These Oatmeal Pumpkin Creme Pies are tasty any time of year, but definitely hit the spot during those cooler fall months. Soft, chewy, and so much sweet pumpkin and cinnamon flavors.
Like a batch of pumpkin oatmeal cookies and oatmeal creme pies in one, these sandwich cookies are ready for your next fall baking day. We add pumpkin to the cream cheese frosting, so it’s a little thinner than a batch of regular cream cheese frosting. I like to use a little flour in the frosting to help thicken it up, and make sure you heat-treat it before using. (See below for details.)
You also add lots of delicious spices to the frosting including cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. You could absolutely replace all of these with store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice or just replace the nutmeg, cloves, and ginger with it (and leave the cinnamon in the recipe). Either way works.
For a totally different flavor, especially around the winter holidays, try these spiced eggnog oatmeal cream pies too!
Since pumpkin can thin out the frosting, I recommend blotting some moisture out of it before using. This is a tried-and-true trick I use when making pumpkin rice krispie treats and pumpkin snickerdoodles, too. Excess moisture is great for pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cake, but not really a frosting or cookie recipe.
How to Heat Treat Flour
Option 1 – Microwave
- You can heat treat your entire bag of flour or just treat the amount you need in a single recipe. If you’re heating just enough for the recipe, add an extra 1/2 – 1 cup to be sure you have enough.
- Place the flour in a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for 30 seconds at a time, stopping and stirring after each. Stir well to make sure none of the flour burns. Use an instant-read thermometer to test the flour in several places to make sure it has reached 165°F (74°C). If you get a lower reading in one area, stir and heat for an additional 30 seconds until it’s all ready.
- Measure the amount of flour you need and use in the recipe, then let it cool completely.
Option 2 – Oven
- Preheat oven to 300°F (149°C). Spread more flour than the recipe calls for on an un-greased rimmed baking pan, such as a 9×13 inch baking pan or 9×9 inch baking pan. Then follow a process similar to the microwave method by stirring and checking the temperature at 2 minute intervals. Be sure to check multiple spots of the flour to make sure it has all reached 165°F (74°C).
- If some flour sticks to the bottom or sides of the pan, don’t worry, just leave it there. You used more flour than needed in the recipe anyway. Don’t scrape it off because it will add small clumps to your batter/dough.
- If your flour is really clumpy, your oven might be too hot. Break it up with your fingers or pour all the flour into a bowl and whisk it. Discard any chunks if necessary.
- Measure the amount of flour you need and use in the recipe, then let it cool completely.
Oatmeal Pumpkin Creme Pies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 9 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: 30 mini sandwiches
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Chewy mini oatmeal cookie sandwiches stuffed with cinnamon-spiced pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 and 2/3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree (see note)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon each: ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg (or 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice)
- 2 – 2 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1/4 cup heat-treated all-purpose flour* (as needed to thicken)
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and sugars together on medium-high speed until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. In a separate bowl, whisk the baking soda, cinnamon, oats, and flour. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then mix together until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Chill the dough for at least one hour (and up to 1 day) in the refrigerator. Cookies will be very flat if the dough is not cold– so don’t skip this step.
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Roll 2 teaspoons of dough into a ball and place onto prepared sheet. Bake for 9 minutes and let cool on cookie sheet for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack.
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare the pumpkin frosting. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter, pumpkin, and spices on medium speed until creamy. Add 2 – 2 and 1/2 cups of sifted confectioners sugar depending how sweet you’d like it. If frosting is much too thin, add in the heat-treated flour to thicken it. Add salt to cut the sweetness, if you prefer.
- Spread a generous amount of frosting on the underside of a cooled cookie and sandwich another cookie on top. Cookies stay fresh for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can prepare the cookies and filling 2 days in advance– keep the cookies covered tightly at room temperature and the filling covered tightly in the refrigerator. Cookies freeze well, up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before enjoying.
- Pumpkin: I find that blotting some of the moisture out of the pumpkin before using in the frosting will help the frosting stay a little thicker. There is SO much moisture in pumpkin puree and it won’t do the frosting many favors! Measure 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree and then blot it between two paper towels to absorb some moisture. Then use in the recipe as instructed.
- Spices in Frosting: You can replace the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg with store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice. You could also replace just the nutmeg, ginger, and cloves with pumpkin pie spice and leave the cinnamon in the recipe.
- Heat Treated Flour: See note/instructions above recipe or purchase it online.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: oatmeal pumpkin creme pies, pumpkin creme pies
Is there another way to make this filling thicker besides flour?
Hi Cassie! For a creme filling without flour you can use the filling from this recipe instead.
Is it safe to add raw flour to the frosting to make it thicker?
