Homemade Oreos

I saw these and just HAD to make them.  I'm definitely going to attack the Oreo Cupcakes that are attached to these little bits of heaven in the blog Cupcake Project.  I'm going to go ahead and leave out the little cup of milk in the center because, honestly, soggy food grosses me out.  Including Oreos.  I DO NOT dip my Oreos.  Drink milk along side, yes.  Dip, no.  First, there's the soggy part.  I don't care how fast you dip those suckers, something must be getting soaked in and that does not make me happy.  Second, what about those little crumbs that fall off and sink to the bottom of your milk.  Ewwwww.  I mean, really, are you supposed to drink that?  Ugh.  By the way, my husband is, I'm sure, appalled by my lack of dipping Oreos since he'll actually hold the cookie under the surface for long enough to intentionally get the Oreo soggy.  I shudder at the thought.  

Anyway, I digress. Sometime soon I will try the cupcakes but for this particular post I just did the cookies.  And my-oh-my, they're tasty.  Much better than a store bought Oreo.  It could be the lack of mystery ingredients, weird chemicals, or trans fat.  But I'm going with the size.  You can make them AS BIG AS YOU LIKE!  And I can tell you bigger Oreo=better Oreo.  

To be honest, I make big ones and they were probably a bit too big.  I know, how is there TOO BIG of an Oreo?  Don't get me wrong.  They're great big, but too big can be a bit much.  So, next time I'll scale down a bit. 

Enjoy!

Cookies

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon butter, room temperature

1 egg

Filling

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla

To make the cookies:

• Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar.
• Beat in butter and egg.  Mix until dough comes together in one large mass.
• Scoop out rounded teaspoons of batter and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Now, I tried 3 methods to flattening these out.  1) dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and press down and leave as is 2) same thing but then use a round cutter to make them pretty and perfectly round and 3) flattening with the heal of my hand.  All worked equally well and the only difference was the look at the end.  If you don't mind rough edges, don't bother with the cutters.  Whatever you decide, flatten the cookies.
• Bake for 9 minutes on 375 degrees.  Cool.

For filling:

• Beat butter and shortening on low speed until smooth.  Gradually beat in sugar and vanilla.
• Beat on high for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy.

To assemble:

• Pipe about a teaspoon of filling onto a cookie.  Top with another cookie and squeeze together to flatten out the filling.  

I found this recipe on Cupcake Project.