Ah, Little Debbie. She has a snack for you. I remember those jingles growing up. Now I look at the ingredient label of these pre-packaged, processed snacks and kind of cringe. But I still crave the occasional zebra cake. My grandma would almost always have a box of Little Debbies on her kitchen counter when I was a kid, so there is a whiff of nostalgia for me whenever I see these cakes. Why is it that my Grandma can be ticking along fine at age 89 and she's broken every health rule in the book, including years of snacking on Little Debbie cakes? Once you make it to her age, I say just keep on doing what you're doing.
Little Debbies are on my mind this morning because I saw these "coral reef cakes" on a display inside the supermarket. Upon closer inspection they look like just a seasonal,summery cake of the kind they usual sell. But it still looked alluring and stoked nostalgia within me. But, alas, I passed.
Among Little Debbies my favorites are probably the zebra cakes and oatmeal pies. The Amish enjoy "copycat" recipes (I mean that in a fun way, not "gee why are you ripping off Little Debbie?"). I even had an Amish woman give me a recipe for homemade Pizza Hut breadsticks. I have misplaced it, but I am determined to find it somewhere buried in the bowels of my office. I have seen recipes for what are simply referred to as "homemade little debbies" in several Amish cookbooks over the years. These resemble whoopie pies. I think the key difference is that these are a chewy soft cookie sandwiched around some filling. Often traditional whoopie pies tend to be a light, fluffy cookie with a "matching filling" inside (i.e. peanut butter cookies with peanut butter filling equals a peanut butter whoopie pie).
So enjoy this recipe that comes from an Amish woman in Ohio. You can make your own "homemade little debbies" that aren't packed with preservatives or unpronouncable ingredient names!
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup Crisco
- 3 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups quick oats
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 c flour
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- FILLING
- 3 egg whites
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 c powdered sugar
- 1½ c crisco
- 5 tablespoon flour
- 4 tablespoon milk
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Cream together sugar with the butter and shortening..
- Add eggs beating well, add vanilla and dry ingredients and beat together.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes until done but soft.
- FILLING:
- Beat egg whites (reserving yolks for another recipe) then once fluffy add vanilla and milk.
- Beat in powdered sugar, shortening and flour.
- Beat until light and frosting like.
- Once cookies are cool frost one and sandwich with another one.
Kentucky Lady 717
Love those Little Debbie cakes.....still buy them, I have been eating them over 50 yrs. 🙂 and still buy them....my favorite are the oatmeal cakes & buddy bars......these look good, haven't seen them here in my area yet....I also used to buy the chocolate ones with white icing inside, I think they were called chocolate devil cakes those were good also.....I love the whoopie pies that you buy at the Amish stores........
That's a great picture of you Kevin, you were quite handsome.........Rachel should have known you then eh? She would have married you a long time ago and you guys might have 4 or 5 kids by now 🙂