Homemade OREOS!

I’ve had my eyes on this recipe for quite some time now. I feel like I say that at the beginning of every post where I use a recipe from Deb over at Smitten Kitchen – I basically want to make everything she makes. Or maybe I could just move in with her and have her cook for me every day… At any rate, these homemade Oreos have been on my must-bake list for a while now.

Then, our monthly cooking club announced the theme for our dinner and a movie. In honor of March Madness, the theme was anything dunkable. Of course, Oreos are the most famously dunkable cookie out there. (Hubby made French “dunk” sandwiches – watch for the blog update on that soon!).

These cookies come together pretty easily. Some other homemade Oreo recipes require rolling and cutting, but I liked that these are just dropped onto the cookie sheet (and I don’t have any circle cookie cutters anyways). I’m not sure why my cookies are such a light brown color. I used Ghirardelli cocoa which is my standard cocoa, but I suppose that could be the reason?

Once the cookies are cooled completely, the filling is piped onto a cookie. I tried to match up cookies of the same size – even though I used a cookie scoop to portion my dough, there was some variation in the size (I’m a little OCD like that). Let me just tell you this filling is spot on with the filling of an Oreo. The exact same taste and texture. It’s amazing.

Everyone at the cooking club enjoyed these cookies. I thought they were ok, but nothing great. Apparently everyone else thought they were spot on with the taste of Oreos.

Homemade Oreos – from Smitten Kitchen – makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookiesFor 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 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

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.

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 (I used my cookie scoop to portion out batter, then I took that portion of batter and divided it in half. I then rolled the dough into a ball and flattened it on the cookie sheet). 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, 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.

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.