Oreos
Cookie
One package Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix
3 tablespoons shortening, melted
1/2 cup cake flour, measured then sifted
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons brown paste food coloring (optional)*
Filling
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup shortening
2 tablespoons hot water
1. Combine the cookie ingredients in a large bowl. Add the water a little bit at a time until the dough forms. Cover and chill for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven teo 350° F.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to just under 1/16 inch thick. To cut, use a lid from a spice container with a 1 1/2-inch diameter (Schilling brand is good). Arrange the cut dough rounds on a cookie sheet that is sprayed with a light coating of nonstick spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove wafers from the oven and cool completely.
4. As the cookies cool, combine the filling ingredients well with an electric mixer.
5. With your hands form the filling into balls about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter.
6. Place a filling ball in the center of the flat side of a cooled cookie and press with another cookie, flat side down, until the filling spreads to the edge.
Tidbits: If the cookie dough seems too tacky, you can work in as much as 1/4 cup of flour as you pat out and roll the dough. Use just enough flour to make the dough workable but not tough.
This may be obvious to you, but you can expand your own homemade line of Oreos by creating your own versions of Double Stuf® or the giant Oreos called Oreo Big Stuf®. Just add twice the filling for Double Stuf, or make the cookie twice the size for Big Stuf. Go crazy. Try Triple Stuf or Quadruple Stuf or Quintuple Stuf ... somebody stop me.
The brown paste food coloring gives the cookies the dark brown, almost black color of the originals. If you do no use the paste food coloring be sure to change the amount of water added to the wafer cookies from 3 tablespoons to 1/4 cup. The coloring can be found with cake decorating supplies at art supply and craft stores.
