Faux-Reoes

Submitted by Lise in Indiana

"Like the favorite packaged chocolate sandwich cookie and its cream filling, only home made!"

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Yields: 28 sandwich cookies

ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3⁄4 cup butter
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄2 cups king arthur unbleached all-purpose flour or 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 3⁄4 cup black cocoa or 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

• Filling

• 2 1⁄2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1⁄2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (omit if you're making the peppermint version)
• 2 teaspoons cold water

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets, or more if you have them.
2. To make the cookies: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and espresso powder. That's right; there's no leavening in this recipe, so don't worry that something's been left out.
3. Beat in the egg, water, and vanilla, then the flour and cocoa. The dough will be very stiff.
4. Chill the dough to firm it up, 30 minutes or so. Roll out the dough to about 1/8" thickness (measure the thickness with a ruler - 1/8" to 3/16' thickness will give the most "Oreo" cookie result) Cut out rounds or other shapes, about 1 1/2" in size. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet. These don't spread much, but leave an inch between cookies on the pan.
5. Use the flat bottom of a glass, dipped in cocoa as necessary to prevent sticking, to flatten the cookies to about 1/8" to 3/16" thick. The end of a food processor's pusher tool works well here, too. Take a ruler and measure the cookies' thickness; you want to get pretty close to this measurement, for the best-textured cookies.
6. Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes. It's important to bake them just the right amount of time; too little, and they won't be crisp; too much, and they'll scorch. Watch them closely at the end of the baking time, and if you start to smell scorching chocolate before the time is up, take them out. When they're done, remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool completely, on a rack or on the pan.
7. While the cookies are cooling, make the filling.
8. Beat together the sugar, shortening, and vanilla. It'll seem very dry at first, but will eventually begin to clump together.
9. Add the water, beating till smooth and spreadable. The filling should be stiff, but not so stiff that you can't flatten it when you sandwich it between the cookies.
10. Place one level tablespoon filling in the center of one cookie; again, a teaspoon cookie scoop, slightly heaped, is perfect for this task. Place another cookie atop the filling, and squeeze to distribute the filling evenly. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container.