Homemade Oreos

I made some cookies yesterday from one of the cookbooks Ive been wanting to dig into.

Home. Made. Oreos.

And all Halloween like with orange creme centers, too. So fun!

I found the recipe in Flour by Joanne Chang. This book is full of treats I want to try. Especially the Brioche au chocolat and vanilla cream filled doughnuts. Oh my. But I needed much more time for those oh and yeast.

And since I always try to keep chocolate on hand well, these cookies were an easy choice.

For the cookies, you need butter, flour, sugar, cocoa (dutch process), chocolate, 1 egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt.

Melted butter and chocolate yeah, this is heading in the right direction.

Add the butter to the sugar and whisk away.

Then keep on going with the vanilla and melted chocolate.

Add zee egg.

Now whisk the cocoa, flour, soda and salt in another bowl.

I love love love to see cocoa blend with flour and watch the two colors mix together.

It makes me happy.

Add the flour and cocoa mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir together until the dough forms.

Shape the dough in to a log and wrap in wax paper. (I made two sizes to play around with)

Chill. And chill out because you need to let it firm up for a couple of hours

So you can cut out cookie slices. And if youre! like me , youll probably still be compelled to make the edges perfectly round.

Even though you waited all that time for it to chill so you could slice it.

But definitely not a requirement. Just a compulsion.

Bake them and sandwich them with vanilla cream filling tinted orange if youre in a Halloween kind of mood.

Cute!

Creamless are good, too.

So I didnt stop there, since I was already breaking out my round cutters, I finally opened up some mini cutters Ive had for like three years.

A $2.99 Hobby Lobby score Ive neglected to use the past couple of Halloweens.

I chose the cats. I was in a kitty kind of mood. Ill show you why at the end of the post.

Slice the dough and then just use a cutter to make fun shapes.

For the cats, I used a skewer to make simple details. The flat end worked great for the defining the ears and eyes. And the pointed end was great for whiskers.

Mini Meow Meows!

Yum! Yum!

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Homemade Oreos
Makes about 18 2-1/2 inch sandwich cookies
Recipe from Flour reprinted with permission from Chronicle Books.

Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks/228 grams) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (200 grams) semisweet chocolate chips, melted and slightly cooled
1 egg
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (90 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling
1/2 cup (1 stick/114 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 (230 grams) confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of kosher salt
Food color, optional

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until well combined. Whisk in the vanilla and chocolate. Whisk in the egg until combined.
• In another bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, salt and soda until combined. Stir flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Mix with your hands if it helps to combine the two. Let the dough sit for an hour to firm up.
• Transfer the dough to a sheet of wax paper. Shape into a log about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place log along the edge of wax paper and roll. Shape as you roll to maintain a smooth cylinder. Twist ends of paper to secure and help keep the shape compact. Refrigerate at least two hours or until firm. If log settles and flattens on one side, rotate every 15 minutes or so to maintain a round shape.
• Heat oven to 325 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Cut dough in quarter inch thick slices and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until cookies are firm t! o the to uch. Note: I under baked mine (almost half the time) and they were still great. Just watch them because its hard to tell by looks if they are done since they are so dark to begin with. These baked in batches well, so bake a few to test if you have time. And if your cookies are smaller, adjust the baking time.
• Cool and prepare the filling. In a mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add milk and salt and continue beating until smooth again. Place about a tablespoon of filling on the bottom of one cookie and sandwich with a second. Repeat with remaining cookies and eat em up.

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Okay now Ill show you why I had kitties on the brain this weekend.

I am so excited to share another project I created for Womans Day Magazine. Check out these cute cat scratch cupcakes in the October issue! Its on stands now if you want to get a copy. Meow. Meow.