Homemade 'Oreo' Cookies

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Who didn’t like Oreos growing up? Well, there may be some of you, but I think most of us enjoyed twisting and/or dunking those little black and white sandwich cookies. The Oreo chocolate wafers have a unique chocolate flavor that isn’t easy to recreate. To really get that flavor it’s best to use black cocoa powder. If you can’t find it in a store near you, you can order it online or you can just use plain Dutch process cocoa powder. I highly recommend getting the black cocoa powder if you can. I can’t wait to try it in a chocolate cake, but that’s a recipe for another blog.

The fun part of making homemade oreo cookies is that you can get creative with your fillings. You can put as much filling as you want in them. Single stuffed, double stuffed or even quadruple stuffed; it’s completely up to you. The filling flavor possibilities are endless. The first time I made them, I made vanilla filling. The second time, I made vanilla, caramel, coffee, and chocolate fudge fillings. I can’t wait to try some other flavors that I’m rolling around in my head. As I try new fillings, I will add them to this post.

I’ve adapted and enhanced the recipe from the Food Network.

Dough

⅔ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (or 1⅓ cups if you are only using Dutch process cocoa powder)

⅔ cup black cocoa powder

1½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

2 stick Fleischmann’s unsalted margarine sticks, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp coffee extract

·      Combine the cocoa powder, flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk until completely combined

·      In a mixing bowl, cream the margarine and sugar.

·      Add the eggs one at a time.

·      Add the vanilla and coffee extracts.

·      Add the flour/cocoa mixture and mix until incorporated (don’t over mix). Scrape the sides of the bowl halfway into mixing the dough.

·      Divide the dough in half.

·      Roll each half to 1/16 inch thin on a floured piece of parchment paper.

·      Place another piece of parchment paper on top of the rolled dough.

·      Place each piece of rolled dough (with it’s 2 pieces of parchment paper) on a cookie sheet and place in the fridge for 1 hour up to 2 days.*

·      Remove the dough from the fridge.

·      Use a 2 inch round cookie cutter to cut approximately 154 circles. You can reroll the scraps twice.

·      Place the cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets.

·      Put the cookies back in the refrigerator for another 20 minutes.

·      Preheat the oven to 325°F.

·      Bake the cookies for 20 minutes and the cool completely on a wire rack.

·      Prepare the filling.

*If you want to get and keep that crunch that is typical of the original Oreo, you really should leave the rolled dough in the fridge at least overnight up to 2 days. Also, keep them in a tightly sealed zip top bag with as much as air as possible pushed out. If you can’t wait that long or prefer a softer cookie, you can roll them out after being in the fridge for an hour.

Vanilla Filling

1 stick of Fleischmann’s unsalted margarine sticks

1lb box or ½ of a 2lb bag of confectioners’ sugar (extra if needed)

3 tsp vanilla extract

·      Mix all the ingredients until thick and you are able to roll the filling into at least a 1 inch ball without the filling sticking to your hands.

·      Place the ball on the bottom of one of the cookies.

·      Take a second cookie and place it on top of the filling and press down.

Chocolate Filling

·      Replace ¼ cup of confectioners’ sugar with a ¼ cup Dutch process cocoa powder

 

·      2 tsp vanilla extract plus ½ tsp coffee extract.

Coffee Filling

·      Use 2 tsp vanilla extract plus 2 tsp of coffee extract

Caramel Filling

·      See the Caramel Frosting recipe for the Caramel cake. Add confectioners’ sugar until you can roll the frosting without it sticking to your hands.

Save any leftover filling. Place the filling in a zip top bag, press as much air out as possible, zip closed, label, and place in the freezer.