The Cookies That Might Kill Me.

We have a little competition going on at work known fondly as "Cookie Madness". It is essentially a single-elimination cookie baking contest a la NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. The seemingly harmless idea was devised out of boredom, but it quickly spiraled out of control into an intense competition.

As it turns out, my homemade oreos (adapted from Deb's recipe at Smitten Kitchen) have made it through to the semi-finals of competition. Yay me! Right? But what winning really means is I spent the last two hours mixing, baking, and frosting oreos for the third time in as many weeks. I have gone through eight sticks of butter and three bags of powdered sugar. Needless to say, I am tired of making homemade oreos.

What does this have to do with tailgating? Well, since I was fated to make these cookies again tonight anyways, I figured I may as well double the recipe and bring a batch to the AO Tailgate for the US v. Argentina match at Meadowlands this Saturday. And yes, that does mean I will miss the Revs home opener  (bummer, I know). For anyone making the trek to East Rutherford, stop by my car and help yourself to a cookie. Please. I can't look at these cookies any more.

Homemade Oreos
Adapted (slightly) from smittenkitchen.com
Where recipe was adapted from Retro Desserts, Wayne Brachman

Makes 18-20 Sandwich cookies (Deb's recipe said 25-30, so I must be making them big)

Ingredients

(by round three, it was a necessity.)

For the Chocolate Wafers:
   1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
   1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
   1 teaspoon baking soda
   1/4 teaspoon baking powder
   1/4 teaspoon salt
   1 1/4 cups sugar
   1 1/4 sticks (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons) room-temperature, unsalted butter
   1 large egg

For the filling:
   1/2 stick (1/4 cup) room-temperature, unsalted butter
   1/4 cup vegetable shortening
   2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
   2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Set rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375F.
2. Preferably in the bowl of an electric mixer (although, if you're Bean, you do not own a mixer and you stupidly did this step by hand three times), thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. With your mixer on low speed (or mixing arm on regular speed), add the butter, and then the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass. You may want to use your hands to help form the dough.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a nonstick baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, flatten the dough to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Bake for 8 minutes, rotating once to make sure cookies bake evenly. Set baking sheet on a rack to cool.
4. To make cream filling, place butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Continue mixing by hand (or turn your fancy mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes) until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To fill and assemble cookies, Deb recommended a pastry bag with a 1/2-inch round tip, but I used a dessert decorator like this one. Squeeze teaspoon-size blobs of filling onto the center of the flat side of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press while twisting to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.