Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (Homemade Oreos)
84 comments » 
One word: Amazing. If you have any affinity for Oreo cookies at all, you will happily devour these without looking back. Two chocolate wafer cookies that sandwich a vanilla cream between them – if you close your eyes you may not even notice that they didn’t come out of a blue package. Well, that’s not entirely true. They are better because they’re homemade, of course. The familiar chocolate wafer packs an insane amount of richness and a perfectly balanced flavor, thanks to the use of Dutch-processed cocoa powder. And the vanilla cream in the middle? The texture is perfect and you can easily twist these apart just like you did when you were a kid. Whether you lick off the cream the middle, eat one side at a time, or dunk the whole thing in milk, one thing is certain: you will absolutely enjoy eating these. You’ll feel like a kid again, all while enjoying a grown-up, non-processed version of a favorite cookie.
The original recipe for these cookies includes a white chocolate ganache filling for the middle, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I wanted more of a replica of the nostalgic cookies, and I didn’t think that a ganache filling would fit the bill. Instead, I put together a simple vanilla buttercream with a slightly stiff consistency to make the filling more along the lines of what you would find in the middle of those oh-so-addicting cookies. It turned out perfect and I can imagine these will be cookies that I’ll be making again and again. My grandfather has always been a huge fan of Oreos (remember when I made him the Oreo birthday cake?), so I can’t wait for him to try one and see what he thinks.
I am submitting this recipe to the first roundup of Gourmet, unbound, which is a collaborative project celebrating Gourmet Magazine’s 68 years of publication. Each month, participating bloggers will cook, adapt and write about a Gourmet recipe from that month’s issue of any year of the magazine. For this first December roundup, I made these chocolate sandwich cookies, which were adapted from a recipe that was originally featured in the December 2007 issue.
Reminder: You still have a couple of days left to enter the giveaway for the set of Crofter’s Superfruit Spreads. Head on over to the Empire Cookies post to get the details on how to enter.
More Sandwich and Chocolate Cookies:
Empire Cookies
Chocolate-Pistachio Biscotti
Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies
No-Bake Cookies
Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (Homemade Oreos)
Yield: About 3 dozen sandwich cookies
Prep Time: 1 hour (active) 2 hours 20 minutes (inactive)
Cook Time: 10 to 12 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients:
For the Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extractFor the Filling:
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extractGarnish: Decorative sugar (optional)
Directions:
1. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in yolk and vanilla. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms. Divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6-inch square, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, 2 to 3 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
4. Roll out 1 piece of dough between sheets of parchment paper into a 14x10-inch rectangle (1/8-inch thick). Slide dough in parchment onto a tray and freeze until dough is firm, about 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.
5. Cut out as many rounds as possible from first chilled square with a 2-inch fluted or round cutter, reserving and chilling scraps, then quickly transfer cookies to a buttered baking sheet, arranging them ½ inch apart. (If dough becomes too soft, return to freezer until firm.)
6. Sprinkle half of cookies with decorative sugar (if using), then bake cookies until baked through and slightly puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on sheet on rack for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely (cookies will crisp as they cool).
7. Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps (re-roll only once).
8. To make the filling, beat the butter and shortening together at medium speed until combined and smooth. Reduce the speed to low and gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Increase the speed to high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until the filling is light and fluffy.
9. To assemble the cookies, pipe a heaping teaspoon of filling onto the flat side of the plain cookies. Top with the sugared cookies to make sandwiches. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
(Adapted from Gourmet, December 2007)
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I love that you changed the filling – I think I’d like that filling better than white chocolate, too. They are so pretty and look delicious. These are a Christmas baking must!
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What size cookies cutters did you use? And if you could let me know how many completed cookies this batch made? Thanks! They look delicious, I may try these this weekend!
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Hi Carrie, whoops, sorry about those omissions! I have edited the recipe above to include them. You will get about 3 dozen cookies out of this recipe, and I used a 2-inch fluted cutter (you could also just use a plain round).
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Oh, yum! So gonna make these. Homemade Oreos = amazingness!
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Love homemade Oreos! I have made some before and they beat out the boxed kind BIG TIME!
Yours look delicious and the pictures are brilliant, as usual!
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These look wonderful! Both of my kids love Oreos. I bet they’d think it was super cool if we made them ourselves. I will have to give this recipe a try. Thanks!
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Those look fantastic!! Stick one in the mail to me!!
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Thanks for posting this recipe! I can’t wait to bake these!!
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Ohhhhh myyyyy!!!! Those look amazing, I bet they are awesome!
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These are not only beautiful, but they look delicious! I’d love to make my own “Oreos!”
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Well, these look amazing! Can’t wait to try them! Or, you could send me some …
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Wow, these look unbelievably good. I’m saving the recipe to my holiday cookie file.
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These look lovely! Didn’t get my act together for this month’s Gourmet Unbound but will do next month!
