Homemade Oreo Cookies

Homemade Oreo Cookies have dominated the blogoshphere lately, and they have gotten such rave reviews that I had to give them a try.



And you know what? All those bloggers were right. These things are fantastic. I’m a long-time lover of Oreos, but the homemade version is better, much, much better. The filling is a perfect copy-cat of the Oreo filling but the homemade cookie wafers are sweeter, slightly softer and so much better than the originals.

The cookie dough is just basic stuff: flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, sugar all whisked together, and then add the butter and eggs to form a soft dough.


Next form the cookies dough into round balls and flatten. I used a small tablespoon size ice-cream scooper to get cookies of a uniform size, but this made the cookies too big. The guests at the party wouldn’t take a whole sandwich cookie, everyone cut it in half and took just one piece. BUT I did notice that within seconds of tasting the cookie everyone, and I mean everyone, came back and scooped up their second half.

Also be warned: during baking these cookies spread A LOT. Leave lots of space between the cookies. My first batch spread so much that the cookies had to be cut apart. They also come out very flat. When they first come out of the oven they are nice and puffy, but they soon deflate. I kinda like the look of the puffy cookies (I wish they would have stayed like that), but they look more like the real thing once they had flattened.


The cookie filling was easy too. Typical buttercream frosting. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to use a clear vanilla extract. The regular brown stuff gave the filling a slightly ecru, off-white color.



And I didn’t put enough filling in between the cookies. :(
I was afraid I would run out so I was a little consertative with my filling swirls.



I ended up with about half the filling left over. Next time I’ll really load them up with filling and make Double Stuff Homemade Oreo Cookies. Yummm…

---

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Ingredients:

For the chocolate wafers:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa (the special dark gives the cookies a very dark color)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (sweetened to your liking)
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg

For the filling:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
3. Add the butter, and then the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
4. Take about 2 teaspoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place balls on parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. Important: the cookies spread a lot so make sure you separate them by 2 inches. With damp fingers, slightly flatten the dough ball into a disk. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
5. To make the filling: Cream together butter and shortening. At a low speed gradually add the sugar and then the vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
6. To assemble the cookies: Scoop the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip. Pipe a circular swirl on one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream and press the two cookie together.
7. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk.
   

Condensed Milk Pound Cake - Disaster

Do you ever get the feeling that you have forgotten something important?


Not something monumental like forgetting you kid at daycare, but something embarrassing (and expensive) like leaving the lawn sprinklers on all night. It's funny how the mind works. You remember that you forgot something, but not what you forgot. Talk about irony.

Well that is how I felt Saturday afternoon in my pre NFL Superbowl baking frenzy. I was trying out a new recipe for Condensed Milk Pound Cake and the whole time I was mixing the batter I had this nagging suspicion that something was wrong. The batter came together easily, but it just didn't look right. I thought my anxiety might be over the eggs (the egg whites had looked goopier than normal).


But they passed the "sniff" test and the finished batter looked and tasted fine.


In the end I ignored the "some thing's not right" feeling, poured the batter into the pan, and started baking.

It hit me about 15 minutes later: SUGAR.

I had forgotten to add the 1/2 cup of sugar that the recipe called for. Damn, damn, damn.

It was too late the pull the batter out of the oven, and I didn't have another can of condensed milk to start the pound cake over. Did I already say damn? Damn. Note to self, if you feel like you have forgotten something, YOU HAVE.

Stop, take a breather and review the recipe. Mother Nature gave you those instincts for a reason, girly.

Anyway, here is the finished pound cake. It looked okay, but it was definitely not sweet enough to be called dessert. But all was not lost. Once I slathered it with icing (leftover from my Geaux Saints Sugar Cookies) my low-sugar pound cake tasted just fine.

Geaux Saints -More (good luck) Sugar Cookies

I know, I know... More Saints Sugar Cookies, but I've come to believe that they bring good luck.

And I BELIEVE...



I BELIEVE the Saints can win the SUPERBOWL!

Go Saints!

Bless you Boys!

Who Dat!

Who dat say they gonna beat them Saints?!

Who Dat!

TWD: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

This week' assignment at Tuesdays with Dorie was one of my favorite so far: Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes. Chocolate batter, chocolate filling, chocolate topping, could a chocoholic ask for anything more?

But I do have one gripe---where is the line between fudgy cake and brownies? This dessert is called "cake", but I found it very brownie-like in consistency. It was dense and crumbly with a wet, fudgy layer. The taste was out of this world (I ate two of those little suckers myself), but my analytical mind wants to know: is it a cake or is it a brownie?



The recipe instructions start out with the filling. Simply whisk the nuts, sugar, and cocoa until combined.



Next melt the milk chocolate and allow to cool. The recipe calls for 7 oz of milk chocolate, but I had read some of the messages on TWD that the cakes weren't chocolaty enough so I used 5 oz of milk chocolate and 2 oz of special dark chocolate. The recipe also calls for "premium" chocolate, but I just used run-of-the-mill Hershey bars. Call me unsophisticated, but I love the way Hershey taste.



