High-Protein Oatmeal Cream Pies (Little Debbie Copycat)

I only publish recipes that I truly enjoy, but every once in a while, a recipe absolutely blows me away.

These oatmeal cream pies did exactly that.

Watch out, Little Debbie, because these protein-packed oatmeal cream pies are even better than your classic Oatmeal Creme Pies. No offense, of course.

I mean, doesn’t that look like an ACTUAL oatmeal cream pie? You’d never know that it had only 145 calories AND 8.5g of protein!

Confession time: I had never had a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie prior to attempting this recipe. I know I know, that’s unheard of.

I asked my Instagram audience to give me some ideas for snacks for me to try to recreate as a high-protein version, and oatmeal cream pies were the runaway favorite.

So, I went out to the store, grabbed a box, and promptly gave them a try.

The appeal of oatmeal creme pies is obviously the nostalgia of them, but the flavors really fall flat. The cookies are pretty bland, and the filling leaves a lot to be desired.

My healthier high-protein oatmeal cream pies are packed with so much more flavor, and if I’m being 100% honest, I like them significantly more.

If you love oatmeal cream pies, I promise you that my healthier version will not disappoint you.

 

Do these taste like ACTUAL oatmeal creme pies?

Before I dive into the recipe, I want to set the expectation here.

Generally speaking, if you’re making a healthier version of a classic snack, you’re going to need to sacrifice some flavor.

But that’s not the case here!

Above we have my high-protein oatmeal cream pies alongside a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie, and while you can clearly see some differences, they are very similar.

When it comes to flavor, they are shockingly close.

I went through 6 test batches of this recipe before I landed on a recipe that I found to be perfect, and the flavor truly mimics that of Little Debbie.

My goal with this recipe was to make a cookie sandwich that was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

Give this recipe a try and give them to someone to taste test. Tell them it’s just a homemade oatmeal cream pie without mentioning anything about them being healthy, then report back here to let me know how it goes! I’m willing to bet that they won’t bat an eye.

If I’m wrong, I owe you a cookie.

 

How to make high-protein oatmeal cream pies

These oatmeal creme pies are surprisingly easy to make, and you won’t need to bother with letting your cookie dough chill, creaming butter & sugar, or any other “fancy” baking methods.

To make these soft oatmeal cookies, here what you’ll need:

• Oat flour (you can make your own at home just by grinding up oats!)
• Oats (for some texture)
• Vanilla protein powder
• Cinnamon
• A tiny amount of cocoa powder (you won’t taste it, but it helps)
• Brown sugar substitute (or regular brown sugar)
• Molasses
• Light butter (or regular butter)

Pretty simple, right?

One thing I’d like to mention is that I only tested these oatmeal cookies with my go-to protein powder, PEScience.

PEScience is a blend of whey & casein protein, which I find to work the best in recipes (see my protein powder substitution guide to see why).

If you swap out a different type of protein powder, I can’t guarantee these cookies will come out as good! I highly recommend picking up some vanilla PEScience protein powder, especially if you plan on making any other cookie recipes of mine. You can use my code, Matt, at checkout to save 10% too!

Once everything is mixed up into cookie dough, you’ll break the dough apart into 10 cookie dough balls.

The cookie dough will be a little bit sticky, but you’ll be able to form cookie dough balls no problem.

There’s no need to press these down into cookies.

Simply bake at 350 degrees F for exactly 6 minutes, then remove the oatmeal cookies from the oven.

When you remove the cookies from the oven, they’re going to look pretty puffy and cakey, which is definitely not what we’re after.

To turn these into flat oatmeal cookies with crackly tops, use your fingers to press the cookies down while they’re still hot.

 

When you press them down, you may find that the shapes get a little bit funky.

To turn these cookies back into perfect circles, use the “cup trick.”

Take a cup, mug, or glass, turn it upside down, and quickly slide it around in a circular motion around each cookie to round them out.

If you’ve never tried the cup method, it works very well for most cookie recipes!

Now, the important part: let the oatmeal cookies sit for one hour.

Waiting is the worst, but it’s vital to allow these cookies to firm up, which is something I learned when making my giant protein cookie recipe.

After one hour, the interior will be fully set, but these oatmeal cookies will remain incredibly soft.

When you’re ready to assemble these oatmeal cream pies, you’re going to make a very simple vanilla filling by mixing together whipped vanilla frosting with a small amount of vanilla protein powder.

By mixing these two ingredients together with a tiny splash of milk, you’ll have a cream filling that you can break apart with your hands to add to your cookies.

If you don’t have whipped vanilla frosting, you can use regular vanilla frosting in its place. I did try a version with marshmallow fluff, and while it worked, I found it to be a little bit too grainy when mixed with protein powder.

Break off a small amount of the cream filling, add it to the bottom of one of your cookies, then sandwich another oatmeal cookie on top.

If you have self-control and don’t eat an entire batch in one sitting as I did, these keep very well as leftovers.

Add any leftover cookies to a sealed container or Ziploc bag and enjoy them throughout the week, no refrigeration is necessary.

 

More protein cookie recipes to explore

These may very well be my favorite high-protein cookie recipe, but I have a ton of other protein cookie recipes on my blog that still deserve mentioning.

If you like the sound of this recipe, here are some of my other favorites to check out:

 

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