Who doesn't love an Oreo? Each one comes with two chocolate cookies, happily connected with a nice dollop of vanilla cream. There is no part of that equation that is bad (I'm talking strictly about taste here, let's ignore for the moment that they aren't exactly health food items). However, it is my belief that something that is made in your own kitchen is always going to be better than something consumed out of a cellophane package and baked who-knows-how-many months ago, which is why, I decided to try making homemade Oreo-style cookies last weekend.

I spotted the recipe on Smitten Kitchen many moons ago (back in the days when Deb was simply The Smitten) and it's stayed with me ever since, a reminder that there were Oreo heights I had not yet experienced. An opportunity arrived in the form of a dinner party and so I spent Friday night making the cookies for Saturday assembly.

It's a quick, buttery dough that comes together easily. I found that the best way to make sure to get fairly uniform rounds was to form the flat cookie on the palm of my hand before place it gently on a Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Assembly was also easy as the filling (butter, vegetable shortening, powdered sugar and vanilla) whipped together like a dream. The only hitch I experienced was that the zip top bag I was using as a piping bag kept unzipping.

The cookies were delicious the day of assembly, but I discovered that they actually improve over a couple of days resting time, developing the exact soft-crunch consistency of the traditional Oreo cookie. I think my arteries are insisting that I wait some time, but I will definitely make these again.