Oh how nice are those wonderful cream filled chocolate cookies we all know as Oreos. The big problem with them is that they are just so tempting two or three never seems enough and before you know it the whole packet’s gone. Unfortunately in these economic climes we just can’t afford ten packets of Oreos every week so I decided to save on the food bills and make our own.

This recipe turned out a real treat and the kids say they love them better than the brought ones. I guess that’s one point for me. I think using a range of differently shaped cookie cutters also added to the fun as did adding some M&Ms into some of the cookies as sort of a bonus lucky dip surprise. Anyway enough of that let’s get to it.

Chocolate Cookie Ingredients

• 3 Cups of Sugar
• 2½ Cups of All-Purpose Flour
• 1 ¼ Cups of Unsalted Butter (about 2½ sticks)
• 1 Cup of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2 Large Eggs
• 2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda
• ½ Teaspoon each of Baking Powder and Salt

Filling Ingredients

• 4 Cups of Confectioners’ Sugar
• ½ Cup each of Unsalted Butter (1 stick) and Vegetable Shortening
• 4 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
• 1 Packet of M&Ms if you are going to put some in as a surprise for the kids (both the big and little ones)

Cookie Mix Method

1. Allow the butter to come to room temperature before commencing
2. Fine sift the confectioners’ sugar
3. Preheat oven to 370 degrees F
4. Place 2 baking trays in middle of oven as we will be baking in batches
5. Use your mixer or food blender to thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. It takes a bit longer doing it by hand but not that much for those adept at this type of thing.
6. Now blend in the butter and eggs using a low mixer speed setting or pulse setting on your blender. Mix until the entire mixture comes together as a ball. This later stage I always finish off by hand as it seems to turn out better. I guess you could say a bit like cooking by feel.
7. When the dough is ready put some onto a non-stick rolling surface and quickly roll out to a sheet about ¼ inch thick. Use your cookie cutters to cut pairs out of the dough. Place pairs of cut cookies onto parchment paper-lined and pre-warmed baking trays. Leave about 2 inches around all sides of each cookie. As we are going to be cooking in batches return left over dough to bowl for now and give it a quick knead.

Cooking

1. Place the cookies into the preheated oven and cook for 9 minutes. Turn once during cooking. Once you have turned the cookies begin cutting the next batch.
2. Once cooked remove cookies from oven and transfer to cooling rack to cool. Put next batch onto the baking trays and cook them. Continue this process until all of the dough mix has been used.

Cream Filling Method

1. Put butter and shortening into a mixing bowl and then at low speed; if user a blender or mixer, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Once all ingredients are combined mix with real gusto or simply turn up the speed of your blender/mixer.
2. Beat for about 3½ minutes until the cream filling mix becomes light and fluffy. Larger portions will require longer beating.

Final Assembly

1. Use a pastry bag with a ½ inch round nozzle to pipe teaspoon sized blobs of cream onto the center of one half of a pair of cookies
2. Then place the other half on top of the cream and gently apply pressure gradually working the filling toward the outside (you are basically using pressure to squeeze the cream to spread evenly). Stop pressing just before the cream reaches the edges.
3. Continue until all of the cookies have been used. If you are going to put M&Ms into some of the cookies just push them into the sides of the blob of cream filling before putting the top on. You may find that this works better when you use a little extra cream filling for the surprise cookies.

Yield

This mix makes around 60 assorted sized cookies but you can adjust the ingredient quantities in proportion to deliver more or less cookies as desired

Tips

If using an assortment of cookie cutter shapes cut the cookies in pairs. It also helps to bake cookies that are roughly the same size together as a batch since larger and/or thicker cookies may require a little longer baking time.

Sprinkle a little flour on the surface that you roll the dough on. Moisten hands before handling the uncooked cut cookies to prevent them sticking to your fingers.