Homemade Oreos: So Much Better than the "Real" Ones

I'm taking a break from the Spain documentation to introduce you to something incredibly delicious. Spain-trip posts will continue next week (hopefully).

I know I posted about homemade Oreos last year, but I just have to do it again.

I made them last weekend so we could eat them during the Patriots game. And eat them we did.

Monday came around and I needed another batch. I could seriously eat the entire batch in one sitting, but am too afraid of what the result would be. That meant that I needed to recruit others to help me eat them (or to prevent me from eating them all).

Two of Tom's college roommates were up Monday night and demolished a good fraction of the batch. It's hard to stop eating them when they're still warm from the oven. On Tuesday I brought the remaining cookies into school  to share with my mentor teacher and the UVM interns. I'm pretty sure they all agreed that these might just be some of best cookies out there.

I can't decide if I like them more than the chocolate chip cookies I can't stop talking about.

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Adapted From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 1/4 cups AP flour

1/2 cups Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1 egg

Filling:

1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup Crisco

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degree F
2. In a standing mixture, mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Turn mixture to low and add the butter and egg. Mix until dough is sticking together in one ball.
3. Make teaspoon-sized balls of dough and place on parchment paper or baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the top of the dough, but not too much. Dough will flatten on it's own. 
4. Bake cookies for 4:30 minutes, rotate, and bake for another 4:30-5:30 minutes. 
5. Remove cookies from pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
6. While cookies are baking and cooling, add the butter and Crisco to a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on high for 2-3 minutes. Add milk to make softer frosting, or omit for a denser filling. 
7. Fill pastry bag with #12 pastry tip and pipe onto cookie, then combine frosted cookie with unfrosted cookie. Wa-la! An Oreo!

Enjoy with a glass of milk, or take the cookies apart and eat one side at a time!