Tasty and Terrific Little Oatmeal Zing Pies with Ermine Frosting

Wednesdays only—and only at the Bakehouse!

The other day, I was in the Bakeshop and had the happy surprise of seeing these special sandwich cookies out on display. We make them only for short periods each year, so I hadn’t seen them around in months—and there they were! I smiled and got a couple to take home that evening.

The base of this treat—the “bread” in the sandwich, so to speak—is a small version of our Big O oatmeal raisin cookie. Long one of my favorite Bakehouse products, the Big O is made from organic oats, sweetened with Michigan maple syrup, and studded with large, juicy Red Flame raisins—and it’s remarkably good! Because it has no chocolate, it’s much more akin to the kind of cookie an early-19th-century colonial grandmother might have made for her family in the 1830s—around the time Cornman Farms’ barn and house were being built—using oats, wheat, and raisins that would have come from Europe, along with local maple syrup to sweeten them. 

Here, two small oatmeal raisin cookies are sandwiched around a generous spread of ermine frosting. Though little known now, this old-fashioned frosting was once very popular among American bakers. Sometimes called “roux frosting” or “boiled milk frosting,” it’s made by whipping together a cooked-flour roux, butter, and sugar. Ermine is less sweet than a typical buttercream and boasts a delightfully silky texture. Best I can tell, it’s the frosting called for on a traditional red velvet cake. Closer to only slightly sweetened whipped cream than would be typical for most frostings, it’s creamy, tender, and terrific. Here it makes for a really marvelous frosting-filled sandwich cookie, one that will pretty surely thrill anyone who has a love for that kind of thing. 

And remember, Wednesdays only—and only at the Bakehouse on Plaza Drive.