The batter was quick and easy to combine, but very thick, almost like cookie dough in texture. Here it is after the flour was added, but before the chocolate.



Chocolate!!!!!



The addition of the melted chocolate thinned the batter somewhat, but not a whole lot.



Next came the assembly. Batter, filling, batter. I should also mention that I search in 4 different stores and couldn't find the 6-cavity mini Bundt pan that Dorie used. I found a 12-cavity Bundt, but not a 6-cavity. In the end I used a jumbo muffin pan. The end product wasn't as cute as Dorie's but my family didn't seem to care.



Just out of the oven. I baked my muffins for 20 minutes, but I think they would have been perfect at 19 minutes.



The one issue I had with the recipe was the "Glaze", which was just chocolate and corn syrup. Sounds easy enough, but mine didn't work. Chocolate seizer set in as soon as I put the corn syrup into the warm chocolate. Yikes! I tired reheating the supposed glaze, but it just got even harder.


But a lot of other bakers at TWD had the same problem with the glaze, so I didn't feel completely foolish. In the end I just whipped up some ganache and squeezed it on top of my mini cakes.


So all-in-all another tasty Dorie recipe. I haven't had one fail yet.

DB - Nanaimo Bars

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and http://www.nanaimo.ca/.

---
Thanks, Lauren, for selecting a unique baking challenge. My baking horizons have expanded tremendously since joining the Daring Bakers.

Lauren of Celiac Teen gave us the option of baking gluten-free or regular wheat graham wafers. I opted to make the regular flour graham crackers. The cracker dough came together nicely, but I had a lot of trouble cutting and lifting the sticky dough off the rolling surface. In the end I fell back on my sugar cookie method: 1) roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper 2) chill the dough till it is stiff 3) cut out the shapes from the half frozen dough. No mess, no sticking, no problem.

Here is the dough just out of the frig. Stiff as a piece of plywood.



The Nanaimo Bar itself was a little time consuming to assemble, but nothing that a Daring Baker couldn't handle.

The bottom layer was the most involved. The first step was to bake graham wafers/crackers. I've never considered myself a lover of graham crackers, but these things were good. They tasted like thin, crispy honeyed shortbread cookies.



I also cut a few crackers in the shape of Fleurs de lis.

Geaux Saints!!

Next stop Miami and the Super Bowl !!!

Back to the Nanaimo Bars... next the cocoa, butter and sugar where melted together and then an egg was added to the mix as a thickener.

Next add the graham cracker crumbs, nuts and coconut to the chocolate mix.


And dump it all into the pan and let it cool.


The middle layer was a mix of butter, vanilla pudding mix, milk and powdered sugar that was beat until smooth.
I had a little problem spreading the custard layer (it was thick and not at all custard-like), but I just used my fingers to gently push the custard around without disturbing the chocolate crust layer underneath. Added bonus I got to lick all the custard off my fingers.

The top layer was just a thin layer of melted chocolate.



So all-in-all another fun and tasty Daring Baker Challenge, but if I had to describe Nanaimo Bars in one word it would be "sweet". If I make them again I would change a few things to better suit my tastes. For the crust (bottom layer), I would reduce the amount of sugar by half, use unsweetened coconut (sweetened coconut was just too much sugar), and increase the amount of graham cracker crumbs. I would also add some vanilla extract to the custard layer to punch up the flavor.

The recipes selected for Daring Baker's is always interesting and challenging, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us in February.

The Smallest Saints Fan

Weighing in at 3 1/2 pounds, Peanut, has to be one of the smallest New Orleans Saints fan around. I had a cute little Saints sweater for her to wear, but she ran away every time she saw it. She is definitely not a fashionista.

Geaux Saints - Graham Crackers

I needed to bake some graham crackers for a dessert I’m assembling and I decided to make Fleur de lis graham crackers instead of plain-Jane rectangle ones.

Geaux Saints!!



I also wanted to redeem my self for the color mix-up of last week. So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some GOLD icing. Ohhh it’s sparkly too…



Now I’m not a big fan of graham crackers (I more of a shortbread kinda girl) but these things were tasty. Almost like thin shortbread cookies with a hint of cinnamon.

Delicious.

So....

So tomorrow is the big NFC Championship Game (January 24, 2010): New Orleans Saints vs Minnesota Vikings in the Superdome at 5:40 pm central time.

I hope the Saints win.

I pray that the Saints win.

I don’t want to be unsportsmanlike, but I want Brett Favre to get sacked 10 tens and throw 5 interceptions. I want the Vikings to lose, lose, lose.

Here is the Saints latest fight song: Stand Up and Get Crunk. It sure does get the blood pumping.

Geaux Saints!

Who Dat!

One more win and we are off to Miami.

Please, please, please, please…

Update:

Yahoooooo.....

We're going to the SUPER BOWL!!!!!

Saints: 31, Vikings: 28

---

Graham Crackers

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup honey

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, and honey. Mix on medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute.

In two additions, add the dry ingredients, letting the first fully incorporate before you add the second.