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These look great! Do you think the baked cookies would freeze well for a couple weeks? (Without the icing?)
I bet it would be cute to color the middle red/green for Christmas!
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How often do you bake? Daily?
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I *love* Oreos and can’t wait to try these. Since I’m hosting a cookie exchange on Saturday, this might be the perfect time. Thanks!
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and yet another fab one – great looking sandwich cookie and I know it is better that it looks, if that is possible…
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Great recile that brings back so many memories of being a kid, and dunking my oreos until mushy, then making an oreo milkshake, well kinda….
Thanks for recreating the Oreo.
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Love these cookies… I think they look much, much better than Oreos!
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Another beautiful concoction!
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You have no idea how happy this post makes me! My grandma gave me a huge box of cute cookie cutters just this last weekend, what better way to break them in with a great recipe like this? I’m sure I’ll be making these in red and green for the next several weeks!
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Girl, it’s like one mind! I made this exact recipe a few weeks ago, used the same cookie cutter, and even stacked them similarly in my pic! I haven’t posted mine yet because I think I’m doing a comparison post. Craziness!
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oh no! another amazing recipe!! i just can’t keep up!
yummy! thanks for adding another to my list… can’t wait to make some!
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Oreos are one of my favorite cookies. I can’t wait to give these a try!!
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Wow. Can’t wait to try these!
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How yummy! Very nice!
Enjoy!
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I would probably skip the cream and eat them just like this!
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Oh pure LOVE! I was feeling uninspired for holiday baking and I may have to do this with a minor twist — add a bit of peppermint extract in the filling and maybe some red/white sprinkles or super-crushed peppermint candies for crunch. These cookies mean so many childhood memories for so many people!
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Oh boy. I am truly addicted to Oreo cookies and these look incredibly addictive! SO delicious though, I think it may just be worth the many many cookies I will surely end up eating
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Hi Heather,
Yes, I think the chocolate cookies would freeze just fine. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
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These look wonderful and are a great alternative to store bought ‘oreos’ Would love to have you consider submitting these or another cookie in Gourmet Girl Magazine’s Virtual Cookie Crawl. If you are interested check out the details here. http://kitchenrap.blogspot.com/2009/11/gourmet-girl-magazines-virtual-holiday.html
Congrats on making the Top 9
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What a fantastic idea! I’ve been searching for good chocolate cookies and these will be perfect to bake for a cookie exchange party next week. Great photography too, by the way! Congratulations!
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Great looking cookies. Love that they are not made from a box. Can’t wait to try them!
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I’ll be making these this weekend with my niece and nephew!
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Hi,
I was wondering about using a different flavor extract for the holidays and I’m a novice baker. I want to make pepperment cream. Should I replace one teaspoon vanilla extract with peppermint extract, or should I completely omit vanilla and replace it all with the mint? P.S. I saw this recipe on foodbuzz and It looks fabulous!
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Wow. I am for sure making these!!! They look amazing!!!
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Almost did an automatic clear out of this from my FoodBuzz inbox… what a mistake that would have been!!!
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I find biscuits very practical to make and as they are crispy I like eating them very much also. This is a great recipe, I will give it a try for sure.
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Looks amazing! am now drooling. Oh! Can i just ask? Are these chocolate sandwiches crunchy or the soft-ish?
Most of the homemade oreos i’ve encountered before were more on the soft side, like whoopie pies. How are these like? thanks!!
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My daughter and I made these yesterday. We had a great time making them, and they are amazing! The hardest part was not eating all the extra filling.
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Mine turned out terrible! I should have guessed that something was not right when I noticed that the dough was lighter in color than I expected. They were also too flaky and tasted bitter. I baked them on parchment paper on a shiny pan and used Ghiradelli cocoa. The filling was perfect, though. But where did I go wrong?
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I definitely have to try making these. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
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Hi Anna,
How great peppermint would taste for the holidays! Because peppermint extract is a bit more potent than vanilla, I would recommend using ½ teaspoon peppermint extract and totally omitting the vanilla. I would then do a taste test and if you want more flavor, add a ¼ teaspoon at a time. Enjoy the cookies!
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Hi Meg,
These are definitely crispy, which make them the perfect copycat cookie! I hope you enjoy!
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Hi Virginia,
I’m so sorry to hear that these didn’t turn out well for you. Since you say that they were flaky and tasted bitter I am wondering if perhaps there was not enough butter used? I am not sure about the off color, but Dutch-processed cocoa does produce a much deeper chocolate color. Do you know if your Ghiradelli cocoa is Dutch-processed? For those of you who have already made these, did you use regular cocoa powder or Dutch-processed? I can’t imagine what else could cause such a big disparity in results, assuming that there were no mistakes made with ingredient quantities.
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Do you think these would work okay with regular cocoa powder? I have no idea where to find dutch process outside of the internet.. I’ve searched to no avail! Also, do you think they store well wrapped up? I am sending some boxes of homemade goodies to some soldiers overseas for the holidays, so I am trying to find some good recipes that will make the trip!
