America's Favorite Cookie

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

I was really excited to try this recipe. It was one that I had bookmarked about a year ago, but could never bring myself to try for fear of ruining an American classic. Thankfully I received a particular request to try this recipe, which was the push I needed.

Although these cookies were good, I don't think I would prefer them over the store-bought originals. I know that I should prefer the homemade option that doesn't include things like high fructose corn syrup in the ingredients... but they just weren't quite the same. The difference in the two lies in the cookie. Something about the flavor of the cookie in this recipe is not quite lined up with the cookie in a real Oreo. This problem could simply be a matter of ingredients - maybe my vanilla extract or my cocoa powder are lower quality than Nabisco's, which could have a huge impact on flavor.  However, the cream filling recipe is spot on. It was d-licious. If you prefer double (maybe triple...) stuffed Oreos, and/or like to sample while you bake, I would recommend doubling the cream filling.  Overall, these were tasty, but it may not be fair to directly compare them to the real deal.

Oreo Cookie Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter - room temperature
1 large egg

Oreo Cream Filling Ingredients*:

1/2 stick unsalted butter - room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

* For those double/triple stuffers out there, double these ingredients

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

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

Doing this made me so uncomfortable

3. Cut the butter into chunks and add to dry mixture. *This part of the recipe worried me, because for most cookies, you mix the butter with the sugar, then add eggs/vanilla, and then add the dry ingredients to butter-mixture. Adding the butter last is more common for things like pie crust. But I followed these instructions and it made a legitimate dough, so I think it's okay. With the electric mixer turned off, manually use the beaters to begin incorporating - cutting the butter into the flour to get a crumbly mixture (see picture)

This is what it should look like prior to the egg

4. Add the egg and continue to manually incorporate until the flour-mixture is moistened enough to turn on the electric mixer. Once you can turn on the mixer without covering yourself with flour, mix these ingredients until the dough comes together in a mass.

5. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper - about 2 inches apart.  Using the bottom of a large glass sprayed with cooking spray, flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through. *Trust me. Teaspoons sounds and looks tiny, but once you flatten/bake these, they get way bigger than you think they will

6. Transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes. Once set, transfer the cookies directly to the cooling racks.

7. For the filling, cream the butter and shortening together in a large bowl with an electric mixer.
8. Add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
9. Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing on a low speed to avoid spraying powdered sugar everywhere. Beat on low until all the sugar is added, then turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 minutes until the filling is light/fluffy. *At this point it is wise to taste-test the filling... frequently.
10. Using a pastry bag (or for people like me, a plastic baggy with a hole cut in it), pipe blobs of cream onto the flat side of one cookie and then place another cookie of similar size on top. Lightly press them together to fill the sandwich.  Continue this process for all the cookies.