Homemade Oreo Cookies made with dark cocoa powder are crispy on the outside with a perfect cream filling in the middle. An easy homemade Oreo cookie recipe!
A homemade Oreo in my neck of the woods is soft cake mix chocolate cookies with frosting in the middle. They are good, but if that’s what you are looking for, this isn’t it (you can find my soft and puffy cake mix Oreo recipe here. I got you covered). This recipe is a crunchy dark chocolate cookie filled with a sweet and simple cream; perfect with a glass of milk.
Homemade Oreos
I love making this classic Oreo cookie recipe at home. I find joy in creating food from scratch and these little cookies are fun to try. There is something nostalgic about dipping an Oreo in a cold glass of milk . It brings back so many childhood memories.
The dark color of the Oreo cookie comes from the cocoa powder. A true dark chocolate cocoa powder will get you that almost black dark brown cookie. A dutch-process cocoa powder will get you what you see in my photos. A traditional cocoa powder will get you a light brown with a hint of red cookie. I like the dark or dutch-process cocoa best for these cookies and highly recommend finding some.
What is the Oreo cream filling made out of?
The cream filling is really simple. It contains powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and water.
Can you freeze homemade Oreo cookies?
They freeze ok, but it isn’t ideal. The issue is that they lose some of the crunch when you take them out of the freezer. If you do want to freeze these, I recommend freezing the cookies and the filling in separate bags, thawing, and then assembling.
How long are homemade Oreo cookies good?
They’ll last about a week in an air-tight container. I found that the issue with these is that they lose their crunch quicker than they actually spoil. In order to avoid that, if you’d like to make these ahead of time, I’d make the cookies and filling and keep them separate until you are ready to serve the cookies.
More cookie recipes:
- Homemade Soft Oreos from a cake mix
- Homemade Mint Oreo Cookies
- Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
- The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
If you’ve tried this homemade Oreo recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories AND add your photo to your comment so that other can see your creation
PrintOreo Cookies Recipe
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 24 Cookies 1x
Description
Homemade Oreo cookies made with dark cocoa powder are crispy on the outside with a perfect cream filling in the middle.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 ¼ cups butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup Dutch processed cocoa or dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups flour
Cream Filling
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Water
Instructions
- In a stand mixer with a cookie paddle attached, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add half of the flour and mix.
- Add the remaining flour, ¼ cup at a time until you get a pretty dry dough. You don't want the dough to be sticky at all and it might even crumble just a little. Don't be worried about a dry dough; we want a crispy cookie that doesn't spread when baked.
- Divide the dough into 3 balls and pat them together to form a disk. Cover the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
- Now if your world is crazy like mine and 3 hours instead of 15 minutes pass before you get back to baking, let the dough rest at room temperature for 15 minutes. The butter makes the dough super stiff if it's too cold.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic from one disk and roll your dough out between two pieces of parchment paper or on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough thin! We are talking ¼ inch to an ⅛ inch thick.
- Use a 2 inch circle cutter to cut out the cookies.
- Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes. It's super hard to tell when a near black cookie is done. I baked mine for 10 minutes the first round and they tasted burnt on the bottom, so you'll need to adjust as you go.
- Repeat with the rest of the dough. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool.
- While the dough is chilling, mix up the cream filling. Using a stand mixer with a cookie paddle attachment, mix the powdered sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract together. Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time, if needed, until the mixture resembles a thick dough that is about the consistency of play dough.
- Divide the filling in half and roll it into a log that is about 2 inches wide. Roll the log in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge while the cookies are baking.
- After the cookies are cool, it's time to assemble! Remove the filling from the plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, slice off a piece that is between ¼ to a ½ inch thick.
- This is the fun part of making your own Oreos. You can have traditional cream thickness, double stuffed, or even triple stuffed.
- Stack a cookie, cream, and then another cookie. Press lightly together. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
- Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
Notes
- The dark color of the cookie comes from the cocoa powder. A true dark chocolate cocoa powder will get you that dark brown, almost black, cookie. A Dutch-process cocoa powder will get you what you see in my photos. A traditional cocoa powder will get you a light brown with a hint of red cookie. I like the dark or Dutch-process cocoa best for these cookies and highly recommend finding some.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven / Mixer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: homemade oreo cookie recipe, how to make oreo cookies, oreo cream filling recipe, oreo cookie recipe
Long live all the Oreo cookies recipes! I can't wait for you to try this rich chocolaty treat! I hope you make them over and over again.
Alexis
I am an Oreo addict and these are amazing. I was very skeptical that but dare I say these are better than their mass-produced rival.
I changed the recipe a bit to use half black cocoa and half dark Dutch processed - I do believe the black cocoa is essential for true Oreo flavor. I also rolled mine out quite thin. I can’t wait to make more!
★★★★★
Michaela
My friend made your recipe and they were phenomenal! The flavor was even better than store bought Oreos. I can’t wait to make some for myself!
