Whatcha call it? Ermine?

….the best oatmeal creme pie filling you will ever make. There I said it.

You may be asking yourself, what in the hell is ermine buttercream? Well folks, it’s certainly no stranger to the elders….and I don’t mean millennials thank you very much. You may even be able to ask your grandma about this luscious buttercream. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone you know has a great aunt with it written down on a well worn piece of wide ruled paper, and stuffed in her "catch all” kitchen drawer. In cursive no doubt. For it’s a buttercream of many names. Boiled milk frosting, butter roux frosting, milk frosting, and my favorite—gravy icing. It was the precursor to cream cheese frosting before cream cheese even existed. Better yet, it was slathered on mahogany cake which was the older sibling to the ever so popular cake that technically is not a flavor at all (its basically buttermilk chocolate cake y’all), RED VELVET CAKE. Of course, this was before the creation of red food dye 40.

Alas, this ermine buttercream recipe base can be used in many ways. However, we are here to discuss the ever sensational (shut up and leave if you do not agree…I kid, this is a safe space for all), OATMEAL CREME PIE. Soft, chewy, and all of the wonderful tingling sensations for our taste buds that we humans ever invented. Possibly a ten year old girl named Debbie who is to say? This recipe took me a summer during the pandemic to get just as close to the aforementioned inventor’s creation I might add. It’s using 100% organic stone ground flour from none other than Barton Springs Mill. If you didn’t know by now, I exclusively use BSM flours since well, I work there as the Recipe Developer….so yeah it’s kind of sacrosanct. By using higher quality ingredients, and yes sandwiching that good ol’ ermine buttercream between two of these sweet cheeks…I hope you love and appreciate the blood, sweat and tears (this should really be the live laugh love in life) of every morsel of oatmeal creme pie goodness. C’est bon y’all.

P.S.

It was given the name ermine to resemble the silky white fur of an ermine. A small mammal similar to a weasel. Why did that come to their mind? Who knows, it was an entirely different world back then. Ladies especially wore fur in those days. There you go.