Homemade Oreos

My daughter is like many children, a bit picky … but even with regards to cookies. She doesn’t like many, although she loves sweets things… anyway the few cookies she likes are unfortunately like most of the readymade cookies, made with palm oil. I am strongly against the use of palm oil so it doesn’t leave many options for my girl then… Since the beginning of the lockdown, I have, like many, change a lot of habits and ways I was doing prior the pandemic… One of those changes is that I cook more, main reason being I hate going to the supermarket (I always hated it but with covid-19 this has became a real issue for me); I also realise how easy and quick cooking and baking can be. So I ask my daughter to tell me what are the cookies and sweet treats she likes and offered her to find the best recipes online and try them all until we find the right one for us…

Here come the recipe inspired from Tasty.com
Ingredients for 40 cookies

COOKIES
1 cup unsalted butter (225 g), softened
1 cup unrefined sugar (200 g)
2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
2 cups spelt flour (250 g) – Spelt is a pure non-hybridized, nutritious ancient grain. It contains less gluten than conventional wheat. You can also use coconut flour.
1 ¼ cups dark cocoa powder (150 g)
½ teaspoon baking soda

CREAM FILLING
½ cup butter (115 g), softened
2 cups powdered sugar (240 g)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation
In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup (225 grams) of softened butter with the white sugar and salt, until light and fluffy.

1. Beat the eggs and the butter until fully incorporated.
2. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda into the mix and blend well.
3. Add all the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix together until combined.
4. Turn the dough out onto your surface and push together into a flat square. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Preheat your oven to 160˚C. we want a nice warm oven, not to high to no burn them.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge, and for ease of rolling out, divide the dough into 4 (this way the dough stays cool longer and prevents the need of re-chilling later on).
7. To roll out the dough, place a quarter of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper (alternatively the dough can be rolled out on a lightly floured surface – though the parchment is preferred as it prevents any additional flour from altering the colour/appearance of the dark cookies). Roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment to ½ cm thickness.
8. Use a small round cookie cutter or alternatively, use the rim of a champagne glass, it’s the perfect size! cut the dough into individual rounds and place on a large parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving at least 1¼ cm between each cookie.
9. Pack together and re-roll out any scraps to cut additional cookies. Repeat with this process with each remaining ¼ of the dough.
10. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. If baking multiple trays at the same time, be sure to rotate the pans in the oven halfway through. Remove and transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
    
    The filling:
11. To make the filling, combine ½ cup (115 grams) of butter, the iced sugar, and the vanilla extract in a medium mixing bowl. Beat together until light and fluffy.
12. Assemble the cookies by spreading a generous scoop of the icing onto one of the cookies and sandwiching it with another. Give it a light squeeze and scrape any excess off to clear and even out the sides.

Now enjoy!