Divide the dough in half. Place the first half between two sheets of parchment paper, and roll into a rectangular shape about 1/8 or 1/4" thick. Roll out the second half of dough between two additional sheets of parchment paper. Refrigerate the dough sheets for about 15 minutes until stiff. Note: The dough is much easier to cut if it is very cold and stiff.

Remove the dough sheets from the refrigerator and peel off the top sheet of parchment paper. Cut the graham cracker dough into the desired shape.

Using a fork, prick the top of the dough in several places.

In a preheated 350 degree F oven, bake the crackers for 12-15 minutes or until then are golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

Geaux Saints - Sugar Cookies

Geaux Saints !!!

I won a pair of tickets to the New Orleans Saints' Divisional Game in the Superdome, and in honor of the occasion I baked some Fleur De Lis Sugar Cookies. Don't tar and feather me, but I didn’t have any gold food color so I had to use orange. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'll get some gold for next week's game. (see my second attempt here)

I also didn’t realize (until I got to the Dome and saw the big Fleur De Lis on the playing field) that the Saint’s color scheme was actually Gold-White-Black and not White-Gold-Black like I made my cookies. Silly me.



The recipe I use for cut out sugar cookies is called "No Fail Sugar Cookies - NFSC" and is very similar to the recipe that Toba Garrett uses in her books and in her classes. The cookie dough has to be chilled before cutting out the shapes and again before baking, but that is a small price to pay for a sugar cookies that hold even the most intricate shapes. But the best part is... They taste really, really good.




No Fail Sugar Cookies – NFCS

Ingredients

3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking power
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Instructions:

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Mix for another 2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together baking powder, salt and flour. Add the flour mixture 1 cup at a time to the butter mixture, blend at medium-low speed. Blend in the last cup of flour by hand. Do not overmix or the cookies will be tough.

Place about half the dough between two sheet of parchment or wax paper. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness (1/8 – 1/4"). Place in the refrigerator. Roll out the second half of the dough between more wax paper. Place in refrigerator. Chill both sheets of dough for 15 minutes or until it feels stiff. Note: the stiffer the dough is, the easier it is to cut out the intricate cookie shapes.

Remove one sheet of dough at a time and cut out the cookies. Placed the cutout cookies on an ungreased parchment lined cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet into the refrigerator and chill for 10 minutes. This step is not absolutely necessary, but I found that the cookies hold their shape better if they are cold when they are place in the oven. Re-roll leftover dough scraps and repeat the processes.

Bake at 350 degrees F (preheated and stabilized) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to turn brown.

---

Here are a few more pictures from the Saints vs the Cardinals in the Dome. I had a blast. Love ya guys. Deuuuuuuuce!! Reggieee, Reggieee, Reggieee! WHO DAT! WHO DAT!

Outside the Dome it was a sea of Black & Gold...


But there were a few Cardinals fans (just a few)...


The Saints are on the field...


The Half-Time Show...


A few of the fans...


Some fans showed their support for Deuce McAllister who is/was a favorite of the "Who Dat Nation". Deuce McAllister was released from the Saints' roster in February 2009, and re-signed on Friday January 15, 2010. Friday afternoon our office was abuzz with rumors that Deuce was coming back. A few hours later, when the news was confirmed, the offices halls were filled with the resonating call of “Deuuuuuuce”.


Game Over. Saint's - 45, Cardinals - 14. Bless you Boys.


Leaving the Dome..

See ya next week at the Dome.

Who Dat!!!

Geaux Saints!!!

See ya in Miami!!!

I hope...

TWD: Sables

I wanted to catch up on some TWD assignments that I had skipped for one reason or another, so yesterday I baked a batch of Sables (page 131-133 of Dorie Greenspan: Baking From My Home To Yours).

Can I say WOW!

Sables, oh Sables where have you been hiding all my life? Buttery, crumbly, and melt in your mouth good. These little gems were a cross between shortbread and sugar cookies and for added oomph they were encrusted in crunchy grains of coarse sugar. Delicious.

My pictures don't the cookies justice, but believe me they tasted amazing. I devoured/inhaled five cookies in less than two minutes. Yikes, a minute on the lips, a life time on the hips.

The cookies were really easy to mix. Just lightly blend the butter and sugars, and then add the egg yolks.


Next dump the flour in all at once, and mix just until incorporated. According to Dorie, the secret to light, crumbly Sables is not to over mix the flour.


Roll the dough into a log and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. I left mine in the refrigerator overnight and the log was as hard as a brick when I took it out. Brush the log with whisked egg yolk, which acts like glue, and then coat with coarse sugar.


Slice the log into 1/3 inch cookies and bake on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheets for 17-20 minutes at 350 degrees F.


I only baked my cookies for 14 minutes and I had a problem with the edges of the cookies browning too much.


I also noticed that on some of the cookies, the decorating sugar slid off as the cookies baked. I think I used too much egg wash, and, yuck, the pure yolk gule left a yellow film on the side of the cookies that was still visible even after baking. Next time I'll use a milk wash instead of yolks, and I'll squish the coarse sugar firmly into the side of the dough log. I'll also lower the oven temperature to 325, and bake on a baker's stone instead of a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Hopefully I can get the outside of the cookies to look as perfect as the inside tastes.