Home - Made Oreo Cookies

I went on a hunt for home-made Oreo cookies when I was still pregnant.  There are many recipes out there but all of the ones I found had cream cheese in the frosting.  Most of you are probably trying to figure out why that would be a problem because it seems that everyone in the world LOVES cream cheese... except me.  I don't like the taste, smell, texture or the way it coats your mouth.  And I'm sorry but the real Oreos don't have any cream cheese in them either.  You can imagine my happiness one day when I found it.  "It" being a recipe that didn't require cream cheese for the filling!  Hallelujah we have a winner!  Since this was months ago I don't remember where I found this recipe, or I would give the author credit...

Mmmm doesn't it look delicious?  Two crispy cookies with a creamy center.

INGREDIENTS

Cookies:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 stick softened salted butter (you can use unsalted and add about 1/8 teaspoon of salt to the flour mixture)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

• 1/2 stick softened butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

We'll start with the cookies:

In a medium sized bowl, sift the cocoa and flour (and salt if you are using unsalted butter) together.  I used a fork rather than an actual sifter.

Cream the softened butter and sugar together in a mixer.  Once the mixture is well combined and has started to cream, add the egg.  Let it cream together.  Add the vanilla and mix a little bit more.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  You'll probably need to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber scrapper.  The dough should look slightly thicker than brownies and be really sticky.

Split the dough in half the best you can.  Put one half on a floured sheet of wax paper.  Flour another sheet of wax paper and lay it on top.

Roll it out so it is about 1/4 inch thick. Do this again with the other half.

See how sticky it is?  Without the wax paper the dough would stick to the counter and rolling pin.  In order for the dough to be workable, stick the rolled out dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  The dough should be stiff with a little give.

Once the dough is cold and has stiffened, it should peel of the wax paper pretty freely.  Remove just the top piece off wax paper at this point.

Working quickly, use a round cutter to get circles and place two inches apart on a baking sheet.  My circles are two inches in diameter.  I wouldn't go any larger because they do spread out a bit in the oven.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes more before baking for 20 minutes in a 325 degree oven.

Note:  If you line your baking sheets with foil, clean up is a lot easier.

When the cookies are removed from the oven and completely cooled on wire racks they should be crispy.

Now for the creamy filling:

Cream the butter and shortening until they become fluffy.  Then beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. I added some orange food coloring for Halloween at this point.  It's hard to see the color because I don't like to add a lot.  I think too much food coloring makes it taste bitter... does anybody else think this or is it just me?

Put the frosting in a baggie and cut the corner.  This will make frosting the cookies much easier.

Line the cookies up on the cooling racks.  I play around with them a little bit to match the circle sizes.  Some might be a little wider or smaller if the dough was rolled out thicker or thinner than 1/4 inch.  Then flip one cookie in each pair over.  Squeeze out a blob of frosting on the flipped over cookie.  Place the other cookie on top and squish down the frosting.

My dough made about 32 cookies with dough to spare.  Because I used 2 cookies per "Oreo" so I ended up with 16 sandwich cookies.

Recipe Text:

Cookie Dough-

Sift the cocoa powder and flour (and 1/8 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter) in a bowl.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and cream together.  Add the vanilla and continue to cream.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Divide the dough into two.  Place one piece between two floured pieces of wax paper.  Roll into 1/4 inch thick.  Repeat with the other half of dough and stick both sheets of dough int the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

Cut the dough into an even number of two inch circles.  (Re-roll and refrigerate the scraps to get more cookies.)  Place on an ungreased baking sheet two inches apart.  Refrigerate for an additional 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Bake the cookies for twenty minutes.  The edges should be SLIGHTLY darker than the middle (I could barely tell there was color change, and they were perfect).  Let cool completely on wire racks.

Cream Filling-

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy.  Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla (and food coloring if desired).

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with a dab of filling (about one tablespoon).  Press the other cookies on top.