Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal Cream Pies with Maple Frosting

Oatmeal Cream Pies were my ultimate childhood favorite! It is a perfect excuse to eat two cookies at once. I can’t even remember the last time I had a store-bought Oatmeal Cream Pie, so I thought it would be a brilliant idea to create the same flavors from scratch. To make it even more special, I added in some of my favorite fall spices and flavors. If you haven’t tried homemade pumpkin pie spice, I highly recommend it! The mixture of spices encompasses everything we love about fall with their depth and warmth, which makes whatever you bake even better.

I love baking with oatmeal! It naturally has a rich, nutty flavor, that also creates a heartiness to whatever I am baking. Along with the fall spices in these sandwich cookies, I add in another favorite fall flavor to the creamy frosting…maple. Pure maple syrup is sweet and earthy at the same time. Plus, everything is better with frosting on it, OR sandwiched between two cookies.

The secret to these cookies is grinding up the oats. I never used to do this in my original recipe, but when I started adding it in my chocolate chip cookies, I thought that I would try it out for these. I found that this creates a soft cookie that still has a slight crunch to it, which is perfect to prevent the frosting from squeezing out. Don’t you hate when you have a cookie sandwich and the frosting squeezes out the sides because the cookies are too hard…or is it just me? Either way, I wanted it to taste like my childhood favorite, only better, and that means a softer cookie!

Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal Cream Pies with Maple Frosting

Serves:

30

For the homemade pumpkin pie recipe search “pumpkin pie spice” on www.fromscratchwithmaria.com

Ingredients

• For the cookies:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (recipe on www.fromscratchwithmaria.com)

• 3 cups ground uncooked oats (***see notes below***)

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 egg, room temperature

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• For the filling:

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (recipe on www.fromscratchwithmaria.com)

• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

• 1-3 tablespoons half and half or milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ***NOTE you don’t have to use ground of oats in this, but it creates a much nicer cookie. If you are making this without grinding the oats in the food processor, I recommend using a mix of old fashioned oats and quick cooking***

Instructions

1. *Preheat oven to 350

2. *In a food processor, process the oats until they are roughly ground up, not too fine, you still want to have good texture from them, measure out 3 cups AFTER they have been ground up

3. *Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and ground oats together in a bowl; set aside

4. *In a stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer beat together the butter and sugars until light and creamy

5. *Add egg and vanilla; mix well

6. *Slowly add the dry ingredients just until combined; It’s a pretty thick dough

7. *Use a cookie scoop, or two spoons, to scoop out about a tablespoon size amount of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

8. *Make sure to space them out about 2 inches

9. *Bake 7-9 minutes, or until the edges start to lightly brown

10. *While the cookies are cooling make the filling

11. *Combine the butter, powdered sugar, and pumpkin pie spice in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or use a hand mixer and a bowl; mix until the powdered sugar starts to dissolve into the butter

12. *Add in the maple syrup, vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons of the half and half (or milk)

13. *Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy; if the mixture seems too thick you can add more half and half

14. *Once the cookies have cooled scoop about 1-2 teaspoons of frosting on the bottom of one cookie, and sandwich it with the bottom of another cookie by placing it on top of the frosting; repeat with the rest of of the cookies to create about 27-32 complete oatmeal cream pies