American

Strawberry-Rhubarb Oatmeal Cream Pies

by:
July  2, 2021
4
4 Ratings
Strawberry-Rhubarb Oatmeal Cream Pies
Photo by James Ransom. Food stylist: Anna Billingskog. Prop stylist: Lauren Ringer.
  • Prep time 30 minutes
  • Cook time 30 minutes
  • makes 12 large or 24 small sandwich cookies
What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
  • 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup (212g) light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large (113g) eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons (10g) pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 cups (200g) old-fashioned oats
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons (7g) baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon (4g) fine sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon (3g) ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon (1g) ground ginger
  • Strawberry-Rhubarb Cream
  • 12 ounces (340g) diced strawberries
  • 12 ounces (340g) diced rhubarb
  • 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 8 ounces (226g) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2g) fine sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon (4g) vanilla bean paste or 2 teaspoons (10g) pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (340g) powdered sugar
  • 8 ounces (226g) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
Directions
  1. Make the cookies: Heat the oven to 350°F with the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. (Note: This can also be done by hand in a medium bowl with a spatula—it just may take a bit longer!) Scrape the bowl and paddle well.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on medium speed to combine, then scraping well after each is fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer in 2 to 3 additions, mixing each to incorporate, then scraping the bowl well.
  5. For large sandwich cookies, roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the baking sheet (you should get 24 pieces of dough). Transfer to a baking sheet, staggering the pieces and leaving at least 2 inches around each cookie on all sides, 12 cookies per sheet.

    For small sandwich cookies, roll the dough into ½ inch balls and place on the baking sheet (you should get 48 pieces of dough). Transfer to a baking sheet, staggering the pieces and leaving at least 1 inch around each cookie on all sides, 24 cookies per sheet.
  6. Bake the cookies until they are lightly golden around the edges, 9 to 12 minutes for large cookies and 6 to 9 minutes for small cookies. Rotate the pans halfway between the oven racks halfway through baking to encourage even browning. Cool completely on the baking sheet.
  7. Make the cream filling: in a medium pot, toss the strawberries and rhubarb with the sugar to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit becomes very soft and breaks down, 4 to 6 minutes.
  8. Strain the mixture through a sieve, reserving the juices in a liquid measuring cup and discarding the fibrous solids.
  9. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, cream cheese, vanilla paste (or extract), and salt until light, about 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar in 2 to 3 additions, mixing each until combined and scraping the bowl well.
  10. Add the reserved strawberry-rhubarb juice and the mascarpone and mix until the mixture is smooth. If desired, tint the filling with a drop or two of red food coloring.
  11. Flip over half of the cookies, and use a small offset spatula to spread the filling on top of each of the flipped cookies. (If desired, you can also transfer the filling to a pastry bag with ½ inch opening cut from the tip, or fitted with a star or round pastry tip to pipe the filling inside for an attractive effect.)
  12. Press the remaining cookies on top, forming the sandwiches. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 24 hours, or refrigerate for up to 5 days.
Tags:

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • 16bitclaudes
    16bitclaudes
  • m@Hc0oking
    m@Hc0oking
  • SueS
    SueS
Erin Jeanne McDowell
I always have three kinds of hot sauce in my purse. I have a soft spot for making people their favorite dessert, especially if it's wrapped in a pastry crust. My newest cookbook, Savory Baking, came out in Fall of 2022 - is full of recipes to translate a love of baking into recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between!

Popular on Food52

4 Reviews

16bitclaudes
16bitclaudes June 3, 2024
The cookie part of this recipe is a triumph! They are absolutely delicious. The filling needs considerable modifications to avoid disappointment. European friends beware: as I understand it our cream cheese is a different formulation to the American stuff and if you add the amount called for in the recipe then you will end up with soup!

Luckily I heeded @m@Hc0oking's warning and tried to get ahead of any issues by doing the following:

- Replacing half of the cream cheese with additional butter
- Putting the strained strawberry-rhubarb juice back in a saucepan on the hob and reducing it by about 75%

This seemed to help; it was still softer/ looser than I would have liked but workable. In a second attempt I would probably forgo the cream cheese altogether and replace it with a 50/50 quantity of more mascarpone and butter. In fact, I believe that adding the reduced strawberry-rhubarb juice to some ermine icing would also be a good alternative, and possibly adding some freeze dried strawberry powder in order to tone down the amount of extra liquid.

Nonetheless, I anticipate these will be a big hit at the office tomorrow. :)
 
16bitclaudes
16bitclaudes July 9, 2024
I am making these once again by popular demand (my office did indeed love them!). The cookie dough was somehow softer and a little trickier to handle this time, maybe it's the summer heat, but nothing a quick blast in the freezer before baking couldn't fix.

I have cracked the filling and made it as follows:

- 113g butter
- 226g mascarpone
- approx. 200g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 2 tbsp freeze dried rhubarb powder
- 1 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Melted the butter and icing sugar to ensure a smooth texture, added it to the mascarpone with the fruit powders and vanilla extract. Chilled in the fridge for 15 minutes or so and then whipped it on medium speed with my electric mixer.

Getting freeze dried rhubarb powder is a bit of a pain but it's worth getting as a specialist ingredient to have a flavourful and workable filling in about half the time!
 
m@Hc0oking
m@Hc0oking July 2, 2021
The cookies are great but the filling was incredibly runny - despite all my attempted it wouldn’t thicken at all. I tried adding more cream cheese, more powder sugar, chilling it, etc. and it was just totally runny. How much liquid was supposed to be added from the fruit? That would be helpful to know.
 
SueS
SueS May 2, 2021
These are crazy delicious! The cookies are good enough to stand alone, but the filling is so fruity and yummy. The blend of strawberries and rhubarb is amazing. Think next time I will make the filling, refrigerate it, and turn the cookies into pies as needed.