oreoooooooos

So since I have celiac and nut allergies (awesome combo *sarcasm*) I haven't had oreos in nine years. That's half of my freaking life! All of the gluten free oreo alternatives have nuts, or at least traces of them. So I've been missing out on delicious chocolaty goodness this whole time! And yesterday I made my own! So. Freaking. Tasty. I asked people if they tasted like real oreos, cause I can't remember what they taste like, and dominick said that he didn't feel as bad eating these. And Garrett said that these were closer to delicious cookies than oreos. And I'll take that!
For those of you that are gluten-free and saw this on another blogging site, I have included the original gluten-full recipe. However, I made these gluten free with Jules Gluten Free Flour. (Try it! It's awesome! 1:1 replaceable with real flour!)

So here's how you make 'em!

cookies

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup dutch process cocoa (or unsweetened cocoa)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1-1 1/2 cups sugar (I used 1 1/2 and it was prettttty sweet)

1 1/4 sticks of room temperature, sweetened butter

1 large egg

Icing

1/2 stick room temperature butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Ok, so the recipe recommends using a food processor or a mixer, but alas! I am a poor college student and I have neither of those. So a whisk works fine too. With a whisk/food processor/mixer combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Next add the butter and egg and whisk/blend it until it forms together.

Put rounded teaspoons of batter onto a lined baking sheet about two inches apart. Preferably you would be using parchment paper, but I found that foil with a bit of shortening on it works fine too. Put some water on your hand so that your fingers won't stick to the dough and press the rounds of batter flat. Not too much, just slightly.

The recipe I had said to bake for 9 minutes at 375F, but all the ones I did like that burned. So what I recommend is making one batch following the directions and see how it goes. I ended up lowering the temperature to about 350 and baking them for 5-7 minutes. Just keep an eye on 'em. After they're done, set them on a rack to cool.

To make the filling, blend togther the butter and shortening. Then slowly add the sugar and vanilla. When I did this, it didn't make a very cohesive icing, so I added about a tablespoon of hot water and that worked out perfectly.

When all the cookies are baked and the icing is done, it's time to put them together! Find two cookies that are about even in size and using a pastry bag/ziplock bag/spoon, put about 1/2-1 tbsp of icing in the middle of one cookie. Then gently press the other cookie on top and squish them together.

YUM now you have oreos.

Come back in two days, because I will be making cookies and cream cupcakes with these homemade oreos! Also, don't forget about the new poll in the side bar!

XOXO

Natalie