So I'm reading
Alexis' blog and, shockingly, (not so if you've read it) develop an the itch to bake. AND I've got the perfect excuse (and a place to take all said baking instead of eating it ALL BY MYSELF--another tip from Alexis)--Audrey's annual 4th of July Crab Party. Since my local orchard stand has a sign up for sour cherries, of course I'm going to make something with them. The season is oh-so-short and I think they're my second favorite fruit for desserts. But something else caught my eye on the blog and a good Jewish girl always brings something chocolate, so I tried a recipe for--
Homemade Oreos!
Now I know you're all "WHAAA??" and "Why the hell would you MAKE THEM when you can buy a pack for $3.99 AND get double-stuffed?" but I love the idea of making something homey (read: all-natural) and I LOVE Oreos and I was bored after being locked in a house for almost 2 weeks with a kid with a summer cold.
adding softened butter to the chocolatey goodness
And they were really really worth it. OY. Crispy but a little chewier than *real* Oreos, with a more buttery filling (with no trans fats, thank you very much, thanks to
this), and THANK THE LORD, they were so rich that even I couldn't eat more than two at a sitting (and this from a girl who once ate an entire package of the store-bought over the course of an hour. Yuck.).
Dutched cocoa is key to the almost black dough. No fancy kind here for *authenticity*Are they a tad fussy? NO! Honest to g-d. The only special piece of equipment I would suggest you definitely use is a pastry bag because if you use it, the filling looks so good--you know, like it's squashed down perfectly even all around. If you're either a) a retard like me with a spatula or b)a somewhat type A person like me when it comes to stuff like this, you'll thank me for the suggestion.
balls of dough ready for the oven after flattening them with the bottom of a glass sprayed with Pamfinished cookie discs (cracky tops) awaiting their creamy filling Two things I did that the recipe didn't specify are refrigerating the panned balls of dough (so that they were easier to flatten) and I also flipped the baked cookies and filled them so that
the outside was on the inside. Huh?! Just bake your cookies and you'll see--the tops of the cookies are a teeny bit puffy and cracky. I simply put that part on the inside of the sandwich cookie so that the outside of the finished cookie was flat like the real thing. Check out the recipe
here. Smitten Kitchen is an awesome site for fab food pics and recipes that deliver.
*I know this name sounds like some kind of homosexual/urban lingo derivative, but my 12 year old son thought of it all by himself without a hint of irony.