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.

A really good brownie is one of the best things in the world, and these Peppermint Cookies 'n Cream Brownies over at BakingBites.com (hello Nicole) prove that without a doubt.

They're chewy brownies made with peppermint-flavored Oreos (or Oreo-ish cookies) and unsweetened chocolate. I think the addition of Oreos give it a dash of something new, and the fact that they are peppermint flavored kick this over into the Christmas category.They're brownies you don't just grab and eat quickly, they're real desserts you sit down and eat at a table, maybe even with a fork. (thanks to CW for the tip!)

Anna, from Cookie Madness, made a great find the other day at her local supermarket in Austin: Dulce de Leche Oreos. These limited edition cookies aim to pair a slightly milky caramel-flavored cream filling with the classic chocolate wafer cookies of Oreos, though Anna said that the filling tasted mostly buttery with only notes of caramel.

For some reason, the limited edition cookies are not listed on the main Oreo website, though they do get a brief mention on the wiki entry for Oreos and I finally found them listed on the Comida Kraft site, Kraft's spanish-language counterpart, which may be an indication that the cookies are not going to be mass marketed in quite the same way that the peanut butter and mint chocolate Oreos were when those flavors were first released. And buttery or not, the chocolate/caramel combination still sound like a promising one for Oreos, so keep an eye out for them.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best and these amazing looking treats from Culinary in the Desert certainly fit the bill of being both simple and delicious. Oreo Truffle Balls have, at their center, a combination of Oreo cookies and cream cheese. The truffle centers are coated in white chocolate, which perfectly compliments the cookie filling. Making truffles in this manner is unique and much easier than doing a more traditional truffle, because the ganache centers - melted chocolate and cream - take more effort and practice than using a food processor. It goes without saying that any treat based on Oreos, a cookie that comes in over 12 varieties with at least another half dozen Oreo-based products, will be a huge hit with anyone lucky enough to sample one.