Oreos

This summer Tie-Dye participated in our church's Vacation Bible School week. As is my custom before my kids attend an event, I found out in advance that they would be having snacks in their classroom each evening, most likely cookies. I was a craft teacher for the preschool classes, so I decided I'd pack some cookies for Tie-Dye and then just scope out what kind were being provided for the rest of his class. They were given Oreos and some sort of yellow powder mix drink. The first night, Tie-Dye had the cookies I brought for him and his water. The following day I searched all over for a homemade Oreo cookie recipe and finally combined a couple different recipes and altered some things until I came up with this:

Homemade Oreo Cookies (aka Faux-Reos)

COOKIES:

• 1 cup agave nectar
  

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1 tablespoon water

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 cups unbleached all- purpose flour

• 3/4 cup cocoa powder

FILLING:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  

• 1/2 c. butter, softened
  

• 4 T. agave nectar
  

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the agave and butter. Add the salt, egg, water, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Beat in the flour and cocoa until well combined; the dough should be very stiff.

2. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a shelled chestnut, or a “shooter” marble - the big marble you use to shoot at the little ones. Place the balls on parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheets and flatten each ball until it’s 1/8 inch thick, using the bottom of a glass dipped in cocoa powder. You may also use a cookie stamp, for a more realistic faux-reo effect. To get a nice crisp cookie, it’s important to press them thin use a ruler on the first one so you can see just how thin 1/8 inch is. (If you press them thinner than 1/8 inch, you run the risk of having them burn.) Place the baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill the dough for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Bake the cookies for 18 minutes or until done. It’s important to bake them just the right amount of time: too little and they won’t crisp properly; too much and they’ll scorch. Watch them closely at the end of the baking time, and at the first sign of darkening edges or first whiff of scorching chocolate, remove them from the oven immediately: Remove the cookies from the baking pans and cool them completely on a wire rack.

4. To make the filling: Beat cream cheese and butter in mixer bowl until fluffy. Beat in agave to taste. Add vanilla and mix well.

The batch made a little over 100 wafers, so I could have technically made 50 Oreo sandwiches.

I just made Oreo sandwiches as needed and kept the rest of the plain chocolate wafers in the fridge for DH and the boys to snack on. They loved the cookies both ways.

Also, the recipe says to chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes, which I didn't do. The hardest part was pressing them out with the bottom of a glass because sometimes they would stick. I had to keep putting lots of cocoa powder on the bottom of the glass to help them not stick as much.

Tie-Dye was very pleased to have his special Oreos each night. On the second night, immediately after the children finished their cookies and drinks, three different children complained of tummy aches. One boy actually had to lie down and we had to get his dad to pick him up early. This was yet another confirmation to me that the packaged, processed foods our children are exposed to are not good for their little bodies.