Homemade Oreo Cookies

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought some "festive" baking so in order. After searching foodgawker, I stumbled upon a recipe for Homemade Oreo Cookies by Smitten Kitchen. I thought they looked delicious and with a touch of green food colouring for the filling, they were perfect for Halloween. Dan agreed.

What you'll need for the Oreo Cookies:

1 1/4 cup AP Flour

1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 + 2 tbsp salted butter

1 egg

What you'll need for the Filling:

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening 

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In an electric mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed for a couple of minutes until everything is well combined and there are no lumps. Add the butter, then the egg while continuing to mix on low speed. After a few minutes, you should have a ball of dough. It may be a bit crumbling, but it's moist, so when you form the cookie dough balls, it will all stick together. No worries!

Now, the original recipe said to make rounded teaspoons of batter —mine were a bit bigger than this (probably more like a tablespoon; however, be careful because the cookies do expand while baking). Place your balls of dough 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten the balls slightly using you hands. I actually did this while I was forming the ball of dough. Instead of making "balls" of dough, I made "discs" of dough. Either way works just fine. 

Bake for ~9 minutes, then let cool on a wire rack. 

While you're patiently waiting for the cookies to cool (and/or have another batch in the oven), you can get started on the filling. Place the softened butter and vegetable shortening in a mixing bowl and mix at medium speed for a couple of minutes. Gradually add the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Mix on high speed for a couple of minutes. My filling was a bit dry, so I added a tbsp of milk. This softened the filling up quite nicely and made it a bit more fluffy. 

Now, have fun with it and add some colour to the filling. 

To assemble the Oreo Cookies, simply spread or pipe the filling onto one cookie then sandwich together with another cookie. Serve with a tall glass of milk!

This recipe made about 13 Oreo Cookies (but, like I said, mine were quite large).