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A few weeks ago we had a pot luck at work in which I signed up for. This time I decided to make a dessert since all the easy stuff like dips and salads were called for. The only problem was that desserts aren’t exactly my strong suit. Cookies in these pot luck situations are by far the easiest thing but how can I spruce up a cookie to excite the masses. I found this recipe for homemade Oreos and since I couldn’t stop going back to it, I decided to just go for it.
As a kid we were never allowed to have Oreos in the home. Instead mom made various kinds of cookies each and every week to ensure we had a tasty treat to go into our lunch bags. I didn’t appreciate it back then but it somehow changed me as a cookie eater. I can no longer tolerate a store bought cookies, with their strange textures and preservatives. Oreos stand beside Girl Guide cookies in the sense that they’re not worthy of the bad store bought reputation even though deep down we all know they are.
Ingredients
Wafers
- I 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened coco powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup plus 2 teaspoons room temperature unsalted butter.
- 1 large egg
Filling
- ¼ cup room temperature unsalted butter
- ¼ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Set two racks in the middle of the oven, preheat to 375.
In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, powder, salt and sugar. While pulsing or on low speed add the butter and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together.
Take rounded teaspoons of batter, place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, at low speed gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bad (or zip lock bag with the corner cut off), pipe teaspoon sized blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evening to the outsides of the cookie. Continue until all the cookies become sandwiches.
How pretty they turned out!! Despite all the reviews, I have to say these don’t taste like real Oreos. They’re delicious, but not an Oreo in my opinion. The filling is creamier and the cookies are a tad softer, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Of course being homemade there is going to be differences but part of me also kept thinking of whoopee pies and wished the cookies were even softer. Mixing the filling up with peppermint, peanut butter or coconut would be a nice too and then you wouldn’t have to call them “Oreos” either. I did however really enjoy these “sandwich cookies” and I would recommend give them a shot!
