January 20, 2012

Homemade Oreos with Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling

Seattle got snow, like lots and lots of snow.  Like snow that wouldn’t stop falling from the sky.

Snow equals madness in this city, cars spinning out, buses stuck up on hills, and all schools closed.  I trekked out in the snow and walked to my various work sites on Wednesday and Thursday. Driving was not an option, unless you never want to see me ever again.  Please don’t tell me the truth.

It was nice, seeing the city blanketed in snow and everyone frolicking in the beauty of it all; people out sledding and skiing down roads that usually are full of traffic and honking horns.  Okay, I lied, there are no honking horns in Seattle.  It takes something really major for someone to honk a horn.  Like when I stop for an imaginary stop sign, that definitely does it.  If you want to hear honking horns go to San Juan.  It’s like a musical orchestra, except slightly out of rhythm.

So somehow we went from snow to horns.  I apologize. There was so much snow that today I was going to soak it all up and go skiing, with endless amounts of powder.  The problem you may ask?  Why am I here writing instead?  There was so much snow that the road to the ski resort was closed! So on to Plan B, make some Oreos.  Like homemade, made with lots of love, and a little strawberry jam kind of Oreos.

These are great.  The wafers taste just like Oreos, just better.  And I decided to try something different from the recommended filling and just made my strawberry cream cheese frosting instead.  It’s pretty darn tasty, but I will tell you that the frosting isn’t really thick, so when you bite into it it might ooze a little.  It’s delicious nevertheless.

Here you have it.

Homemade Oreos

For the chocolate wafers(from Smitten Kitchen via Retro Desserts):
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, salted butter
1 large egg

For the filling  (adaptaed from Glorious Treats):

½ cup (1 stick) butter (set at room temp for 10 minutes– should still be cool to the touch)
8 oz. cream cheese (directly from fridge)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
3 Tablespoons of strawberry jam

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a food processor or a mixer combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Cut up butter into approximately 2 tablespoon chunks and mix into flour mixture.  Then add the egg.   Mix until it becomes one large mass.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, spoon out teaspoons of the dough and press lightly on top.  Mine were around ¼ inch thick disks before they went into the oven.  Bake for 8 minutes rotating it half way through.

Prepare the filling by creaming the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer.  Mix in the powdered sugar in batches of one cup at a time.  Mix in the strawberry jam.  Place in piping bag with an ½ inch wide tip.  If you want to improvise you can use a Ziploc bag and cut off the corner or just use a spoon and carefully spread it on.

Match the cookies into partners, making sure they are similar in size.  Pipe or spread the filling onto one of each partner of cookies.  Place the cookies on top of one another and gently squeeze to get the filling out to the edges.