Photo by Holly Bell
Oreos and milk; how American can you get?
Of course as a maker and baker of a lot of kid's cakes I do love Oreos for their ability to imitate soil once whizzed up in a food processor.
But these homemade Oreos are not for that. Oh no, they're for dunking and munching. Two noble pursuits in the world of biscuit eating.
I made a video with the Scoff folks to show how to make these homemade Oreos. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now... on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
Makes 18
Ingredients:
For the biscuit dough:
- 225g salted butter
- 65g granulated sugar
- 255g plain flour
- 65g cocoa powder (NOT drinking chocolate!)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling:
- 120g salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g icing sugar
Beat together the butter and sugar with a mixer until very pale and fluffy - about 7 minutes in a stand mixer but longer if doing this by hand. Meanwhile sieve together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and stir well. Set aside. Add the yolk and vanilla to the butter mixture, beating well afterwards. Add the flour mixture in thirds, beating gently after each addition. Pull the biscuit dough together with your hands, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 3 hours.
Line 2 large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Roll the chilled dough between non-stick baking parchment to about 5mm thick and cut circles with a 6cm cutter. Arrange on the tray about 2cm apart and freeze on the tray for 10 minutes. (This will ensure the biscuits don't spread in the oven). Bake for 10 - 12 minutes then cool on the tray for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Beware that this biscuit dough is fragile so move carefully. (Repeat until all dough is used up being sure to keep the unused dough chilled whilst rolling and baking each batch of biscuits. Beware re-rolling dough more than twice as the biscuits will be tough).
Beat together the butter and vanilla extract with an electric mixer for 2 minutes until combined then add the icing sugar 1 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat at high speed for 4 minutes until the buttercream is really soft, pale and very creamy looking.
To assemble the homemade Oeros set up a production line pairing the biscuits by piping the buttercream in a circle onto one of the biscuits with a dot in the middle. Sandwich together immediately. Make sure to store in an air tight tin otherwise the Oeros with soften very quickly.
NB: To get these really dark coloured Oreo cookies I have found Green & Black's cocoa gives the best colour.
Holly blogs at Recipes from a Normal Mum
Her first book is out now, also called Recipes from a Normal Mum