Oreo Cream Pie

Ingredients

• 1 pre-baked 9-inch graham cracker crust
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 12 chocolate sandwich cookies, roughly chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbsp sugar (for topping)

Method

1. Whisk the milk, sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks together in a saucepan.
2. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbling, about 8 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, stir in the butter and vanilla, then fold in the chopped cookies.
4. Pour the warm filling into the cooled crust and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
5. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or until fully chilled and set.
6. Top with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

The Tale of Oreo Cream Pie

Story updated September 15, 2026

Oreo cream pie belongs to the twentieth-century tradition of the 'icebox pie,' a no-bake dessert made possible only once home refrigerators became standard kitchen equipment between the 1930s and the 1950s. The Oreo cookie itself dates to 1912, when Nabisco introduced it, and by the mid-twentieth century crushed cookies were a common shortcut crust for icebox desserts across the country. Exactly when someone first built a full pie around crushed Oreos and a whipped cream or pudding filling isn't documented in any single source; it reads as one of those informal, undated inventions that spread through community cookbooks, magazine recipe pages, and word of mouth rather than any credited kitchen. What's clear is that it fits neatly into a much older lineage of American cream and icebox pies, simply substituting a beloved packaged cookie for the graham cracker or vanilla wafer crusts that came before it.