Homemade Oreos

Adapted from a baking magazine I have at home - will update this with the name of it.

Homemade Oreos

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups (155 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (45 grams, but cocoa weights can vary greatly) unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups (200 to 300 grams) sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 140 grams) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 55 grams) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup (50 grams) vegetable shortening
2 cups (240 grams) sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract

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.
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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

My comments: This might be my all-time favorite cookie recipe, partially because the dough is so incredibly addicting. (Thankfully I've never gotten salmonella.) It's also a fun one because you can choose how oreo-like you want your cookie to be. I usually like making my cookies more of a chocolate-vanilla sandwich cookie than an oreo - larger and less crispy than oreos.

One adaptation that I'd recommend is to flatten the balls of dough slightly when you put them on the cookie sheet.

For the filling I've tried making it without shortening (using butter as a substitute) but it really didn't come out as well. Also, you don't want your filling to look yellow.

There was one notable disaster when I made these cookies with a friend and we couldn't figure out why the filling tasted so odd. It tasted very chemical-y. After we had assembled all of the cookies we thought to check the expiration date on the shortening - it had expired 3 or 4 years earlier. Eugh.