SNACK JUNKIES

Let me give you a bit of history about this first.  Do you have children? We have three. And if you do have children, you may understand this. You may think I am a horrid, selfish woman akin to Cruella De Vil for doing such a thing but that won't stop me. In our house, the kids mostly like what we like, especially when it comes to snacks. And sometimes we go to great lengths to ensure there will actually be certain snacks available when we get the hankering for them.  We hide them.  Go ahead, flog me now. But first hear me out. Have you ever had an intense craving for something? Have you gone to the pantry only to find that the package containing your heart's desire has been put back.....(gasp) empty? Do you know how frustrating that is? If you have ever found yourself near tears because of such an atrosity, you understand. (I know if you have kids you're nodding your head wildly and if you don't, you're snickering). Well this terrible act happens here. A lot.  Not to mention we have a 13 year old son who is 6'2", 190 pounds with a size 13 shoe and a 34" waist who could completely demolish a weeks worth of groceries in three days. So now that I've explained our need to harbor food, let's get on to what we stash. Me? I love chocolate and hazelnut, so it's Nutella and Ferrero Rocher. There just isn't a more perfect bite in my opinion. Well, maybe if they salted the hazelnuts in the center first.....

My husband? He's much more simple and it's Oreos for him. Just plain Oreos. No doubled filling, no chocolate coating, no special flavors like mint or peanut butter. Just regular ole Oreos and a big glass of cold, red top, full fat milk. The horror!  He just likes his milk to taste like milk, not white water.

Anyhow, on Tuesday, my world halted when I was grazing my favorite blogs. I came across a recipe for homemade Oreos. Stick a fork in me. I made them last night and have to say, they are wonderful.  And I don't even eat Oreos. But these are SO much better than what you buy at the store. Little investment, huge payoff.  I am my husband's hero. For now.

The original recipe is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. Check her recipe because I changed the amount of sugar and salt in mine. The original says you can mix this in your standing mixer or food processor. I opted to use my KitchenAid food processor which I love almost as much as my KitchenAid standing mixers.

In the bowl I have 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 cup of sugar. It calls for salt but I left it out because I only had salted butter on hand.

I pulsed this a few times (just to combine it) and added 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of room-temperature butter. Pulsed it again a few times and added 1 egg.  I started scooping before I snapped the picture so you'll have a little more than this. It's got a cookie dough consistency.

I lined two jelly roll sheets with parchment and used a small scoop to measure the dough.  It's the easy way to get uniform cookies which matters to me, especially with sandwich-type cookies.

The recipe says to flatten them a little. Since I had two sheet pans, I flattened one more than the other just to see if they'd bake up different and found no noticeable difference in size or texture.

Bake at 375 for 9 minutes and cool.

The recipe gives you a recipe for the cream filling, but since I am a cake decorator by trade, I always have buttercream on hand. So I just used that. Since I don't have the pictures of that I will give you a great tip if you ever use decorating bags. Make a sleeve for your icing!

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on your counter. Put your icing in the middle, right up to the edge closest to you.

Bring the left side of the plastic wrap over top of the icing, then the right side. Think swaddling a baby.

Take the plastic from the back edge and twirl it (like a bread bag) and bring it down on itself towards the front edge. Then just drop it into your piping bag. I used a disposable bag for purpose of demonstration so you could see it.  When your 'sleeve' is empty just pull out the plastic and drop in a new one. It's so much easier than loading a new bag and makes cleanup easier.

Since I did four columns of cookies on my tray, I flipped all of them over, piped the filling down columns one and three. 

Then I put the tops on them pushing down gently. This step is a matter of preference and depends on how much filling you like. When you're making the filling it would also be a great time to add extracts. I would love mint, raspberry, cherry or some fresh peanut butter. If you add peanut butter you'll probably need to add more powdered sugar so the filling isn't so loose.

Mine did not come out like the recipe photos on SK's site. They looked more chewy than mine. Nevertheless, I'd say this recipe is could be very forgiving if you mess up and your results will still be delish.

Since I am the only one in my family that lives in North Carolina and often send edible gifts to my family in New Jersey, Texas, Philadelphia and Florida, I am always looking for recipes that will travel well and keep fresh. These fit the bill perfectly and I will definitely be adding these to future packages.