Homemade Oreos

Homemade Oreos - made dough December 14, 2022 from Buzz Feed

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups black cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream Filling

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in eggs until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, black cocoa and baking soda. Add to butter mixture in 2 additions, mixing on low speed until just combined.
3. Turn out the dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. Cover with an equal-size parchment paper and roll into 1/4" thickness. Leaving between parchment, chill dough for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove dough from fridge and remove top piece of parchment. Cut into circles using cookie cutter. Evenly space on baking sheets, leaving 1/2" space between cookies.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middle no longer looks raw. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Make the filling: cream together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Use filling to sandwich cookies together.

I had high hopes for these homemade Oreos but they were dashed after baking and tasting a cookie from the first batch. I (perhaps unfairly) had hoped they would keep their impressions after baking. They sort of did but not the smaller details and definitely not for the thicker cookies.

It's hard to make chocolate embossed dough cut cleanly without more flour than I want to use. I tried to temper the risk by combining equal parts flour, powdered sugar and black cocoa powder and brushing the top of the rolled out (and chilled) dough as well as the embossed rolling pin. It embossed well enough for the most part but you do have to imprint only on chilled dough. Otherwise, it's too soft and sticks to every nook and cranny in the rolling pin (yes, personal experience speaking).

Sadly though, the impressions didn't hold very well after baking. They also didn't really have an Oreo flavor. If I had been making soft dark chocolate sandwich cookies that weren't very sweet or rich, these would be great. I wasn't so I put these in the "okay" category.

It does do better with larger impression though and holds decently well. So this dough is better with cookie stamps with larger designs rather than an embossed rolling pin with finer details.

Cookies and Cream Cookies from Baking With Blondie

Cookies and Cream Cookies - made December 10, 2022 from Baking with Blondie 

1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, cold

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup chopped Hershey's cookies and cream candy bars

1 cup crushed Oreos

1. Preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter for 1 minute then add brown sugar and granulated sugar. Cream together for 3 minutes on high speed, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl to keep mixture even textured.
3. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add in two additions to the butter mixture on slow speed, mixing until just combined after each addition.
5. Reserve 1/8 cup of the add-ins, then add in the white chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, Hersheys cookies and cream candy pieces and Oreo crumbles on lowest speed until just incorporated.
6. Divide dough into 8 equal portions, rolling into a ball. Hand press the reserved add-ins on each dough ball.
7. Bake for 9-10 minutes then remove from oven and let rest on pan on 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This is an easy cookie to holiday-ize. I copied the Outrageous Cookies and Cream Cookies concept from Cookies and Cups where the cookie itself is the "filling" between two Oreo holiday cookie halves.

Normally, these would be giant-sized cookies like the other ones from Baking with Blondie but I wanted them to be proportional to the Oreos so I made them smaller.

The recipe calls for Hershey's cookies and cream chocolates to be chopped up and added to the batter but I don't buy those so I made do with chopped Oreos, white chocolate chips and semisweet chocolate chips. Close enough.

When making cookies this way, pry apart the Oreo cookies and put the half without the holiday design as the base of the cookie. If you've got mad skillz, try to keep the filling adhered to the top half. But if you can't, the important thing is to keep the Oreos as whole as possible. If any of them break, don't sweat it though (this is supposed to be fun, not stressful) and just put the broken half as the bottom of the cookie, regardless of the design on it.

Once you've got the Oreos pried apart, line the bottoms on the baking sheet and place each dough ball directly over the bottom Oreo. Bake, then as soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, press the top half of the Oreo over the center of each hot cookie and press gently. It's okay to squish the cookie a little; you just want the heat of the cookie to let the Oreo top half adhere to it.

These were delicious, in case I haven't mentioned that. I'm sure they'd be good "plain" without the Oreo embellishment because delicious is delicious. But the Oreo embellishment does give them the holiday look.

Red Velvet Seven Layer Bars from Sally's Baking Addiction

Red Velvet Seven Layer Bars - made December 10, 2022 from Sally's Baking Addiction

1 1/4 cups (156 grams) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (5 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring

1 1/3 cups (120 grams) sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup (180 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup (90 grams) white chocolate chips

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup (130 grams) chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add granulated sugar and beat until combined. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until combined. Add food coloring and mix until uniformly colored. Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing until just combined after each addition.
4. Press dough into an even layer into prepared pan. Bake for 8 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle top evenly with coconut, semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips. Spread sweetened condensed milk evenly over top. Sprinkle with pecans.
6. Return pan to oven and bake until set, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

I'm a little ambivalent about this recipe, which is unusual as I normally rave about anything from Sally's Baking Addiction.

First, I love Seven Layer Bars or Magic Cookie Bars or whatever you want to call them. And I like red velvet so it seemed like the perfect bar cookie to make for the holidays, both for care packages and holiday gifts. It was good, don't get me wrong. But I didn't love it.

Second, I think it's because I'm just too attached to the graham cracker crust in magic cookie bars and this didn't have that because of the red velvet/holiday twist. 

