Archive for: cookies n’ cream
Oreo has been releasing limited edition holiday cookies for some time now, and this year’s Candy Cane Oreos are proving to be a very popular addition to the lineup. The cookies feature the standard chocolate wafers found on most Oreos, but have a peppermint filling that is red, white and speckled with slightly crunchy candy cane bits. The peppermint isn’t too strong and it is balanced very well by the not-too-sweet chocolate wafers. They’re quite good (and even better if you’re an Oreo fan) and I was inspired to use them to put a holiday cookies n’ cream twist into some baked goods.
This Candy Cane Oreo Pound Cake uses limited edition Candy Cane Oreos to infuse a little peppermint and a little chocolate into a vanilla pound cake. The pound cake itself is moist and buttery, with a very tight crumb and a tender texture. It has a nice vanilla flavor that sets off the peppermint in the cookies – which are very coarsely chopped and added to the cake batter – very well. The batter is thick enough to hold the cookie pieces without them sinking to the bottom of the cake, so each slice has a great look to it with some black, some white and some red.
The peppermint flavor in this cake is a nice addition because it is subtle. This isn’t a peppermint cake, but you get just enough peppermint here and there to make it a good fit for the holidays! If you do want to boost the mint factor, you can either add some of your own chopped peppermint candies or a little peppermint extract to the cake batter. I used Candy Cane Oreos, but there are other mint sandwich cookies available that work well, too, such as the Peppermint Jo Jo’s from Trader Joe’s.
You can bake this cake in a bundt pan or a tube pan. I think that a tube pan will give you slightly better results, since tube pans don’t have intricate designs that the cookies might get stuck to when you are trying to turn out the cake. If you do opt for a bundt pan, be sure to grease and flour it before using to prevent any part of the cake from sticking.
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Oreo cookies are the best selling cookies in the world for good reason: each cookie is a great combination of sweet, crispy, chocolatey and creamy flavors and textures. And they are even better when dipped in a tall, cold glass of milk. The cookies have been made more or less the same way for the past 100 years and some of the magic of the Oreo is the way that the cookies are formed and made with machines. The wafer cookies are essentially just pressed into place and aren’t held together by much, which is what makes them so deliciously tender.You just can’t get the exact same results with homemade knockoffs, but you can get something close that captures that much loved cookies n’ cream flavor and is made entirely from scratch.
My Homemade Oreo Cookies start out with a chocolate wafer cookie dough that is shaped into logs and chilled. The dough is made with a generous amount of cocoa powder to give the cookies a deep chocolate flavor and very dark color. Slicing the cookies when the dough is chilled allows you to get a uniform look and shape, keeping the cookies nice and flat during baking. The wafer cookies aren’t too sweet (so that they can handle a sweet vanilla filling) but have a strong chocolate flavor when they’re done. The dough should be sliced thinly (about 1/8-inch) so that that wafers can bake up to be nice and crispy. If you cut your dough too thick, the cookies will not get crispy all the way through and will remain slightly soft (still tasty, but not like a real Oreo!).
Regular Oreos are made without any dairy products and without eggs (yes, they’re vegan!), so I kept with that standard when creating this recipe and used shortening instead of butter in both the cookie dough and the filling. You can make the cookies with butter instead of shortening and still get good results, but if you want the most authentic Oreo creme filling, opt for shortening (trans-fat free, of course). The vanilla will stand out in a filling made with shortening, while in a filling made with butter, you’ll have a more frosting-like flavor.
These cookies are at their best when dipped in milk, but they’re tasty on their own, too. They are not quite as crumbly as a “real” Oreo, though they are crispy, chocolatey and have a filling that is as creamy as the real thing. If you don’t want to make the whole batch at once, you can keep some of the cookie dough in the freezer, well-wrapped, for a few weeks and bake off a new bunch when the mood strikes.
