Homemade Oreos

I don’t want to seem like I’m critical. I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to right a wrong. I know, ‘if it aint broke, don’t fix it.’ Oreos, I am not saying that you are broke, I swear. Please forgive my disloyalty. 

 But in the meantime, check out these cookies! Recreations of the classic Oreo have been popping up on the web, I felt that I had to give it a shot. Plus, I was going to visit Joey and boxes of treats are never rejected in an apartment filled with boys, so I figured even if they weren’t perfect someone would eat them.

The recipe details were slightly misleading, the chocolate cookies are called ‘wafers’. To me, wafers are the skinny girls of the cookie world. They are little delicate waifs who are crumbly and light, and they bat their little cookie eyelashes and tease all the boys.

These cookies would slap a wafer upside the head. 

 The first step is to make the chocolate cookies. The dough comes together simply by mixing all ingredients in the food processor. I love when batters or dough can be made all in one place.

The cookies ended up in the oven and suddenly my house smelled like brownies and it was heaven.

While the cookies were cooling, I whipped up some frosting with butter, shortening, vanilla, and powdered sugar. This was somewhat of a task because I was using a food processor when I really needed a mixer of some sort. It was like combing your hair with a toothbrush, just not the most efficient way to do things.

The last step was creating the sandwiches. This step was not my finest display of baking skill. Lacking a frosting bag and piping fixture, I used a Ziploc bag and cut a small hole in one corner in order to pipe the frosting directly onto the center of one cookie. The bag was too small. My piping approach was too cavalier. Ten minutes later I had several stacks of beautiful Oreos, but I also had a kitchen covered in buttercream. If you end up with frosting on the counter, the floor, your pants, and your head, and you’re not five years old, you know you’re doing something wrong. 

 The final product was rich and satisfying. Unlike the packaged kind, you can definitely only eat one. The cookies were firm enough to stand up to the cream, but not crumbly or brittle. They packed well and stayed soft for several days. The success of this project got me thinking about all the other packaged cookies that could be recreated. Nutter Butters may be next on the list.

Oreos

From Smitten Kitchen

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

Preheat over to 375. Mix dry ingredients together in a food processor.

Add the butter and egg until formed into dough.

Place batter in on cookie sheet in rounded balls, then flatten out slightly with palm. Cook for 9 minutes.

For frosting beat butter, shortening, and vanilla until smooth. Add sugar slowly.

Once cookies are cool, pipe frosting into center of one cookie and sandwich with a second cookie.