Homemade Oreos

Well, it appears that I'm on a homemade sweets kick this week.  Last night I made homemade Oreos.  Smitten Kitchen has been one of my favorite recipe websites for a long time.  Deb is just awesome.  I came across this particular recipe awhile back then saw it again on pinterest yesterday and knew I just had to try it.

Source: smittenkitchen.com via Carrie on Pinterest

Here is the link to her full blog post.  I did a few things differently, just to make life easier for myself.

Ingredients for Cookies:
-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa  
  *I just used regular Hershey's unsweetened cocoa, but this made my cookies rise a little more due to the acidity of regular cocoa
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar  
  *1 cup of sugar is plenty in my opinion.  You don't want the cookies to be too sweet
-1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
  *I used salted butter because that's all I had.
-1 large egg

Ingredients for Filling:
-1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
  *again, my butter was salted
-1/4 cup vegetable shortening
-2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions for Cookies:
1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
*If you have a KitchenAid mixer, use it for this step. 

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool for approximately 15 minutes.

Directions for Filling:

1. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

2. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.
*I started out with the filling in a pastry bag, but honestly, it makes life easier if you just spoon a dollop of filling onto each cookie and press the two together. 

These are really easy and really good.  But Tony Horton would be SO MAD at me if he knew I made these after my workout.  They're definitely not the healthiest choice, ha!  It's okay to indulge every now and then.