Living each week like it's shark week

Homemade Oreos (3/12)

Ashley came home in March with her friend Chris from Boston to show him a rip-roarin' southern California time for spring break. This visit happened to coincide with a "homemade versions of your favorite childhood treats" kick I was on, and I asked her whether she preferred Oreos or Nutter Butters. She chose Nutter Butters, but I am withholding and petty. Or she said Oreos and I graciously demurred, I can't remember.



These cookies come out somewhere between crispy and chewy. Like a crisp chewy Oreo. To ensure evenly-sized cookies I rolled the dough into 0.4 ounce balls, but they turned out to be around 3 inches in diameter. I'd make them even smaller if you want them to be more authentic. They taste great--somehow missing that hydrogenated oily crunch from real Oreos, but a whimsical crowd pleaser, and the filling's pretty spot on.

Homemade Oreos
from Retro Desserts by Wayne Brachman via Smitten Kitchen

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

Ingredients
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 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375F.
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. 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.
4. To make the filling, 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.
5. 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.



Notes:
-I don't have a food processor. When recipes call for cutting in butter, like pie crust, I just use two knives and cut the butter into the flour mixture just like I would cut a steak: the two tips pointed toward each other, moving back and forth, until the dough is crumbly.
-I hate piping bags. For this recipe I rolled the filling, which is relatively stiff, into little balls and sandwiched them between two cookies, being sure to apply pressure evenly as the cookies may crack.

Love, Christine at 5:32 PM

Tags: baking, cookies, recipes