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Oreo cookies are one of the most beloved and most easily recognizable cookies that you can find anywhere – and there are many reasons why people love them (even when they regularly bake cookies at home!). Oreos made their debut 100 years ago, at the Nabisco factory in New York on March 6, 1912. The sandwich cookies were originally available in two flavors: lemon meringue and cream. The cream-filled chocolate biscuits were Nabisco’s more popular offering, but they kept the lemon meringue flavor on the market until the 1920s when they dropped it in favor of the combination we all know today. The origin of the name Oreo seems to be shrouded in mystery, with no direct answer even from Nabisco historians.
The cookies have really changed very little over the years, with the exception of the design stamped on the top, which underwent a few changes before taking on its current appearance. The current design (above, right) has been unchanged since 1952. The cookies are still the best selling cookie in the US and more than 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold to date all over the world. The Oreos sold in the US are also produced here, and are both dairy and egg free.
The original cookies remain popular, but these days Nabisco is constantly adding new products and limited edition items to the Oreo line to keep things fresh for consumers. They are playing with flavors and colors while keeping the look and feel of the cookie the same so that Oreo-lovers can always Twist, Lick and Dunk their cookies into a tall glass of milk. In fact, they’re even launching a Birthday Cake flavor in honor of their 100th anniversary. The chocolate cookies n’ cream flavor combination is also so popular that there are all kinds of recipes that use it as their inspiration, from cookies n’ cream ice creams to Oreo brownies and cheesecakes.
I’ll still dunk one in milk when I have a package at home, but most of my Oreos are going into tasty cookies n’ cream baked goods like these:
Whenever I want to dress up a batch of brownies, I don’t turn to chocolate ganache or fancy chocolate chips. I turn to a big bag of cream filled, Oreo-type sandwich cookies, chop them up and add them to my brownie batter. I suppose that this is actually dressing down the brownies, rather than dressing them up, but Oreo cookies make a fantastic addition to a batch of brownies and take these from good to irresistible.
These Cookies n’ Cream Brownies are fudgy, chewy brownies that are loaded with oreo cookies (or a similar brand of chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie). The brownie batter is not that unusual, made with chocolate and cocoa powder to ensure that it has a good chocolate flavor. There is quite a bit of sugar in it and the sugar contributes to that chewy texture, as well as to the flavor of the brownies, sweetening the batter because all the chocolate called for is unsweetened. There is no leavening in this brownie batter, either, which keeps the brownies very moist, rich and fudgy.
The Oreos are a nice addition to these for a couple of reasons. They actually hold up very well to baking and you’ll see the full sandwich preserved in the brownies when you slice into them! You definitely get a cookies n’ cream flavor along with the dark chocolate brownie, just like you do when you eat cookies n’ cream ice cream. This recipe makes a big batch, which is great for sharing, so make this for a party, take it to a bake sale or just invite some friends over to share.
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Cookies n’ cream will probably always be one of my favorite ice cream flavors, one that I reach for every once in a while for because – let’s face it – vanilla, chocolate and oreo cookies is a great flavor combination. It’s a flavor combination that can be great in all kinds of different desserts, too, not just in ice creams. I’ve used it in scones, pound cake and even in brownies. This time, I used the cookies n’ cream concept in cookies.
These very chocolatey cookies are made with cocoa powder (you can use natural or dutch process, both will work) are crisp around the edges, while being more tender in the center. They are packed with dark chocolate, white chocolate and lots of chopped Oreo-type cookies. I actually used the Vanilla Bean Jo-Jos – Oreo look-a-likes from Trader Joe’s in these – so feel free to use a different brand of cookie if that is what you have available. The finished cookies have a great combination of textures and flavors, from the rich dark chocolate to the creamy white chocolate, the crisp chocolate wafer pieces and the sweet vanilla cream bits.
These cookies are great when they’re fresh out of the oven, but they will keep well for several days in an airtight container. If you really want to take the cookies n’ cream factor over the top, use two of these to sandwich some cookies n’ cream ice cream for a delicious homemade ice cream sandwich!
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