★★★★★
Hi Patricia, this recipe is almost a decade old and hasn’t gotten the HEAT-TREATED FLOUR update necessary. Let me fix that– make sure the flour is heat-treated before using.
I made this for a office boating trip 2 years ago, till this day people keep asking me if I can make them the “amazing pumpkin creme pies”. This is one recipe I don’t change! THEY ARE PERFECT AS IS!
★★★★★
Should the flour in the frosting be cooked prior to adding or is the raw flour okay to eat? I’ve been eating raw cookie dough for 50 years but don’t want to make anyone sick.
Hi Shelly, We didn’t heat tread it at the time this recipe was published but you certainly can! We have detailed directions on how to heat treat flour in our post for Cookie Dough Cupcakes.
I made 5 dozen of these delicious sandwich cookies for all my coworkers (teachers) and everybody loved them! I added pecans to some of the cookies and that was fantastic as well! Great recipe! A little time consuming but worth it 🙂
★★★★★
I eat these cookies without the filling, too. They are DIVINE!!!! They are so good and chewy, and just the right amount sweet. I will make them again and again! (The filling is delicious, too, but I just couldn’t get it to the right consistency so that it didn’t keep squishing out. We ate it with a spoon out of the bowl, instead. Yum!)
I added butterscotch chips to mine, because, well, why not? 🙂 It’s fantastic as is without the added chips, but wow they were good with them added in. Thanks for the recipe! I also made mine a touch bigger…and they did take longer to bake.
Sally, these are amazing!! Thanks so much for the recipe! I want to make them again for a cookie exchange on Saturday, but will only have time to prep on Wednesday. If I pre-make the dough (unbaked) and filling, would I just store them both in the fridge?
I only stored the dough for about 1 hour and it was pretty hard. I am scared if I store it in the fridge for 2 days it will be a rock! Any advice?
Thanks again for this and all your amazing recipes!! 🙂
Hi Elisabeth! You can certainly store in the refrigerator for a couple days. Just let it sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes to soften up.
Hi Sally!! I LOVE all your baked goods and swear by your recipes (and have for a few years). I know this one’s little old, but I decided to make just the cookie part today. Followed recipe exactly except used light brown sugar, and folded in some mini chocolate chips at the end. Chilled my dough for approx 3 hours. My cookies are FLAT as a board. So thin. No structure. Any idea what could have happened to cause so much flatness?
Oh no! That’s awful, so sorry about that Andi! If you decided to make them again, add 1/4 cup extra flavor to help bulk up the dough. This should drastically help.
Reduced fat cream cheese ok?
I recommend full-fat for the best taste and thickest texture.
Even though we continue to hit 90 most days here in East TN, I was ready to bake a fall flavor. I am SO SO glad I chose to do it with this recipe! These are fantastic! I took your advice and used the smallest cookie scoop I had which turned out great! I also put the filling into a zip lock bag which I snipped the corner off to pipe with. That made assembly so much easier! My husband isn’t a huge fan of anything super sweet or overwhelmingly pumpkin flavored, but he LOVED these! Not too sweet but an incredibly rich flavor!! Thank you so much for sharing these!
Hi there just wondering if I can possibly use quick oats instead of rolled oats and also is light brown sugar ok instead of dark brown sugar.
You can use quick oats in these cookies. However, the cookies won’t have as much texture. Light brown sugar is OK, yep.
These cookies are amazing! I made them for my sons first birthday party and all the adults & kids raved about them. Thank you for the tasty recipe.
These look amazing. The only question I have is could light brown sugar be used in place of the dark brown? Thanks.
Light brown sugar would be just fine Linda.
Can you freeze the pumpkin cookie and than add creme filling when you unthaw the cookie?
I’m sure that would be fine.
AHH! Let me just say that these little Oatmeal Pumpkin treats are amazing! I made them and they are simply delicious! Of course, I would have eaten them all myself, but I decide to bring them to work and share the love. They were a hit! Plus I love anything Pumpkin so you can’t go wrong 🙂
I made just the cookies last night as a “test run” before making them for Thanksgiving treats. I added dark chocolate chips to half the batter and butterscotch chips to the other half. Let me just say they were the best thing I have EVER baked. Your tips were all spot on and they came out perfect. Great recipe and great directions! Can’t wait to make them again tomorrow and take a shot at the filling 🙂
I just made these and they were FANTASTIC!! I’m not really a fan of pumpkin but these were delicious, the oatmeal cookies themselves were great even without the frosting! I could definitely taste the difference with the dark brown sugar, I’ll have to use it more often. Thank you for all your great recipes my BF and his roommates can’t get enough of the baked goods I make them 🙂