Homeade Oreos

happy sunday everyone!

last night, i watched new york, i love you, worked on my art project (i have to finish tonight- so i'll post pictures), and baked.

i was in the mood to bake (i always am) and hadn't in awhile 

i was going to make chocolate cupcakes, but you know me, i always like making something a little extraordinary.   

so, instead, i made homeade oreos.  

i loved the concept of a salty cookie and a super sweet filling.

the recipes from the one and only, smitten kitchen.  

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies
For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg
For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and 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 in a mass.
3. 
   
4. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and 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.
5. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and 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.
6. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size 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 evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

okay, let's talk about a couple of things here.

1)  i used 1 cup of sugar, not 1 1/2.  she mentions this in the recipe (click the link above).   she says if you want simply the cookie, keep the full sugar amount, but for the oreo, use less.   i found the cookie to be good alone as well as with the filling, with less sugar.  

2)  When processing, mine didn't necessarily "come together in a mass".  i still had to "ball it" together.  

3)  i initially forgot to flatten out the first batch i made.  don't forget this step, the cookies will be too thick.  however, if you forget, when you rotate the cookies in the oven, just gently squish them down.

4)  when you take them out of the oven, they will be super soft.  like gooey soft.  that's okay. don't put them back in.  they'll harden up.

5)  there is no way this makes 25-30 sandwich cookies.  i got maybe 12 sandwich cookies, so i doubled the cookie part of the recipe.  you'll have enough icing either way.

the results?  

my dad:  "better then the store-bought kind"

and what did i think?

i'm never buying another package of oreos from the supermarket again. :)