Sometimes I am just not too bright, and I was cursing my stupid self about halfway through these! But, I couldn’t have been happier with the way they turned out. I turned the Oreo filling orange with a little food coloring which added to the Halloween spirit. Am I the only person who loves the orange cream filled Oreos? I swear they taste better than the real thing. Anyway, I split these up into two days with the cookies the first day (Saturday), the filling (Sunday), and then put them together Sunday.
Homemade Halloween Oreos (adapted from here)
Serves: 64 cookies (32 people)
Cookies
6 ounces salted butter, room temperature
7 1/2 ounces sugar
3 ounces brown sugar
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
8 ounces flour
6 ounces cocoa powder (+ more for rolling out)
Filling
4 ounces butter
10 ounces sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 drops yellow food coloring
4 drops red food coloring
Cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla extract, beating to combine. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Sift together the flour and cocoa and add it to the mixture. Using a wooden spoon, combine the dough (the mixture is very stiff*), mixing until uniform. Knead the dough into a ball and flatten it into a circle. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Sift some cocoa powder onto your work station. Roll the dough out into a large, thin (1/8 inch) sheet. Using a 2-inch round cookie cutter (I used a shot glass…what can you do?), cut as many circles as possible. Re-roll the scraps and make more circles. Transfer the circles onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool completely.
To make the filling, cream together butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat for about 5-8 minutes until the mixture is very white and fluffy. Add the red and yellow food dyes. Beat for an additional 2-3 minutes until the color is evenly distributed.
To make the Oreos, take a completely cooled cookie and on the flat side, drop 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle and top with another cookie (flat side down). Press evenly to distribute the filling. Repeat with each pair of cookies.
*Funny story: the last time I tried to mix a very stiff batter with my electric mixer. I heard a loud POP, saw some sparks, smoke, and that was the end of him, my little electric mixer. I finally got my Mom’s old one, so when I saw how stiff the batter was I decided to mix it by hand; just to avoid any mishaps!
Until the next time my oven is on…
