Home-made Oreos

Today was the day.  I'd been keeping this recipe on hold for the past week until I had the time and opportunity to make them.  Russ was here this weekend and after he left this morning, I immediately went to work on my version of home-made OREOs!!!!  Too late for Russ, who, when he arrived, asked if I had any cookies.  For someone 6' 4" with no discernible body fat, he's quite the cookie monster! So, nope, no cookies last night...(sorry, handsome).  Anyway, I'd been researching recipes and found some that used cake mixes as their base.  I didn't want that, no.  What I was looking for was a great cookie that I could create, one that could be sandwiched together with a good butter cream filling  Who better to point me in the right direction than Deb from Smitten Kitchen.  She had already tried her hand at home-made Oreos, based on a recipe she credits to Retro Desserts and Wayne Brachman.

I understand that in blogging world we all borrow from each other.  None of us has a truly original idea -we gain inspiration and motivation from others in our cyber world, as well as in actual-world restaurants, bakeries, and in old cookbooks, magazines, and even word-of-mouth.  We may think of new takes and twists on old standards, but really, something outside ourselves usually triggers the creative process to try something new (to us) and different (from what we've done before).  It is with that mindset that I bring you a home-made yet simpler version of a processed food, a little bit 180-degrees from the way things usually work. Like my friend Jody posted on facebook when I mentioned that I'd be making homemade Oreos soon..."Why?  Did they run out of the real thing?"  I might have thought the same way before I became an obsessed "how do they do that?" kind of baker, eager to try my hand at making something good at home, with a little less process, a lot fewer ingredients, and a whole lotta freshness.

So, here, along with my photos, is the recipe for homemade Oreos!


HOME MADE OREOS
inspired by, and adapted from, Smitten Kitchen who was inspired by Retro Desserts, who was inspired by Nabisco, I'm guessing!

Oven - 375 degrees F
line cookie sheets with parchment paper


Cookies:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's is fine)
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) room-temperature butter or margarine
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Filling: 
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter (not margarine)
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract




Directions:

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

2. In large bowl of electric mixer, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. On low speed, add the butter, and then the egg and vanilla. Mix well until dough comes together in an almost-solid ball.

3. Take rounded half-teaspoons of batter and roll into dime-sized balls.  Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened fingers, slightly flatten the dough.

4.     Bake for 9 minutes.  Remove from oven.   Set baking sheet on a rack to cool.

5. 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.

6. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip (I used a pastry tip with a "toothy" edge), pipe filling cream onto the center of one cookie (see photo in collage). 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.  Pour some icy-cold milk and share!

Click to almost taste enlarge