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Homemade Oreos stacked on a plate

Homemade Oreos

Crisp homemade Oreo cookies made with regular unsweetened cocoa instead of black cocoa, filled with a butter and cream cheese frosting that isn't cloying. Makes 15 sandwich cookies.
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Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Chilling time 1 hour 50 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 55 minutes
Servings: 15 sandwich cookies
Course: Dessert, Snack
Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients
  

For the cookies
  • 120 g all-purpose flour 1 cup, spooned and leveled
  • 40 g natural unsweetened cocoa powder ½ cup, not Dutch-process, see note
  • 1.5 g baking soda ¼ tsp, optional, for color only
  • 75 g powdered sugar ⅔ cup
  • 2 g fine salt ⅓ tsp, table or fine sea salt
  • 90 g unsalted butter 6 tbsp + 1 tsp, cold from the fridge at 5-7 °C (40-45 °F), cut into 1 cm (½ inch) cubes
  • 15 g whole milk 1 tbsp, cold
  • 2 g vanilla extract ½ tsp
For the filling
  • 75 g unsalted butter 5 tbsp + 1 tsp, at room temperature, gives to the touch but not shiny
  • 110 g powdered sugar 1 cup, sifted
  • 2 g fine salt ⅓ tsp
  • 2 g vanilla extract ½ tsp
  • 70 g cream cheese 5 tbsp (2.5 oz), room temperature

Method
 

The cookies
  1. Stir the baking soda into a tablespoon of the flour in a small cup, so it disperses evenly.
  2. Combine the flour, cocoa, powdered sugar, salt and the baking soda mixture in a bowl. Sift everything into a second bowl, pressing any lumps through the mesh with the back of a spoon.
    Cocoa and powdered sugar in a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl
  3. Add the cold butter cubes and toss to coat. Cut the butter in with your fingertips, flattening each cube between your thumb and fingers, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Shake the bowl sideways every 30 seconds to bring any remaining butter pieces to the surface.
    Cold butter cubes scattered over sifted cocoa and flour in a bowl
  4. Scatter the cold milk and vanilla over the top in several spots. Stir, then press the mixture against the bottom of the bowl five or six times until it comes together. If it stays crumbly, add 5 g (1 tsp) of softened butter and press twice more.
    Hand holding the ball of chocolate cookie dough after pressing it together in the bowl
  5. Flatten the dough into a disc about 15 cm (6 inches) across and 2-3 cm (1 inch) thick, wrap it, and chill for 30 minutes.
    Dark cookie dough pressed into a disc, wrapped and ready to chill
  6. Roll 12 g balls, about 2 cm (¾ inch) across, and space them 3 cm (1¼ inches) apart on a lined baking sheet.
    Twelve gram balls of chocolate cookie dough on a lined baking sheet
  7. Flatten each ball with the flat base of a glass, pressing straight down without twisting, until they are 5-7 mm (¼ inch) thick. Dip the base in cocoa if it sticks.
    A flat-bottomed glass flattening a ball of dough into a disc
  8. Freeze the sheet for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170 °C (340 °F), conventional heat.
  9. Bake one sheet at a time on the center rack for 11 to 13 minutes. They're done when the surface turns from shiny to matte and the cookies no longer wobble when you move the pan.
  10. Let the sheet sit for 5 minutes, then move the wafers to a rack and cool completely, about 30 minutes.
    Baked chocolate wafers cooling on a wire rack
The filling
  1. Beat the 75 g of butter on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Scrape the bowl halfway through.
  2. Sift the powdered sugar and add it in two additions, starting on the lowest speed each time and raising it once incorporated. Scrape between additions.
  3. Add the salt and vanilla and beat for a minute. Add the cream cheese on low speed for 30 to 40 seconds, only until smooth.
    Cream cheese filling beaten pale and smooth in a mixing bowl
  4. Pipe or spoon a mound of filling onto half the wafers, leaving a ½ cm (¼ inch) border. Top with the remaining wafers and press straight down until the filling just reaches the edge.
    Piping a mound of filling onto a chocolate wafer, leaving a clear border
  5. Chill the assembled cookies for 30 minutes, in a single layer, before serving.
    Pressing the top wafer onto the filling until it reaches the edge

Video

Notes

  • Use natural cocoa, not Dutch-process. Check your label: if it says "processed with alkali" or lists potassium carbonate, it has already been alkalized, and you should skip the baking soda. In the US, Hershey's Natural Unsweetened is natural; Hershey's Special Dark is not. In Europe, most supermarket cocoa is already alkalized.
  • Oven temperatures: we bake these at 170 °C (340 °F). If your oven only works in 25-degree Fahrenheit steps, set it to 325 °F and start checking at 13 minutes.
  • Keep the butter cold the whole time you are cutting it in. If the mixture turns shiny or starts sticking to your fingers, chill the bowl for 15 minutes and carry on.
  • Use your fingertips only, never your palms. Fingertips are the coolest part of your hand and touch the least dough.
  • They come out of the oven soft, every time. The snap sets as they cool, not in the oven.
  • The cream cheese has to be at 18-20 °C (65-68 °F). Straight from the fridge it will split the filling into lumps that won't smooth out.
  • One standard US stick of butter is 8 tbsp or 113 g, so 90 g is just over three quarters of a stick.
  • UK and Ireland: powdered sugar is icing sugar, all-purpose flour is plain flour, baking soda is bicarbonate of soda, plastic wrap is cling film, and parchment paper is baking parchment.