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Hello!
I was wondering how long these save for and if you can freeze them for future use.
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Hi Kim – You can use regular cocoa powder, as it won’t affect the texture of the cookie, but it likely won’t have that same rich flavor that Dutch processed cocoa provides. These would definitely store well wrapped and shipped – what a wonderful thing to send these to soldiers!
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Hi Kayzilla – Once prepared, these cookies will keep for about 5 days. You could also make the chocolate cookies and freeze them, and then once thawed, fill them.
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Made these the other day. I dare say that these really do taste like the real oreos!
packed with goodness with out the chemicals and icky stuff commercial brands use! Will try filling them with diff’t kinds of fillings next time for more variety!
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this recipe..SMASHING!! simply brillant! i just made some. omg the frosting..u nailed it! amazing! <3
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These were on my to-bake list for the holidays but I didn’t get around to them because I thought they may be tricky. I don’t have the best track record with roll ‘em and cut ‘em cookies. But I wanted the for Valentine’s day, so this week I made a test batch to see if they would be okay. The test batch was just a 1/2 batch, and I was blown away. Not only is this the ONLY recipe I have EVER gotten to roll and cut decently, the flavor was amazing, and the filling was tasty! These are MUCH better than regular Oreo’s, and I am an Oreo fanatic. These are all I will be making from now on. And the possibilities are endless! Peanut butter or lemon filling, a color and shape for every holiday, I’m thrilled! Thank you for sharing this.
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Made these today and have eaten two and a half already (had a lonely one left over with no top). Not sure if I whipped the filling long enough as I couldn’t even squeeze it out of the bag. But, no complaints on taste! next time I’ll use pure Dutch cocoa as all’s I had was part Dutch.
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Hello!
i LOVE LOVE oreos and i was always wondering if you could make home-made ones.
(the store bought ones make me feel guilty)
i was wondering if you could sub. butter for the veg shortening in the filling?
i would love to make these but i’m afraid i won’t be able to get my hands on any vegetable shortening.
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These look so good! And so much better than the preservative-packed ones from the store!
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The stiff buttercream sounds like the perfect thing to fill these with. I’ll bet these beat the store-bought version by a mile.
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I definitely have to make these. My husband would go nuts over them!
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Made these tonight for the first time. Not being much of a baker myself, was amazed how they turned out
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Michelle on December 12th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Yay!! They’re super, right?!
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Phil on December 14th, 2010 at 12:15 am
yes!! Thanks for the ideas. Made several different cookies this weekend from your site to give as gifts. Thanks for the inspiration
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I made these today to give to co-workers. I tinted the filling red and green and they look so great! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
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Michelle on December 16th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Love the festive twist! I bet they’re gorgeous!
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Ok – I think I need some help!
When I made the cookies, the batter was so crumbly that I couldn’t roll it. I added two additional egg yolks, and I still couldn’t roll it out. So I formed the dough into little balls and pressed them down with the back of a glass. I got about 24 cookies doing this (which made only 12 oreos – a lot of work for such a small amount). What could I be doing wrong? I did use regular cocoa powder, but besides a difference in flavor, I don’t see how this would affect the texture of the cookies.
For the filling I used 1/4 cup butter instead of the shortening, and it came out so tasty! Like buttercream between two cookies! I just wish my cookies were more of a success!
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Michelle on December 17th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Hi Robin, Did you gather the dough together, form it into a square and chill it before you tried to roll it? It’s a little like pie crust where when first mixed it’s a little crumbly but then once squished together and chilled, you can roll it out easily.
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Robin on December 17th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Yep, I gathered the dough together (as best I could…it was almost acting like powder) and was able to form it into two balls. I chilled it for at least 3 hours, but when I went to roll it, it was as crumbly as when I started. The only thing that seemed to be helping the dough form any shape was the heat from my hand…so weird! Not sure what happened…I’ll have to attempt them again.
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I made these as part of a huge batch of christmas baking that I share to friends and family…except…these were so good that I refused to share any.
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Wow, do these look amazing. Speechless. I am going to have to get my wife to make these
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How do these keep? I’m planning to ship them across the country.
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Michelle on February 28th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Hi Rachel, They keep really well at room temperature. I would say they’re good for up to a week or so. You should be fine shipping them.
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I have a batch cooking in the oven right now! I also wanted to say that the dough can also be rolled into a log and then refrigerated, then just slice off the 1/8 in circles. Not as pretty as the fluted edges, but does speed up the process, and worked well when sub-ing in GF flour that doesn’t roll out as well. I also then just keep the dough log and frosting in the fridge/freezer and slice off a few as needed. Thanks again!
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This recipe is so amazing, I think is necessarily detailed and the fact that you changed the filling to something more economic and accessible is cool too.
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