Healthy Holiday Walnut Creme Pies
- Healthy Holiday Walnut Creme Pies
-
- Submitted By: Sarah Sievert
-
I love Little Debbie’s Oatmeal Cream Pies, but I try to avoid foods where the first ingredient listed is corn syrup. I came up with this recipe as a healthier, holiday substitute. They are free of egg and white refined sugar, plus they have much less oil than traditional holiday cookies. I added cranberries to the crème filling to give it a burst of flavor, as well as a nice red hue for the holiday season. Enjoy!
-
- Servings: 6 (2 sandwich cookies per serving)
- Prep Time: 10m
- Cook Time: 20m
-
- Ingredients
-
For cookies:
¾ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp clove
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup applesauce
2 tbp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup walnuts
For crème filling:
¾ cup fat free whipped cream
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup fresh cranberries, finely chopped or grated (optional)
- Directions
-
1. Approximately 4 hours before preparing the cookies, you’ll want to begin thawing your whipped cream in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 350 and line your cookie baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix until evenly combined and set bowl aside.
4. In large bowl, combine maple syrup, applesauce, canola oil, and vanilla. Mix to combine these ingredients.
5. Add the flour mixture to the large bowl and stir until blended. Stir in the oats and then the walnuts.
6. Place rounded tablespoons of the dough on your cookie sheet. Place in oven. After about 5 minutes of baking, you will want to flatten cookies with a spatula so that you can easily make them into sandwiches.
7. Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes. You will want to remove them from the oven while they are still a little undercooked so that they are nice and gooey, just like the original Oatmeal Crème Pies. Since you aren’t using any eggs or dairy, you don’t need to worry about the cookies being doughy.
8. Once cookies are finished, remove parchment paper from cookie sheet and bake your second batch of cookies. Let your cookies cool for 5 – 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
9. While your cookies are cooling, begin making your crème filling. Combine your whipped crème, vanilla extract, cinnamon, walnuts, and cranberries (if you are choosing to add them). I hand grated my cranberries so that there would not be any large chunks, but you could also very easily use a food processor or spice grinder to chop them as well. If you don’t want to bother with chopping the cranberries, then simply omit them andyour crème will still taste delicious without them.
10. Once you cookies are cool, spoon 1 tbsp of crème in the middle of the bottom of one cookie and place another cook on top of the crème to create a sandwich. For a fun family activity, instead of making your cookies into sandwiches, you can also use the crème to frost the tops of your cookies and then decorate your cookies with additional walnuts and cranberries. Either way these cookies are a delicious and healthy holiday treat!
Join us on: