Homemade Oreos

Oh yes, you read that correctly. Homemade Oreos. The only statements that compare with that beauty are 'I love you," "I want Mommy," or "Congratulations! You've just won...." :) {sigh}

They really are tasty.

The recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen. If you don't follow Smitten, well shame shame because it's beautiful and fabulous. I bookmark recipes there constantly; but this one was special - bookmark, print, bake and consume. Quickly.

Homemade Oreos

The cookie:

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tb butter
1 egg

The filling:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup shortening
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in butter using a fork or pastry blender - you need the dough to reach a consistency of fine sand. Add egg - you may have to get dirty and mix with your hands, this dough is thick and sticky! It will eventually clump together like pie dough.

Roll teaspoon amounts of the dough into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. They do spread slightly, so space a couple inches apart. Wet your finger tips and gently flatten the cookies - just a little...

Bake 8-9 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the creamy filling, combine the butter and shortening in a medium bowl. Beat in the sugar and vanilla till fluffy.

Pair up cookies of similar size and shape - using a pastry bag with a round tip, or plastic baggy with the tip snipped, pipe about a teaspoon of filling in the middle of one cookie. Press other cookie on till filling spreads to the edges.

Keep going till all cookies are filled. Grab some milk and enjoy!

Notes:

Using margarine in the cookie is fine. But do not, understand any circumstances, use margarine for the filling. It will be runny - unsalted butter is a must.
I used dark vanilla; still tasty in the filling but gave it a funky color. If you want the traditional white filling, use clear vanilla.
The dough is super sticky. Once you roll out one pan, put the dough in the fridge so it stays firm between batches.
The original recipe says to bake for 9 minutes. This gives you a wonderful crisp cookie, ala Oreo. However, it is a well established fact that I love cookies with a soft center.... so I baked them a little less....
Also, the original recipe discusses the sugar content. You could use 1 1/2 cups sugar for a sweeter cookie, or use 1 cup for a more bitter chocolate cookie, like the Oreo.

All in all - these. are. wonderful. So tasty, and really pretty simple. I recommend you make them as soon as possible.

And have big glass of milk ready.