Sourdough Oatmeal Cream Pies

Homemade Sourdough Oatmeal Cream Pies are a gourmet upgrade to the Little Debbie classic sandwich cookies! This recipe is made of two chewy brown butter sourdough oatmeal cookies that sandwich a tangy cream cheese filling.

No stand mixer or special equipment is needed to make these easy oatmeal cream pies and they come together quickly!

My recipe below walks through how to make these classic treats with lots of detailed images and instructions of every step. Additionally, you’ll find storage tips, FAQs, and other tips so you always get the best results.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• These are a copycat recipe of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies– a nostalgic, childhood favorite treat- but with a gourmet twist.
  • Fun fact: Little Debbie can’t call the cookies “cream” pies because there’s no real cream in the recipe, so they have to call them “creme” pies.
• Cream cheese filling sandwiched between two brown butter sourdough oatmeal cookies adds lots of caramel, nutty, and tangy flavor to these oat sandwich cookies.
• No special equipment or stand mixer needed to mix this cookie dough (just a bowl, whisk, and spatula).
• The cookie dough doesn’t need to rest, so they come together quickly.
• They make thin, soft, and chewy oatmeal cookies that are great on their own.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Oatmeal Cream Pies

• You can use quick oats or old-fashioned rolled oats to make this recipe. However, if you’re using old-fashioned oats, you’ll want to use a food processor to break them up into smaller pieces. That way, the cookies spread better.
• This oatmeal cookie dough is quite sticky, but that’s normal! They’re meant to spread in the oven and be on the thinner side, so no chilling is required (unless you want thicker cookies that resemble whoopie pies like my Sourdough Pumpkin Whoopie Pies or Sourdough Chocolate Peppermint Whoopie Pies).
• The cream cheese filling shouldn’t be too thick. Remember, it’s a cream filling and should compare to frosting. If your kitchen is warm, you may need to thicken it with more powdered sugar or chill the filling briefly.
• Sourdough discard (or active sourdough starter), molasses, and dark brown sugar help to make chewy oat cookies. If you don’t have molasses, you can substitute it with honey.
• Use a cookie scoop or weigh out the cookie dough when portioning for equal-sized cookies that will fit together when sandwiching.

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🛠 Tools Needed

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make sourdough oatmeal cream pies, but I list my tool recommendations below so you’ll have the most success!

• Baking scale
  • Ingredients like oats, flour, and sourdough starter weigh differently from person to person when measured by volume. For the best results, I recommend using a baking or kitchen scale.
• Whisk, for mixing the wet ingredients
• Spatula, for mixing the cookie dough together
• Food processor (if you’re using old-fashioned rolled oats)
  • If you use quick oats, you won’t need to use a food processor. But otherwise, you’ll want to break them apart with a few pulses in a food processor or blender.
• 2 TBS cookie scoop (#24 cookie scoop)
  • Optional, but helpful. A cookie scoop will help you portion out even-sized cookies. This recipe makes about 2 dozen 34g cookies. You can also use a large spoon and weigh out the dough.
• Large baking sheets lined with parchment paper

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions to help you make these sourdough oatmeal cream pies.

Brown Butter Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies

• All-purpose flour
  • The flour helps hold the cookie dough together, but you’re welcome to use gluten-free flour (with a gluten-free starter) to make these gluten free cookies! Oat flour would be particularly welcome.
  • To add even more flavor, you could substitute some of the flour with rye flour or whole wheat flour as well.
• Oats
  • You can use quick oats or old-fashioned rolled oats for this recipe. I don’t recommend steel cut oats.
  • If you use old-fashioned rolled oats (what I typically only have on hand), use a food processor to pulse a few times and break them apart. This will ensure the cookies spread.
• Baking soda
  • The baking soda will help the cookies spread some and provide just enough leavening to make them chewy and soft.
• Salt
• Cinnamon
  • Helps complement the molasses and oat flavor of these cookies, but you can leave out if you need to.
• Unsalted butter
  • I brown the butter in this recipe for a couple of reasons- to reduce the water content (since discard is 50% water) and to add tons of nutty, caramelly flavor to the cookies with minimal effort!
• Eggs
  • Makes softer, chewier cookies and helps bind the ingredients.
• Dark brown sugar
  • Adds moisture and more molasses flavor to the cookies.
• Granulated sugar
  • Helps the cookies spread more (I tested these without granulated sugar and they don’t spread as well!).
• Molasses
  • Molasses (I use unsulphered and not blackstrap molasses) has a slightly smoky and rich flavor that helps make the cookies even more chewy and is a key ingredient in my Sourdough Anadama Bread and Sourdough Gingerbread Cake with Cranberries.
  • Use honey if you don’t have molasses.
• Sourdough discard (or active starter)
  • Sourdough discard is unfed sourdough starter that you can use in sourdough discard recipes. When I feed my starter, I store the discard in the refrigerator so there’s no waste. Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch and my top sourdough starter tips.
• Vanilla extract
  • Vanilla balances the molasses, caramel brown butter, cinnamon, and oat flavors in this recipe. It brings everything together!

Cream Cheese Filling

Tangy cream cheese is the perfect complement to these oaty cookies, but you could also use other fillings.

