I
recently posted a picture of my most recent baking adventure on facebook and
the response was overwhelming positive with many people asking me how I did it.
Honestly, it couldn't be easier!
Last
weekend I took a much needed break to my friends mountain house out in Sparta,
NC. This is a rare treat for me that basically entails getting away from
everyday life and just spending some relaxing time in a remote location with
friends. I spend most of my time hiking, eating food, and laying around...
pretty much everything I want from a real vacation. One of the best parts of
these little excursions is that I take the opportunity to eat whatever I want
and really just relax and enjoy myself. This means cooking a special treat and
getting to share it with others. This time up the mountain we had a group of ~
20 people heading up there and I decided that I wanted to challenge myself and
provide food for 20 people.
Let
me tell you that trying to cook for 20 people is incredibly difficult.
As
soon as I agreed to cook a single meal for all my friends I realized that I had
to consider what to cook that 20 people would like, how to cook enough food to
feed everyone, how am I going to transport so much food, what do I do about
vegetarians, and how am I going to pay to feed 20 people?
The
answer to this dilemma? Spaghetti.
Everyone
loves spaghetti, it's cheap, it's portable, and it's easy to make.
Additionally, I realized that I could prep the noodles ahead of time mix it
with sauce and cover it with cheese and create a baked spaghetti dish that
could finish baking when I arrive at the house! Genius!
The
night before I went up I went ahead and made 20 pounds of spaghetti and placed
them in disposable chafing so that I could easily transport them and off I
went! I wish I had taken a picture of this because 20 pounds of spaghetti is
truly a sight to behold and while the dishes themselves weren't heavy it was
still an enormous amount of food!
Now
how does spaghetti equal oatmeal cream pies? Well no baked spaghetti dinner is
complete without some dessert to complement that tomato-ey goodness! When
deciding on a dessert I wanted something portable, easy to serve and eat, and
was fun! That's when it hit me, why don't I make my own oatmeal cream
pies?
Everyone
loves spaghetti and everyone loves individually wrapped caloric bombs they
remembered from their bag lunches. In my mind this was the perfect dessert!
I
unfortunately didn't take many pictures of the cooking process but I assure you
it was not difficult and I will include the recipe. I hope you give this a shot
and enjoy! I know my friends loved them and they were all gone on the first
night.
Homemade
Oatmeal Cream Pies
For
Cookies:
1
cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
For
Cream Filling:
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions: This recipe makes about 48 cookies or 24 pies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Line baking sheets with parchment paper
In a bowl use a mixer and cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, honey, and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
In another mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
Slowly add your dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend on low
until just incorporated. Stir in oats until evenly distributed.
Chill dough in refrigerator to help firm up and make scoopable.
Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by rounded tablespoons onto baking
sheet. Try to make each ball of dough as uniform as possible so that each
cookie is roughly the same size and fits together perfectly. Be sure to put
space in between each cookie as they will spread out during the baking
process
Bake
for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just browned. Let stand on baking sheet until set
and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
While the cookies are cooling prepare your cream filling! You could easily use
store bought marshmallow cream straight out of a jar or even thin it
out with some butter and sugar to create a nice fluffy cream but I personally
prefer making an icing and controlling what goes into my cookies.
Beat
butter with your mixer for about 1 minute until creamy. Carefully add the
powdered sugar and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and
vanilla extract and mix on 3-4 minutes or until fluffy. This is how I would
normally make an icing but the addition of heavy adds a nice creaminess to the
icing that makes it perfect for sandwich cookies. Be sure to taste this mix and
add salt if mixture is too sweet. If filling is way too thick, add a couple
more teaspoons of heavy cream.
Once
your cookies are cool, spread 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of cream filling on a
cookie and match it up with another cookie of roughly the same size. Lightly
squeeze the two cookies together and enjoy!
