Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies

These pumpkin oatmeal Cream Pies have soft, chewy oatmeal cookies, warm pumpkin spice, and a rich, fluffy vanilla filling. Pumpkin keeps the cookies tender, while the cream filling makes every sandwich feel extra special. You’re going to love how impressive they look with surprisingly simple prep.

Why You’ll Love It

• Soft and chewy cookies — made to give a little with every bite.
• Warm pumpkin spice flavor — cinnamon leads the way with nutmeg, ginger, and allspice in the background.
• Looks impressive — sandwiching two cookies around vanilla cream filling creates a bakery-style treat.
• Great for making ahead — individually wrapped cream pies stay soft and easy to grab.

Ingredient Notes

Use canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. Those cans look annoyingly similar when you’re in a hurry, and pumpkin pie filling already has sweetener and spices in it. This recipe has its own spice plan, thank you very much.

Quick-cooking oats are important here. Old-fashioned oats make a heartier, rougher cookie, which can be nice in other situations, but these need to be soft enough to sandwich neatly. Don’t use steel-cut oats unless you’re looking to make tiny edible landscaping stones.

For the butter, use unsalted because the recipe already includes salt in both the cookies and filling. Let it soften on the counter until you can press it easily with a finger. Don’t melt it.

Brown sugar brings that deeper, almost caramel-ish flavor, while regular sugar helps the cookies bake up with a nice texture. And yes, the filling takes a full cup of butter and a whole lot of powdered sugar. It’s a cream pie. Live a little.

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 2/3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed like you mean it
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. I know parchment can feel fussy, but it really helps with these soft pumpkin cookies. Also, it keeps you from having to scrape baked-on sugar off a pan later.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. Add the quick-cooking oats and stir everything together. Take a second to smell it. This is the part where the kitchen starts smelling warmly spiced, even if the air conditioner is humming along.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the softened 3/4 cup butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar, then beat for about 2 minutes, until it looks creamy and lighter in color.

Add the pumpkin puree, egg yolk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix until well combined. Slowly add the dry oat mixture, mixing only until everything comes together. Don’t beat the daylights out of it. It’s tempting to keep going until every last streak disappears, but overmixing makes cookies tougher, and the goal is soft and pillowy here.

Use a cookie scoop to portion the dough, then roll each scoop into a ball with your hands. Put the dough balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each one gently with two fingers into a thick, flat cookie. Not pancake-flat. Just enough so they bake evenly and don’t stay like little pumpkin-colored golf balls.

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden brown. They may look a little underdone in the center, but that’s fine—they’ll finish setting as they cool. If you wait until they look fully firm, they’ll be dry.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. They need to cool completely before filling. Completely. I’m saying it twice because warm cookies will melt the filling right out the sides, and then you’ll have a delicious mess, but still a mess.

For the filling, beat the softened 1 cup butter in a mixing bowl for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt with the mixer on low. If you add it too quickly, you’ll create a powdered-sugar weather event.

With the mixer still on low, add the heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Once it’s all mixed in, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 2 more minutes, until the filling is light and fluffy.

Spoon the filling into a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe a generous swirl onto the flat side of one cooled cookie, then top with another cookie. You can spread it with a knife if you don’t have a piping bag, but piping makes them look more like proper cream pies and less like something assembled during a power outage.

Serve right away, if you can wait that long. The filling is especially lovely when it’s fresh and soft.

Variations

You could make smaller cookies for little cream pies, especially if you’re serving them after a big dinner. I wouldn’t change the baking temperature, but watch them closely because smaller cookies may bake a bit faster. Giant bakery-sized ones are pretty, but honestly awkward to eat. One bite and the filling squishes out the back. Very glamorous.

I would not add Chocolate chips to this dough. Chocolate takes over the pumpkin-spice flavor completely. It isn’t terrible, just not what this recipe is meant to be. Sometimes more is more, and sometimes more is just a mess wearing pants.

Storage & Reheating

Store the finished pumpkin oatmeal cream pies for up to 3 days. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap if you can—that keeps the cookies from drying out and makes them easy to grab on the way out the door. You can keep them at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Refrigerate them if the kitchen is warm, though letting one sit out for a few minutes before eating helps the filling soften a little.

They freeze well, too. Wrap each cream pie tightly in plastic wrap, then tuck them into a freezer bag. That way you can pull out one or two at a time instead of thawing the whole batch.

There’s no real reheating needed. These are cookies, not casseroles. If refrigerated, just let them come toward room temperature before serving. Don’t microwave them unless you enjoy watching buttercream liquefy.

Final Notes

There’s something about a homemade cream pie that makes the kitchen feel extra cozy. Maybe it’s the soft cookies, maybe it’s the frosting, maybe it’s because nobody can eat one neatly.

Cooling cookies on every available surface and that warm spice smell drifting through the house make these cream pies especially hard to resist.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies

These Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies sandwich soft, chewy pumpkin-spiced oatmeal cookies around a fluffy vanilla cream filling. They look bakery-worthy but come together with simple ingredients and make-ahead friendly storage.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12 servings

Calories 643 kcal

Ingredients

  

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• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1 2/3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup brown sugar packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice, then add the quick-cooking oats and stir to combine.
• In a separate mixing bowl, beat the softened 3/4 cup butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until creamy and lighter in color.
• Add the pumpkin puree, egg yolk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla and mix until well combined, then slowly add the dry oat mixture and mix only until everything comes together.
• Use a cookie scoop to portion the dough, roll each scoop into a ball, place the dough balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets, and gently flatten each one with two fingers into a thick, flat cookie.
• Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden brown and the centers still look a little soft.
• Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely before filling.
• For the filling, beat the softened 1 cup butter in a mixing bowl for about 3 minutes, until fluffy.
• Slowly add the powdered sugar and salt with the mixer on low, adding gradually to avoid a powdered sugar cloud.
• With the mixer still on low, add the heavy cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 2 more minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Spoon the filling into a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip, pipe a generous swirl onto the flat side of one cooled cookie, top with another cookie, and serve right away.

Notes

Store finished pumpkin oatmeal cream pies for up to 3 days, individually wrapped in plastic wrap if possible. Keep them at room temperature or refrigerate if the kitchen is warm; if refrigerated, let them sit out for a few minutes before eating so the filling softens. To freeze, wrap each cream pie tightly in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag. Do not microwave, as the buttercream will melt.

Nutrition

Calories: 643kcal

Keyword cream pies, fall cookies, oatmeal sandwich cookies, Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies, pumpkin spice dessert

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