Homemade Oreos
I was told this past weekend, "These are the best cookies you have ever made!" To justify my friend's point, I brought (around) all 30 cookies to a small dinner party that included five people this past weekend. The next morning, when I received the plate back, there were only two left.
When I sent the image of the cookies to my friend, via text, she replied by telling me, "They look like whoopie pies!" Contrary to their appearance, these cookies do not taste like whoopie pies. In my book, whoopie pies tend to have a very cake-like chewy cookie, with a cream-cheese frosted filling.
These cookies abide by their name, homemade oreos, because they possess the same attributes as the classic sandwich cookie. The chocolate cookie is firm, yet easy to bite into. The frosting in the middle is not overbearing, and provides the right amount of sweetness and texture, fitting for an oreo-like cookie. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I highly recommend making this classic. Watch out though, they'll be gone before you know it!
Homemade Oreos
Recipe Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
Yields: 25 to 30 Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients:
For the Chocolate Dough
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 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 large egg
For the Filling
1/4 cup (1/2) stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Steps:
For the Chocolate Dough
1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven, and preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. While pulsing, or on a low speed, at the butter then the egg. Continue to do so until the dough forms into a mass.
3. Take teaspoon size amounts of dough, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Space the dough at least two inches apart from one another. With moistened hands flatten the dough, slightly. Do this on both baking sheets.
4. Bake for 9 minutes, and make sure to rotate them half way through so they are evenly baked. When finished, take out and place on a rack to cool.
Source: Smitten Kitchen adapted from Retro Desserts, Wayne Brachman
For the Filling
1. Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed gradually incorporate sugar and vanilla.
2. Turn the mixer on high, for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture looks light and fluffy.
Assemble
1. Utilize a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch size tip, and pipe tablespoon size blobs in the center of one cookie.
2. Find a cookie that is similar in size on top of cream, and lightly press down. Make sure the filling spreads evenly.
3. Continue this process, until all of your cookies are in sandwich form!
What I Did Differently:
1. I use Hershey's unsweetened cocoa.
2. I never have time to take my butter out early enough, therefore I microwaved mine for 40 seconds.
3. We do not have large eggs in my refrigerator. Normal sized ones work just fine.
4. I was in a slight time crunch, therefore I did not sift my confectioners' sugar for the filling.
5. Since I am in college, and not equipped with everything in my Mother's kitchen, I used a hand mixer to combine the ingredients for the cookies. Again, no cookie dough was tortured in the process of using older machinery.
6. I baked half of the cookies for 9 minutes, and the other half for about 7. I realized, with my not-so-reliable-oven that they cookies were a little bit harder then I wanted. Therefore, the time was reduced.
7. Just a note on assembling the cookies, it does take a while to do it on your own, therefore with the help of one of my loyal sweet-lover roommate, we conquered the sandwiching in record time (and I do not have any sort of piping here! Therefore a regular spoon was used to place frosting in the middle).