Third, I would recommend making this in a 9 x 9-inch pan rather than 9 x 13 so you have a thicker crust. I did like the red velvet base itself but it was a bit too thin for me. I think I just prefer a graham cracker crust to go with the topping and as a thicker base layer. Also, I recommend baking the crust longer than 8 minutes. If it's not baked enough and is still raw/too soft when you put on the topping, some of the unbaked crust bubbled through the top and mixed with the sweetened condensed milk to leave pink patches. 

Cookie Butter Cookies from Kroll's Korner

Cookie Butter Cookies - made dough November 19. 2022 from Kroll's Korner 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cake flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

1/2 cup creamy cookie butter

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon cookie butter emulsion

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

10 Biscoff cookies, crushed (leave some chunks)

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, cookie butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined, 2-3 minutes, and no butter lumps remain. Add egg, egg yolk, cookie butter emulsion and vanilla extract, mixing until combined.
3. Add dry ingredients in two additions and mix on low speed after each addition until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and crushed Biscoff cookies.
4. Portion dough into 8 large dough balls of equal size. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Break each dough ball in half and press the halves together with the jagged edges up. Evenly space on baking sheets. 
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and gently press Biscoff cookie chunks or halves on top if desired. Let rest on baking sheets for 15 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with melted cookie butter if desired.

I've been wanting to make this recipe for awhile but first I didn't have cookie butter emulsion then I had to go get Biscoff cookies. The stars finally aligned and I got this together. It's similar to the cookies I've tried from Baking with Blondie in that they're meant to be huge, thick cookies and each recipe only makes a few of them. That works well for me.

For the taste test cookie, I drizzled warm, melted cookie butter over the cookie and stuffed half a Lotus Biscoff cookie into the top. So it's full-on cookie butter flavor. It bakes up as a dense cookie so it's not fluffy or cakey.

I'm not sure I like this one as much as the big, dense cookies from Baking with Blondie. It could just be this particular cookie or else I tried the taste test cookie when I was already over my sugar quota. It's good but I love cookie butter so much I think I just had high expectations.

Oh, and if you want to know where to get cookie butter emulsion, try Michaels. And don't forget to use one of their weekly coupons.

Oatmeal Pecan Cookies from Chelsea's Messy Apron

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - made November 29, 2022 from Chelsea's Messy Apron

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup oat flour (grind oats in blender then measure)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick oats)
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1. Cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, oat flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until just combined. Add in oats and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.
3. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly into thick discs. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough discs. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until edges are set and middles are barely past the raw stage. Let cool for a few minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

The original title for these were Oatmeal Pecan Cookies but I omitted the nuts (because you know how I feel about nuts in cookies) and used raisins and chocolate chips instead. I know, I know, I despise raisins even more in cookies than I do nuts but these weren't going to be for me and I wanted to try this recipe for oatmeal cookies. So I cheated. After I finished mixing the dough but before I added the raisins and chocolate chips, I took a scoop of "plain" dough and added chocolate chips. That was my test cookie. I added raisins and chocolate chips to the rest of the dough and we were off to the races.

The cookie itself was pretty good. The edges were crisp and the cookie was nice and chewy. They still spread more than I would've liked but it seems like most of my cookies have been baking flatter in the past few months, even tried and true recipes that normally baked up thick cookies. I'm starting to be convinced the butter is the culprit. Not only has butter gotten more expensive but I suspect they've also become more watered down. There's NO WAY all of my previously tried recipes that used to be thick are now always spreading thin. It's a little annoying. #firstworldproblem. At least the taste is still good on each one. But butter makers, I see you and what you're doing to increase prices and cut quality at the same time. Boo.

Anyway, back to this cookie. If you like a good oatmeal raisin (or pecan or chocolate chip) cookie, this is a good one to try. You want to bake them just until the edges are golden and caramelized and the middles look just barely past the raw stage. Remember the cookies will continue baking on the hot cookie sheet until you transfer them to a wire rack so don't leave them too long in the oven.

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies from Pastry and Beyond

Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies - made November 20, 2022 from Pastry and Beyond

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup (150 grams) unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup (60 grams) unsulphured molasses

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter and sugar. Whisk to combine. Add egg and whisk to combine. Add molasses and whisk to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients in two additions, stirring until just combined after each addition.
5. Portion dough into balls and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 8-9 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest on baking sheets for 15 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

It's that time of year when I attempt to make the flavors of the season. Since I'm not an eggnog person nor do I care for peppermint unless it's gum, I usually default to something along the lines of a ginger molasses cookie.

I'm not big on a strong molasses flavor but I don't mind the spices that go into a ginger molasses cookie (namely the ginger and cinnamon, I can take or leave cloves). To keep my care packages for Soldiers Angels somewhat in keeping with the season, I tried out this recipe from Pastry and Beyond.

I did a rookie mistake though and misread the directions to melt the butter. Instead, I beat it from solid form to incorporate with the sugars and into the dough. As you can see from the pictures, that mistake didn't seem to have done the cookies any harm and they turned out quite well: not too much spread. good chewy texture and a "warm" flavor without being too spicy.

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