So today I decided to try a homemade Oreos recipe from My Kitchen Addiction. It uses dutch process cocoa, and it produces flatter, more Oreo-like cookies than the last recipe, which were more like Oreo Cakesters. I couldn't find dutch process cocoa at Wal-mart, so I got "Hershey's Special Dark blend of natural and dutched cocoas" instead. Anyway, here is the recipe as I made it:
1 C margarine, softened
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (imitation, because I'm cheap)
2 C flour
3/4 C special dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Combine margarine (or butter) and sugar in mixing bowl and beat until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well-mixed.
At this point, the original recipe tells you to "whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture, beating on the lowest speed. Continue to mix on the lowest setting until the dry ingredients are just incorporated." This is a pet peeve of mine. While mixing all of the dry ingredients separately made sense when my grandma was growing up, it rarely serves a purpose now that everyone has electric mixers. If the recipe assumes that you have an electric mixer, WHY do we still need to use that extra bowl? I have run across one recipe where it actually did matter and I had to make a note on my recipe so that I wouldn't skip that step again. But because it is apparently widely believed that you do need to mix your wet and dry ingredients separately, I always have a moment of worry that this will be the second recipe where it actually does matter. Guess what? This recipe isn't it.
Add all of the dry ingredients and mix well on a low speed. I reserved one cup of flour, mixed everything else in, and then added the last cup of flour to try to keep the dust at a minimum. Once everything is wet you can pick it up to medium speed to get it all mixed together quicker.
Next, the recipe said to divide your dough into two disks, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour. I seriously considered skipping this step as well and just putting the lid on my mixing bowl and putting the whole thing in the refrigerator, but I decided to be good. After they have refrigerated for an hour, take out one disk, place it on a floured surface (I use a pillow case taped to my table), roll it to 1/16" - 1/8" thickness, and cut with cookie cutters. Once that disk has been cut up and moved to a cookie sheet, remove other disk from fridge and repeat. After having done all of this, I can honestly say that this dough is as easy to work with warm as it is cold. And it is very easy to work with. If I ever make them again, I will probably try rolling them out without refrigerating them at all.
Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.
The recipe on My Kitchen Addiction has a simple buttercream frosting recipe to use as the filling. You can use any buttercream recipe you like, but I don't have a favorite buttercream recipe, so I decided to use theirs. It made about twice as much as I needed, so I have halved it for you:
1/4 C (1/2 stick) of butter (or margarine), softened
2 Tbsp half and half (or milk)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
3 1/2 C powdered sugar
Mix together everything except the powdered sugar. Then mix the powdered sugar in a cup at a time (to reduce dust). When finished, put in a frosting bag (or plastic bag with one corner cut off) and pipe onto half of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies.
I'm not sure about this recipe yet. The cookies are even more bitter than actual Oreos, and I don't know if the filling will be enough to counteract that. Right now the cookies are crunchy and the frosting is still really soft, so they are almost impossible to eat. I will post and update once the frosting firms up and I try them again.
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