Monday Blues

After a long week, the weekend is a welcomed respite from powerpoint decks, travel budgets, event planning and timesheets. But all too often, the 2 days fly by giving way to a Monday morning that beings with one too many snooze buttons and the mumbling of "I don't wanna go".

This cliche was all too true for me this morning. Last week crawled by like a turtle with no where to go and this weekend, while wonderful and filled with family, went by much too quickly.

So, with that said, I'm rounding up a recipe for Oatmeal Cream Pies that I plan to make this coming weekend (wishful thinking much?) when Josh and I head up to the Berkshires to hang with his parents. 

This recipe comes from a fantastic blog, Kitchen Belleicious, where I often find inspiration for homemade desserts that rival their store bought counterparts. The author has recently gone gluten free, which tugs at my heart strings and makes me love her recipes even more. This Oatmeal Cream Pie recipe is pretty straightforward using classic ingredients such as rolled oats, butter, and brown sugar but when combined, are out of this world. This recipe calls for wheat flour, so to alter it and make it Sari-tummy friendly I'm going to substitute with Oat flour (fingers crossed).

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cream Pies (adapted from Kitchen Belleicious)

Ingredients

For the Cookies

• 1/2 cup oat flour plus 2 tbsp
• 1 cup all purpose gluten free flour plus 2 tbsp
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 3 cups old fashioned cooking oats
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter, unsalted, at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Cream Filling

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper
• Whisk together flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in oats. Set aside
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix well. Gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring until well combined.
• Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets (about 2 inches apart so they have room to spread)
• While the cookies are baking, prepare the filling. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on low speed, beat until combined. Then, increase mixer to high speed and beat until light and fluffy.
• Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on pan for 2-3 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
• Once cool, spread about 1 tablespoon of filling over the bottom side of half of the cookies. 
• Top with remaining cookies so that they form sandwiches and the bottoms are facing each other (and the filling).

Labor day is definitely bittersweet for me. As I previously mentioned, I LOVE summer, and while labor day brings new adventures, the promise of pumpkin spiced lattes, leather jackets and scarves it also marks the close of the official summer season. As we bid adieu to white pants, prosecco, cheap raspberries, and longer days some will be celebrating, I'll be sobbing in the corner eating one of these:

Photo courtesy of: Kitchen Bellecious