My Sourdough Frosting is a unique, stable, soft, and fluffy ermine frosting.

You could also use a traditional vanilla buttercream or something more prominent like the salted maple buttercream in my Sourdough Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.

• Cream cheese, softened
  • It’s important that your cream cheese is at room temperature and softened so it’s easy to mix together without lumps.
  • I always use Philadelphia cream cheese for the best flavor and consistent results.
• Unsalted butter, softened
  • A few tablespoons of softened butter helps to make a smooth, spreadable filling.
• Powdered sugar
  • Sweetens and thickens the filling. It’s fine enough to incorporate easily.
• Salt
  • Just a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors.
• Vanilla extract
  • For flavoring the filling
• Heavy cream or milk (optional)
  • I only add a touch of cream or milk if the filling seems too thick during mixing. I typically eye it depending on how the filling looks.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Sourdough Oatmeal Cream Pies:

Follow this visual recipe guide as you make these sourdough oatmeal cream pies. The guide includes helpful photos and detailed instructions for each step. As always, I recommend reading through the entire recipe first before making so you know what to expect.

This recipe makes about 14 oatmeal cream pies, but you can easily divide the recipe in half to make less.

1. Brown the Butter

Browning butter adds so much nutty, caramel flavor to baked goods and is easy to make. In fact, it’s hard to resist not adding it to every recipe! I use it in my Brown Butter Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and the cream cheese frosting for my pull-apart Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls.

To brown the butter, place two sticks of unsalted butter in a small saucepan or skillet (preferably with a light-colored bottom so it’s easy to see when it starts to brown).

Heat over medium heat, stirring often with a spatula. After a few minutes, it will melt and begin to rapidly bubble and foam.

Keep an eye on it constantly as it can burn quickly! Keep stirring, and in a couple of more minutes, the milk solids will start to brown and the butter will take on a fragrant, popcorn-like aroma.

Once the butter is browned, take it off the heat and pour it out into a large mixing bowl to cool to room temperature. You can place it in the refrigerator to hasten the cooling process if needed.

2. Mix the Dry Ingredients

If you’re using old-fashioned rolled oats, add the oats, cinnamon, salt, all-purpose flour, and baking soda to a food processor and pulse a few times until the oats are smaller and crumbly.

With quick oats, you can just whisk all of the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

Set aside as you mix your wet ingredients.

3. Whisk the Wet Ingredients

Once the brown butter has cooled in the large bowl, add the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, molasses, and eggs to the bowl. Whisk to combine, breaking apart any clumps of brown sugar.

Then, pour in the sourdough discard (or active starter) and vanilla extract. Whisk the wet ingredients together until you have a thick, gooey mixture.

4. Mix the Oatmeal Cookie Batter

Dump the dry oat ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and use a spatula to fold and mix the dough together until you have a thick mixture and no spots of flour remain.

Don’t overmix or you’ll have tougher cookies.

5. Bake

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Use a 2 TBS cookie scoop (#24) or spoon to portion out about 26-28 cookies and place them on the baking sheets with a couple of inches in between each. If you want to get exact, they usually weigh in at about 34-36g for me!

The cookies will be a little sticky, which is completely normal. They will spread as they bake into thinner cookies.

Press down on them slightly with the palm of your hand. If the dough is sticking to your hands too much, lightly flour your palm.

Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies spread and the edges just start to brown. Don’t bake too long, or the cookies will be crunchy and crisp, instead of soft and chewy. If your cookies don’t spread, the dough is likely too cold and you may want to flatten them more before baking.

Let them cool on the baking sheet for five minutes, before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

6. Make the Cream Cheese Filling

As the cookies bake, you can make the cream cheese filling.

I usually use an electric hand mixer to make it easier, but you can use a spatula if your cream cheese and butter are softened enough.

Mix the softened cream cheese, butter, salt, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Add in the powdered sugar (sift it if it’s clumpy) and mix together until you have a thick, frosting-like filling.

If it’s too thick, you can add a teaspoon or two of cream/milk at a time, or add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin.

7. Assemble

It’s vital that the cookies are completely cool or your cream cheese filling will melt!

Once the cookies cool completely, use a spoon or offset spatula to add a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese filling to the center of a cookie. Sandwich another cookie on top and you’ll have your cream pies! Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Alternatively, you can use a piping bag to pipe the filling for a more even filling if you’re looking for an even more aesthetically pleasing cookie.

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How to Store

These oatmeal cream pies are excellent for cottage bakers (if you can sell frostings with cream cheese) or for gifting to others because they are stored very well!

They stay soft for days and since they should be stored in the refrigerator (due to the cream cheese frosting), they keep well for about 5 days. Let them come to room temperature before serving so the filling and cookies stay soft.

If you want to make the brown butter oatmeal cookies in advance before adding the filling, you can. The cookies will keep for 4-5 days and you can add the cream cheese filling on the day you’re serving them.

Oatmeal cream pies are meant to be soft (just like Little Debbie cakes) so it’s okay if they soften up and are a little crumbly when you serve them!

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Sourdough Dessert Recipes You May Enjoy:

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