★★★★★
Genevieve
Haven’t tried these yet but am so excited to since the store bought makes them with so much junky oils etc. i want to make a lot at one time. Are these good for freezing and then I wonder how to de thaw. Thanks so much.
Alexis
Genevieve- I froze my cookies after cutting them, before baking. I bake them right from the freezer and they turn out just as perfect!
You could also freeze the filling separately and freeze the baked cookies, then bring the cookies to room temp about 2 hours and assemble. I personally like to work with the filling still very cold and let it come to room temp after assembly.
I am a professional baker and I love this recipe - so hope my tips help!
Abigail
These did work for me, and they are very Oreo-like once cooled. However, the use of powdered sugar (in particular, I used the kind with cornstarch in it) makes the taste and texture just slightly off. Not a perfect store-bought Oreo, but a quick and effective fix at home.
★★★★
Annabelle
For the cream filling, you didn't say how much water to put in.
★
Melissa
#10 step in the instructions: While the dough is chilling, mix up the cream filling. Using a stand mixer with a cookie paddle attachment, mix the powdered sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract together. Add 1 teaspoon of water at a time, if needed, until the mixture resembles a thick dough that is about the consistency of play dough.
It's going to be different for everyone depending on climate, your powdered sugar... it's just water so it's not like you have to go to the store to pick it up if you run out... And if you could fix the one star rating that would be appreciated, that really does effect my site~
Annabelle
I am a blind woman who absolutely loooooooooooooooooves to cook! Since October 17, 2015, I've been trading preservatives for quality ingredients. and since I got a Kitchenaid Classic Stand Mixer in April of 2016, I've been making wonderful stuff with it. I'd love to try your recipe one day, since like a lot of people in this world, I absolutely looooooooooooooove Oreos! Are these like Oreo Cakesters? Those are like a soft version of Oreos that have stripes of frosting on top, which I'm sure is more like royal icing.
Melissa
Ohhh those sounds good. These are a traditional crunchy oreo texture BUT I have a cake mix oreo cookie with a cream filling on the site that are really soft and fluffy, you might want to try that recipe if you are in the mood for cakesters!
Bama
Could you roll the dough into a log and cut the cookies 1/8” think and then bake?
Melissa
Yep! And then just use your fingers or the edge of a spatula to kind of round them back out on the baking sheet if they get a little flat on one side, should work just great!
Never too early to think about Christmas baking
Could this cookie dough recipe be used for making a “gingerbread” house but it’d be an Oreo house?
Melissa
That's the most fun idea ever!!! I'd think if you rolled it a bit thicker and baked it a bit longer (so it's thicker and firmer) it might work great!
Celeste
No wonder this recipe has 5 stars, the website owner only approves comments/reviews with 5 stars! I left an honest review and it was not approved - how deceitful Melissa! You should be ashamed of yourself! People trust you and you are misleading them. Don't worry, I don't expect you to post this but you know you are dishonest and YOU have to live with that. Shame on you.
★
Melissa
It just takes me a day or so to publish comments since I moderate them, and if I'm out of town or it's the weekend it could take more than 24 hours sometimes (though it's less common). I'm not at all ashamed of myself for providing free amazing recipe to millions of people. But if this site isn't working for you feel free to find another that fits your needs, the internet is plenty big.
Celeste
The filling is great but the cookies spread badly in the oven, merging into one giant sheet pan shaped cookie. Super unfortunate, wasted a lot of time and ingredients making them.
★
Melissa
Sounds like there was an issue with the dough not having enough flour or not be chilled long enough. Sorry it didn't work out. Honestly, it could have even happened if your kitchen was very hot on the day you made them. I've made this recipes lots of times though and I know that it'll work when followed.
Charlotte
Happened with mine, too. Spread all over the cookie sheet.
★★
Brandy
I reduced the recipe a tad because I'd rather use an even amount of sticks of butter and measure everything else (1 cup, 1.5 cup, 1 cup, .5 tsp, 1 tsp, 1.25-1.5 cup). I accidentally put too much powdered sugar as a result of reading the original amount on the first item, that probably made them a little more crumbly and dry than they should have been. My son liked the dough and we had fun rolling and cutting out the cookies! For some reason he thought they had a weird aftertaste but I thought they were yummy! We put sunbutter and ice cream in between so we didn't have to make any frosting. YUM!
I had to use the Google add-on AlphaText on this recipe to fix the fonts and colors to make them print legibly. I changed the background to white, text to black, font to Calibri, and increased the font size.
★★★★★
Kat
I'm not sure when this recipe was posted, but Google is a time machine too.
I made these. I rolled them out this and cut with a cookie cutter. They behaved beautifully, they tasted amazing. Friends of mine who don't particularly care for Oreos asked for more!
Also, Dutch-process cocoa is magic, thank you for introducing me to that, and for this recipe.
★★★★★
Melissa
So glad you liked them! This is a super old recipe and one that I plan on updating this year with new pictures and such. It's one I still make and love which means we should bring it out of the shadows right?!