A true labor of love...

My dear husband has been wanting cookies lately...we do not normally buy or make cookies, so I'm not sure where these said cookies would come from. But, because I love him, I decided to surprise him and make homemade "Oreo" cookies. I heard about a recipe for these through my lovely friend Karen over at Lovestoeat Weblog (check it out) and how wonderful they were...so bingo! these were the cookies I would try.

The recipe did call for a lot of chilling time, so I was prepared for that, however, our house must be super warm, because I only got part way through cutting the first sheet of dough before they started "melting" and falling apart on me...frustrated, I gave up...then decided to try again with the second sheet and made smaller cookies out of them. I ended up with a lot of extra filling for these since I didn't make the full amount of dough's worth, however, the ones that did come out were FABULOUS...richer than store-bought cream-filled cookies and just better all around. I decided that I will likely make these again, however, on a day when our heat isn't on (it's freezing here in MI in case you didn't know!) quite so high.

Homemade "Oreos"
Recipe courtesy of Food Network

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 1 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 11/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the parchment sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut the dough into 64 circles. (You can reroll the scraps once.) Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325.

Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla.

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.