Homemade Oreos
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Why would I make oreos if I can just buy them?
Because homemade oreos are better, duh! Why? Because:
-You can pronounce every ingredient that goes in them
-You can create any flavour you’d like! (I have some suggestions below…)
-You can choose your own filling:cookie ratio (double stuff? TRIPLE stuff???)
And they’re fun to make!
Do I need any special ingredients?
Most of the ingredients you need for these are pretty common, and you probably have most of them in your pantry already, except one:
Black cocoa powder. This is what makes Oreos that really dark chocolate, almost black colour. You probably won’t be able to find it at your regular grocery store. If you’re in Canada, Bulk Barn sells black cocoa powder. If not, there are several options on Amazon!
Here’s your full grocery list:
Salted butter
Granulated Sugar
Eggs (2)
All Purpose Flour
Baking Powder
Cream Cheese (the kind that comes in a block, not a tub)
Icing Sugar
Tips & Tricks for making & rolling the dough:
This dough is based off of my roll-out sugar cookie recipe, so I’m including all of my tips & tricks for rolling out the dough from that recipe here.
First, your butter should be at room temperature. If it’s really warm where you are, you might need to put your butter in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes before starting. If your butter is too warm, your cookie dough is going to be hard to work with.
If you make the dough and it turns out soft and sticky, don’t fret! Place the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes at a time until it is easier to work with.
The dough itself is pretty straightforward to make, just follow the recipe below! As always, make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature before starting.
Now, for rolling!
I like to roll my dough for these about 1/4” thick. You can really roll your dough however thick you want, you’ll just need to adjust baking times accordingly.
I like to use a rolling pin that is not tapered and has no handles, like this one. I find that it is much easier to get an even thickness with this type of rolling pin. If you are struggling with getting an even thickness, you can try a rolling pin like this one which has adjustable bands that help you get an even thickness. I personally don’t like the ones with bands because it limits how much dough you can roll out at once, but if it helps you, I say go for it!
Here’s my process for rolling out my dough:
I would probably roll out this whole recipe of dough at once, but you might want to start with half or 1/3 until you get the hang of it!
So, first sprinkle flour on your work surface, then take a chunk of dough (however much you are comfortable with) and put it on your work surface and squish it into a fat rectangle-ish shape (it doesn’t have to perfect). Then pick it up, re-flour your work surface, put it down and lightly flour the top of your dough and start rolling. After a few swipes with your rolling pin, spin your dough 180 degrees (you should have enough flour down on your work surface to enable you to do this). Continue this process, sprinkling small amounts of flour under or on top of your dough as needed and continuing to turn your dough every few swipes to make sure it’s not sticking to your work surface until you have your dough at your desired thickness.
Once it looks like a good thickness to you, run your hand over the surface of the whole piece of dough to feel if there’s any high or low spots, and even out the thickness with your rolling pin. It also helps to get down at eye level with your dough to check out the thickness.
Now, give the top of your dough a final sprinkle of flour (not too much!) and rub it in, and you are ready to cut out your cookies!
I used the 1.75” fluted circle cutter from this set of fluted circle cutters. 1 recipe will make about 50 Oreos.
Do you want to make your Oreos different flavours?
The picture I have at the top of this blog post has regular, Strawberry, Chocolate, and Mint Oreos in it!
For the regular, just follow the recipe below.
For Strawberry Oreos: Use freeze dried strawberry powder. Add it to your filling to taste. I did about 2 TBSP of freeze dried strawberry powder for 1 batch of the Oreo filling.
For Chocolate Oreos: Melt high quality (couverture or chopped up chocolate bar) chocolate (I prefer semisweet or dark chocolate - milk chocolate might be too sweet) and add it to your filling. I usually add chocolate at a 15% ratio. So, if I have 100g of filling, I would add 15g of melted chocolate to it.
For Mint Oreos: Add about 1/2 tsp of a natural Mint extract or flavouring to one batch of filling. Taste and add more until it tastes as minty as you’d like it to be. You can also add a couple of drops of green food colouring if you’d like.
Ok, are we ready to make some homemade Oreos??
Here's the full recipe!
Homemade Oreos
Ingredients
- 340g (3 cups) All Purpose Flour
- 40g (1/3 cup) Black Cocoa Powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 215g (1 cup) Salted Butter (Room temperature)
- 210g (1 cup) Granulated Sugar
- 8g (1 1/2 tsp) Vanilla Extract
- 2 Large Eggs (Room temperature)
- 90g (6 1/2 TBSP) Cream Cheese (from a block, not a tub)
- 300g (1 1/2 cups) Icing Sugar
- 5g (1 tsp) Vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp Sea Salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375. Line a couple baking trays with parchment paper.
- Whisk together your flour, baking powder, and black cocoa powder in a small bowl.
- Put your butter & sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on medium speed with paddle attachment until all butter is incorporated into sugar and mixture is smooth.
- Crack your eggs into a pitcher or bowl and add vanilla.
- While mixer is running on medium speed, add your eggs one at a time, waiting after each addition for your eggs to incorporate and stopping the mixer and scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Stop the mixer and dump your flour mixture into the bowl. Change speed to low and mix until flour mixtre is just incorporated. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Remove bowl from mixer and finish mixing by hand to ensure that all ingredients are incorporated evenly (get down to the bottom of the bowl with your hands or a spatula or dump out dough and mix on counter)
- Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface to approximately 1/4" thick and cut out desired shapes (I used a 1.75" fluted circle cutter for my Oreo cookies). Set aside your already rolled scraps as you go so you are not re-rolling the same dough over and over. Once you are out of new dough, you can re-roll the scraps 1-2 times. (See post above for tips on rolling & cutting your dough!)
- Bake at 375 F for about 4-5 minutes, until cookies are no longer shiny on top. Rotate your tray halfway through if your oven does not bake evenly.
- Place the tray on a wire rack to let the cookies cool completely.
- While your cookies are cooling, make your filling.
- Put your cream cheese in a micrawave safe bowl and soften it in the microwave for 15-30 seconds. You want it to be very soft, but not melted.
- Add your icing sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat with a hand mixer (or in the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment) until the filling is smooth and fluffy.
- Take your cooled cookies and separate them into pairs. Flip one side of each pair upside down and use a piping bag with a large round tip (or a large hole cut in the tip) to pipe the filling onto each upside down cookie. Top each with it's pair and squish down slightly.
- Store your Oreos at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or in the freezer in an airtight container for several months.
Notes
- Weight measurements are the most accurate, so I suggest using the weight measurements if you have a kitchen scale. I have included volume measurements for anyone who does not have a kitchen scale, however, results may vary.
- The filling crusts quickly, so work quickly to put the other cookie on top of the filling before it dries or they won’t stay stuck together. Alternatively, you can fill just a few at a time, then put the second cookie on top of those before filling your next few.
- These cookies do not need to be refrigerated, even though there is cream cheese in the filling. There is enough sugar for them to be stored at room temperature without any issues. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
- If you want to make double or triple stuff Oreos, you will need to double or triple the filling recipe accordingly.
- See the blog post for aditional flavour ideas for your Oreo filling!
