoon of molasses to your cookie dough recipe. This simple trick will provide the desired depth and moisture that dark brown sugar naturally offers, ensuring your gingerbread cookies are wonderfully complex.
- Perfectly Portioned Cookies: For cookies that are consistently the same size and bake evenly, invest in a good cookie scoop. Using THIS SCOOP for the cookie dough will ensure each cookie is uniform, leading to beautifully matched pairs for your cream pies. Similarly, for the filling, THIS ONE provides the ideal amount for each sandwich. Uniformity isn’t just for aesthetics; it guarantees consistent baking times and a professional finish.
- The Importance of Chilling: Do not skip the chilling step for the cookie dough. This is a very important part of the process. Chilling for at least 20-30 minutes ensures that the butter in the dough firms up, preventing the cookies from spreading too much in the oven and becoming too thin or crispy. Additionally, chilling allows the quick-cooking oats ample time to hydrate and soften, contributing significantly to the signature chewy texture of oatmeal cookies.
- Cutting Gingerbread Man Shapes: If you choose to add a festive touch by cutting out gingerbread man centers from your baked cookies, work slowly and apply even, gentle pressure. This careful approach helps prevent the cookies from splitting at their thinnest points, such as the limbs of the gingerbread man. If a cookie does happen to crack, don’t worry – this recipe is very forgiving! Once you apply the cream filling and press the cut cookie onto another, the filling acts as a wonderful adhesive, helping to hold any minor splits together seamlessly.
- Storage: Once assembled, store your Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week. For best results, allow refrigerated pies to come to room temperature for about 15-20 minutes before serving to ensure the filling is soft and creamy.
- Make-Ahead Options: The cookie dough can be prepared and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months (thaw overnight in the fridge before baking). Baked cookies can be frozen without filling for up to a month. The cream filling can also be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge; just re-whip briefly before assembling if it has become too firm.
Creative Variations & Ingredient Swaps
Flexibility in baking allows for personalization and adapting to what you have on hand:
- Brown Sugar Swap: As previously noted, if you don’t have dark brown sugar, you can effortlessly swap it for light brown sugar. To maintain the rich, deep molasses notes crucial for gingerbread flavor, simply add an extra tablespoon of molasses to the cookie dough when using light brown sugar.
- Gingerbread Spice Mix: While homemade is highly recommended for freshness and customization, if you’re without a specific Gingerbread Spice Mix, you can create a simple version using individual spices. At a minimum, combine cinnamon and nutmeg. For a more authentic gingerbread flavor, also include ground ginger, cloves, and a pinch of allspice.
- Oat Types: The recipe calls for quick-cooking oats, which provide a softer chew and integrate well into the cookie structure. While rolled oats (old-fashioned oats) can be used in a pinch, quick-cooking oats are preferred for their finer texture, which contributes to a more tender and less coarse cookie. If using rolled oats, consider processing them briefly in a food processor to break them down slightly.
- Nut Options: I personally enjoy the addition of finely chopped pecans in my oatmeal cream pies; they add a lovely textural contrast and nutty flavor. However, if you have a nut allergy, prefer to avoid them, or simply don’t have any on hand, feel free to omit them altogether without significantly impacting the core flavor or texture of the cookies. You could also experiment with other finely chopped nuts like walnuts if desired.
- Spice Variations: Feel free to adjust the spice level to your preference. If you like a bolder gingerbread kick, add an extra ½ teaspoon of ground ginger or a pinch more cloves to the spice mix. Conversely, if you prefer a milder flavor, slightly reduce the amount of spicier elements.
- Citrus Zest: For a brighter, more complex flavor profile, consider adding 1 teaspoon of orange or lemon zest to the cookie dough or even the cream filling. Citrus pairs beautifully with gingerbread.
More Festive Christmas Treats to Explore
If these Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies have ignited your holiday baking spirit, you’ll love these other festive creations perfect for the season:
- Peppermint Chai Eggnog Cocktail
- Pistachio Amaretti Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Winter Whiskey Wassail
- Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Pistachio Cookies with Nutella
- Hot Buttered Rum
- Homemade Oreo Cookies
- Sugar-Free Hot Cocoa Mix
- Soft Baked Cranberry Oatmeal Bars
Did you make this delightful recipe? I’d absolutely love to hear from you! Please let me know by leaving a review or a comment below. And for more delicious recipes and baking inspiration, be sure to sign up for my newsletter, and follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook! Your feedback and shares truly brighten my day!
📖 Recipe
Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies
15 minutes
20 minutes
20 minutes
55 minutes
What I love about these Gingerbread Oatmeal Cream Pies is taking a favorite treat and infusing it with lots of festive holiday flavor!
Ingredients
for the cookies:
- 20 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, room temperature (2 ½ sticks)
- 1 cup packed Dark Brown Sugar
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 large Egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 tablespoon Molasses
- 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 4 teaspoons Gingerbread Spice Mix
- 3 cups Quick-Cooking Oats
- 1 cup Pecans, finely chopped
for the filling:
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 ½ sticks)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Gingerbread Spice Mix
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and prepared three large baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
to make the cookies:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses to the bowl and blend until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the baking soda, salt, and gingerbread spice mix; blend for 30 more seconds.
- Place the flour, oats, and pecans in the bowl and mix on low speed until well combined.
- Using a 1 ½-tablespoon scoop to portion the dough onto a baking pan, you can put them all on one sheet this time, and refrigerate them for at least 20 minutes, up to an hour.
- When ready to bake place the dough balls about 2 inches apart across your 3 prepared baking sheets (10 cookies per sheet).
- One sheet at a time, bake the cookies until lightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet placed on top of a wire rack for 30 minutes.
To make the filling:
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla and gingerbread spice and beat in until well combined.
- On low speed beat the powdered sugar in ½ cup at a time. When all the sugar has been worked in, beat in the milk. When the mixture is smooth, increase the speed to medium, and mix until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Lay out the cookies in pairs, flipping one of each face-up. Using a small (1-tablespoon) scoop, place the filling on the bottom of the upside-down cookie. Place the second cookie on top, right side up, and sandwich them together, pressing just enough to spread the filling to the edges. Repeat to make the rest of the sandwiches.
Notes
Notes & Tips
If dark brown sugar isn’t something you keep on hand, I know I typically only keep light in my pantry. You can add an extra tablespoon of molasses to the recipe to enhance the flavor that the dark brown sugar brings.
For perfectly portioned cookies that bake up all the same size, use THIS SCOOP! And use THIS ONE for the perfect amount of filling.
Chilling the cookies is a very important step and is not to be skipped. It ensures the cookies do not spread too far and become too thin. It also gives the oatmeal some time to hydrate.
If you cut out the centers of some of the baked cookies with gingerbread man cutters, just work slowly and apply even pressure so the cookies don’t split at the smallest points. If this does happen, it is super forgiving and when you press the cut cookie onto another with filling, you can press it together and it will stay put.
Substitutions
As noted earlier, light brown sugar can be swapped for dark. If you do this add an extra tablespoon of molasses to the recipe.
If you don’t make your own Gingerbread Spice Mix simply use some cinnamon and nutmeg at a minimum.
Be sure to use quick-cooking oats, using rolled oats is on, but quick cooking is better.
I like the addition of pecans in my oatmeal cream pies, but if you have an allergy and need to leave them out, or don’t have any on hand you can omit them altogether.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
15
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 529Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 78mgSodium: 142mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 3gSugar: 38gProtein: 5g
This is an estimated caloric value, actual numbers may differ based on the ingredients used.
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