Generously stuffed with peanut butter cream filling, these homemade oreos take it to another level.
Creamy peanut butter filling sandwiched between two chocolately wafer cookies–how does that sound? Sound decent? Okay?
These would make a fun dessert at a potluck.
Hopefully it sounds extravagantly delicious. Because I think these cookies are. Can you tell they were born out of some serious cravings? First, I wanted to make just thin chocolate wafer cookies. That seemed like a good project. Then, the thought of making sandwich cookies started getting me excited. I rarely make sandwich cookies (other than my favourites, linzers, at Christmas) because frankly, they tend to be more work than I’ve after. I like it quick n’ easy, honey.
These use a nifty paper towel tube trick to get the cookies shaped nicely.
But the idea of homemade oreos seized me and wouldn’t let go. And then, thinking about the filling, it just seemed obvious that it HAD to have a peanut butter flavour. It just had to. Because what’s better than peanut butter and chocolate?
The original recipe for these came from the absolutely GORGEOUS cookbook, The Homemade Pantry, which is so beautiful I’ve just been carrying it around the house lately, like a kid who wants to sleep with her new tennis racket. No joke. Even the cover has this appealing texture. (this is an unsponsored post, seriously. I just love this cookbook.) The author of the cookbook, Alana Chernila, has a great method for shaping the cookies–basically stuffing the (pretty loose) cookie batter into wax paper, and then rolling it in a cut paper towel tube. Smart! Alana’s recipe doesn’t include the peanut butter filling, but I couldn’t resist modifying the recipe for that.
Because like I said, what’s better than peanut butter + chocolate? Not much.
These were so fun to stack. I couldn't stop.
| Peanut Butter Oreos |
- Chocolate Wafers:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 14 tbsp (1 3/4 sticks) butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- For the filling:
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 4 tbsp Earth Balance margarine
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup water if needed
- To make the cookies:
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can do this in your food processor, which Alana recommends, but I don’t have, so I used my stand mixer and it worked fine.)
- Add the butter and mix until the dough has a coarse, even texture. Gradually add the whole milk and the vanilla, stirring rapidly until the batter starts to clump.
- Take a large sheet of wax paper and lay it on your counter. Mounding your dough on the wax paper, form it into a log. Take an empty paper towel tube and cut it lengthwise, then wrap it around the wax paper log. Roll it around a few times, until the batter has taken on the shape of the tube. At this point, wrap well and refrigerate at least 1 hour. (I refrigerated the tube overnight and it worked very well.)
- When you’re ready to bake, unwrap the log. Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper. Slice the log thinly, to widths of about 1/8 inch. This is important–you don’t want them TOO thin, because then they’ll crumble when you try to fill them, but you also don’t want them too fat, because then the whole sandwich concept gets a bit awkward.
- Place on your cookie sheets about an inch apart. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on racks completely before filling.
- To make the filling:
- Beat together the peanut butter, Earth Balance, icing sugar, and salt. I actually needed to add about 1/3 cup of water to make the filling spreadable enough to use, so don’t be afraid to add water if it seems too thick.
- Spread the filling onto the completely cooled cookies and form into sandwiches. These cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature, covered, or will keep for a couple of months in the freezer. Alana says they’re just as good frozen as at room temperature, and I have no doubt she’s right about that!
Note the preparation time includes 1 hour of chilling in the fridge
Hello Zosfi!
I have been reading your blog for a while and love what everything that you bake and write about. Therefore, I have an award that I would like to give to you! The details on it are on my blog. Have a nice sunday!
Cheers,
Connie
My goodness, I’m just seeing this now. Thank you, Connie! I’m going to check out your blog!
These look to die for!
Thanks, Sarah. They are pretty durn good, I can’t lie.
I’m such a food nerd, I actually gasped when I saw the photo for this recipe. Can you tell I like chocolate and peanut butter together? A lot?
These look SO amazing!
I love food nerds! Kindred sprits. I am sure I have gasped out loud at some of your amazing photos!