Homemade Oreos

I couldn’t believe it when I just kind of typed “homemade oreos” into a search engine one day as a joke and up popped this recipe.

These are dark and evil, and oh so good!

They were amazingly easy, too. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I get to use a food processor to do my work for me.

This is Oreos Round #1 for me, because as tickled as these made me, I see room for improvement and know just how I want to tweak these.

First off, they need to be uniform, and I think a little extra flour, cocoa and sugar will allow me to roll these out to a uniform thickness and use a cutter to make them all the same size.

Second of all…the filling. People, this is nothing more than buttercream. I was actually disappointed when I looked it over. But – I’ll admit that the flavor is the same, but biting into a nice crisp cookie and having the filling squirt out was a real downer. I think I know how to remedy that as well.

I am about trembling with excitement to see if these tweaks will do what I think they will to these lil gems….

I think Nabisco and I may be going around in the ring once I make these adjustments!

A few words of caution….

Number one: Let them sit about an hour or so after you sandwich them. I didn’t know oreos needed to be aged, but I promise you they are more like their predecessor once they have been assembled for a while. Who knew?

Secondly: Get your milk before you sit down in front of these. By the time you come up for air and think about it, you’ll be left with nothing but a few black crumbs and regret.

Stay Tuned for Oreos : The Sequel

Homemade Oreos

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

for the cookies:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dark unsweetened Dutch process cocoa (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

for the filling:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

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.

With moistened hands, roll into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter and place on sheets about 2 inches apart. Slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

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.

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. I was able to get the filling all the way around evenly by rotating the cookie as I pressed down on the filling.

Rainbow Cake With Lemon Buttercream

Look at this cake. So unassuming…so innocent looking. Of course the fluffy whiteness just makes you wonder what secrets lurk beneath the sweetness.

Would you ever suspect that in its nakedness it would look like this???

I had been wanting to try to make one of these babies for several weeks. I nearly made one for my nephew for his birthday on the 19th, but I was afraid the pretty colors would be lost on a teenage boy that just turned 18. So, I jumped at the chance to volunteer to make a dessert this weekend and haul it over to my parents’ home for dinner.

All gussied up with an icing coat and sliced up, it made quite an impression on my parents and my older sister and my brother in law who are currently in town, trying to escape the incredible amounts of snow that they have been buried under for months now.

It was like having a slice of sunshine cutting right through the crappy cold weather….

It was so much fun to make, and I seriously thought it was going to be a chore!

I totally cheated and used a box white cake mix and divided it into seven 1/2 cup servings and colored each bowl full accordingly with food coloring, and baked each layer in a well greased 9 inch round cake pan.

The first two layers about gave me a nervous breakdown because it was so thin that it nearly didn’t even coat the bottom. But, in a matter of minutes in a 350 degree oven, they baked up perfectly. I then stacked them in the “Roy G. Biv” rainbow color order that we learned about in school, and got more and more excited with each step.

I thought I was going to squeal when I laid the first slice down onto a plate, but controlled myself, since I had an audience.

I also made up the cheat by making my own lemon buttercream icing. It was awesome – the subtle brightness in the undertones of the sweet frosting just added to the summery feel.

Lemon Buttercream

• 1/2 c. butter or margarine
• 3/4 c. shortening
• 2 pounds confectioner’s sugar
• 3/4 tsp lemon extract
• 3 tbsp half and half (more or less, depending on the consistency you are looking for)

blend butter and shortening together, add confectioners sugar about 1 cup at a time until blended.  The frosting will likely look very crumbly at this stage

add lemon extract and then half and half (or milk) one tablespoon at a time until you achieve the desired consistency