Oatmeal Browned Butter Cream Pies

While I was making my gluten free Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies I had a light bulb moment! What if I turned these into oatmeal cream pies?  But not just any cream filling.  How about using browned butter as the base?  Absolute genius!  And Oatmeal Browned Butter Cream Pies were born, so-to-speak.  The Browned Butter Cream is also spiced with garam masala and ginger which enhances the flavor of the butter and adds another dimension of flavor to the overall cookie and cream combo.  

Making Browned Butter

Making browned butter is very simple, but it helps to know what to watch for so that you get as much flavor as possible without burning the butter.  Begin by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once the butter has melted completely it will likely start to pop and splatter.  Resist the temptation to turn the heat down (it should be on medium heat).  Instead, stir the butter, making sure to scrape the bottom. This will prevent the butter from popping or splattering.  Infact, if you do this from the beginning when the butter first begins to melt, it won’t splatter at all. 

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After about 7 minutes or so, the butter will start to foam and may try to crawl up the side of the pan.  Keep stirring and within a few minutes, you will begin to see light brown specks revealing themselves in the foam.  The specks will gradually get darker and you will notice a nutty, toffee-like aroma.  Lift the pan off the heat to reduce the foam from time to time and you will see the full color of the butter.  Once it resembles the color of maple syrup, remove from heat and let it cool at room temp or in the fridge. 

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You can make the browned butter several days ahead and store it in the fridge until you are ready to bake.  Since you will need a total of 2 cups of browned butter for the cookies and the filling, you can create one large batch, allow it to cool then divide it.  However, if you do it this way, be sure to mix it very well prior to dividing it.  The browned bits will settle to the bottom as it cools and that where a ton of flavor is, so you want to make sure that it gets into both mixtures. 

Old Fashioned vs Instant Oatmeal

Old Fashioned style oats is what you want for this recipe.  They provide the right amount of chew and texture for this recipe.  Instant oats are more refined and would absorb more moisture from the batter which would likely change the texture and consistency a significant amount.  I use Bob's Red Mill gluten free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats for this recipe.

Mixing the Gluten Free Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookie Batter

In a medium sized bowl, stir the oatmeal, flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together with a large spoon.  Set that aside while you combine the wet ingredients in another bowl with a hand mixer.

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Once the browned butter has cooled at least to room temp, it is ready to combine with the brown sugar.  Then add the whole egg and egg yolk, then the vanilla.  Skipping the whites on the second egg is what allows the cookie to have that chewy texture instead of a drier cake-like texture.  So resist the temptation to add a second whole egg!  

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Combine the oats mixture with the wet batter using a large spoon or spatula.  This will take a little muscle and a minute or two to get it all worked in.  The batter may be a little crumbly.  It isn’t a very wet batter.  At this point, you can mix in up to 1 ½ cups of add ins.  I only used raisins in this version, but you can use raisins, chopped walnuts or chocolate chips.  Or you can use a combination of them.  I wouldn’t try to get more than a total of 1 ½ cups total though.  That’s about all the batter can handle and keep the cookie from falling apart.  

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And Bake!

I use a small cookie scoop that holds a heaping tablespoon of batter to create more evenly sized cookies.  Feel free to roll the batter in your hands to create a ball of dough for more circular shaped cookies if you’d like.  They do spread a good amount, so I keep about 2 inches between each mound of batter.  

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The cookies only need to bake for 10 minutes.  They will still look a little wet on top and will be very soft when you remove them from the oven.  That’s okay!  Let them cool completely on the cookie tray before moving them and they will cool to perfect chewy-crisp perfection! 

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The Next Level Filling

Make sure that the Browned Butter has become solid and is cooled completely in the fridge before making the cream filling. Combine the chilled browned butter, powdered sugar, garam masala and ginger in a small bowl.  Using a hand mixer, combine on a low speed until the powdered sugar has worked into the butter.  It will be quite dry at first, but it will come together in about a minute.  Then turn the speed to high and whip until fluffy.  Taste and add more garam masala and or ginger if you’d like.

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Assemble the Oatmeal Browned Butter Cream Pies

Transfer the Browned Butter Cream to a piping bag or zippered bag with a corner cut off to work as a piping bag.  Assemble the Oatmeal Browned Butter Cream Pies by piping a small ring of cream into the center of the bottom of one cookie.  Stay about ¼” from the edge of the cookie.  Place another cookie on top to sandwich together and press gently so that the cream will spread evenly toward the edge. Continue until all cookies are filled and enjoy!

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More Gluten Free Cookies

Check out these recipes for more gluten free cookie goodness: Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, College Dorm Cookies, Dirty Snowballs, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Naked Cut Out Cookies, Classic Macaroons, Hamantaschen and Pumpkin Whoopie Pies