Oreo Cookies (Small and Crispy)

Source: Adapted from LilaLoa, who calls them the end-all for chocolate cookies.

It’s summer, which means we have shed the daily routine of breakfast and school and homework in favor of a new routine.  It goes like this:  everyday, my children say, “Can I have a friend sleep over?” and I reply, “Did you practice the piano?  Clean your room?  Pick up your dirty socks?”  and they reply with that sound of complete frustration that is impossible to convey through the written word.  My hope that they will actually do these things without a breakout of world war three is dying quickly.

But, world war three led to a sleepover, which led to a desperate need for Chex Muddy Buddies, which led to this sage motherly advice:  “Read. The. Directions.”

I’ll spare you the details, but long story short, the directions begin with Chex and end with powdered sugar, but my daughter began with Chex, and added powdered sugar second.

After this kitchen disaster and the inevitable dirtying of way too many dishes, I was not much in the mood for baking, myself. However, the thought of this Oreo Cookie has been distracting me for several days and it just needed to happen.  Besides, I figured it would keep the kids and friends happy for a few minutes.

My husband is a sucker for an Oreo cookie.  Him and the rest of the planet.  They are literally the most popular cookie at the grocery store, and one of the few packaged cookies that I periodically purchase.  I’ve been making these homemade oreo cookies for years, and developed something of a reputation around the neighborhood for them.  They are soft and fudgy and wonderful.  But, Robb likes the real thing; small, crispy, and milk-dunk worthy.  So, back to the drawing board for me.

This was a new recipe for me, and a pretty worthy one.  I did make one change from the original recipe… instead of 2/3 cup cocoa powder, I used 1/3 cup regular and 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder.  It makes them all dark-black and oreo-looking.  And I know I called them crispy, but they aren’t crispy, exactly.  They are just not as soft as the cake-mix oreos.

This frosting is your basic butter-cream-cheese-and-sugar combination.  I seriously considered adding fresh cherries to the frosting, and honestly, if I had had any cherries in my fridge, I probably could not have stopped myself.  Or oranges, or my favorite thing, blackberries, for that matter.  The creativity is in the frosting if you ask me.  You can just pick your favorite fruit (wouldn’t these taste fantastic with grapefruit frosting?!) or other flavor.  I’m partial to peanut butter.

And mint.

And chocolate.  Chocolate fudge.  Double chocolate fudge.

If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies from Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Mini Oreo Cheesecakes from Bake Your Day

Oreo Truffles from Mother Thyme

Light Cookies-N-Cream Cheesecake Squares from Realistic Nutritionist