So, it’s December 16, and we’re only on our fifth of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. Whoops.
If you missed Days 1-4, check out my Chocolate Thumbprints with Bourbon Caramel and Sea Salt, Brown Butter Pecan Sandies with Chocolate, and Maple Shortbread, as well as Becca’s Peppermint Stars with Dark Chocolate Drizzle (she’s revived her blog for cookies, guys!). Some years, Becca and I are really on the ball with this cookie baking extravaganza. And some years, we don’t finish until January…
For our fifth Christmas cookie of the season, I made Oreos. I have no interest in packaged cookies outside of Oreos. Actually, I’ve just caught myself in a lie. I also love Biscoff cookies. Dipped in cinnamon tea. Or smothered in homemade nutella. I’m pretty sure they were our method of survival for our first Oregon winter. But let’s get back to Oreos. They are magical and terrible and delicious and mysteriously black, and we could easily knock out a package in one sitting if I didn’t feel terribly guilty about it.
In my brief research of homemade Oreos, it appeared that most recipes created a soft chocolate cookie, which, to me, is not an Oreo. Oreos are crunchy and delicious and made of mystery ingredients. A lot of the recipes also called for a thick cream center, which, again, is not an Oreo. I recalled a bit of a recipe blunder from Christmas cookies past that made a not-too-sweet, very crunchy chocolate cookie that would make a fine chocolate cookie sandwich, and then combined the best of all the frosting options I found online.
In the end, we get a homemade Oreo that is full of real ingredients with no high fructose corn syrup, and is possibly healthier (the jury is still out on this one) than a packaged cookie. With careful attention to the baking time, you’ll end up with a crunchy chocolate cookie that retains the crunch of an Oreo without being so crunchy that you can’t take a bite without all the frosting oozing out the sides (the problem with my first attempt at these this week). The recipe makes just enough frosting for an Oreo-like layer of cream in the middle. If you are into more cream, which would be amazing, simply double the cream recipe.
Let me warn you that if you, like me, suffer from tiny kitchen syndrome, you will probably find this recipe incredibly frustrating, as you need a lot of space for rolling out the dough, cooling the cookies, and filling them. You will survive. And then you will eat cookies and dream of a bigger kitchen.
In the end, a real Oreo is probably still more delicious than a homemade version, but this one feels a bit fancier than bringing a tray of packaged cookies to a Christmas party.
- cookies:
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- filling:
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon milk
- In a very large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Beat this into the butter mixture in 3 additions, mixing well between each addition.
- Once the dough is well combined, turn it out onto a generously floured surface and separate into 2 pieces. Shape each piece into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat liner.
- Roll out the dough, one disk at a time, on a floured surface until quite thin (like a real Oreo). Use a small circle cutter (mine was 2 inches) to cut out as many cookies as you can. Roll out the dough again and continue to cut circles until you have used all the dough.
- Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are firm. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before cooling completely on a wire rack.
- While the cookies cool, make the filling. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Mix in the vanilla and milk until well combined. Spread filling in the center of half of the cookies, avoiding the edges so the filling won't spill out. Top with another cookie. (I found dropping a small dollop of filling in the center of a cookie and then squeezing it down into a sandwich with the top cookie was the fastest, most effective way to fill them.)
Likewise, if you don't need 40-something Oreos, you can easily cut the recipe in half and make 20-something cookies instead.
For more cookies from the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies archives, check out these links:
2014, Day 5: New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
2013, Day 5: Monster Cookies
2012, Day 5: No-Bake Stuffed Cookie Dough Bites
2011, Day 5: Spiced Gingerbread
2010, Day 5: Lemon Ricotta Cookies
-Ally
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