Homemade OREOS

A good friend of mine planted the idea in my head for these made-from-scratch oreos. When it comes to cookies, oreos aren't my first choice, but I certainly don't turn my nose up at them! In fact, once I eat one, it is hard to stop. My mission to make our household chemical free is all about being healthy - and I think an important part of being healthy is letting yourself indulge in something you love in moderation. Given that these are made from scratch I feel completely comfortable serving them to my family and having one or two (or three or four) myself. I love sweets, and so does my family - they are good for our souls!

I used this recipe from My Baking Addiction. If you have made a cut out sugar cookie before, you can make these.

First, you have to make sure the hinge on your mixer works. Lift it up and put it down several times. Unplug the mixer and make sure all the knobs work for the speed changes. This very important job is best performed by a toddler.

Then make the cookie dough like any other cookie - creaming the sugar and the butter, adding the egg and vanilla, and then the dry ingredients.

Due to my dirty-dish phobia, I don't combine my dry ingredients in a separate bowl. I just throw them all in there and they come out fine every time. Then you make two discs out of your dough and refrigerate them for a while - I think I let mine sit for a couple hours.

One chilled, roll them out. The thickness of your cookie is preference. My husband liked the really thin cookies, and I prefer the ones that are a little thicker. If you want them exactly like an oreo you'll have to just use your best judgement - they don't spread in the oven so the thickness you roll them is the thickness they will be. I tried to use as little flour as possible - but I also didn't want the dough to stick.

I just used an little baby food container to make my circles. Then into the oven for 12 minutes.

Then you have your nice crunchy chocolate cookie part. They did lose some of their crunch over the course of a week of being filled with the icing, but you know, they ARE homemade.

The icing was a simple buttercream recipe, but a little thicker - so just more powdered sugar and less milk or cream.

I put the filling in a bag and cut the tip off just to make the application easier.

Then just make a sandwich! The filling will firm up a little more as it sits for a bit.

I think about half of these were gone the first day they were made. The rest we stretched out for a week. They would make an awesome gift - and you can make the filling colorful if you wanted them to be for a holiday or babyshower or whatever!