Gluten-Free Dairy-Free “Winter Oreos”

While at the grocery store the other day, Sam spied the Winter Oreos on display. While I was hoping he didn’t notice, the bright red cream put him in a trance! So he said, “Mom, you need to make these. So and so in my class brought them to school in their lunch and they were so cool.” Well, if you have to put it that way…. (I need to find some good natural food colorings, any recommendations?).

Gluten Oreos

So here they are! I used the same recipe as I did for the Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies for the chocolate wafers but I omitted the peppermint oil.

Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Winter Oreos

Cookie Wafer:

1 pkg. of Betty Crocker’s GF Devil’s Food Cake Mix

1/4 cup Butter, melted (I used Dairy-Free Earth Balance)

5 Tbs. Milk (I used Rice Milk)

• Combine melted butter, cake mix, and milk in a large mixing bowl, or stand mixer. Mix until a ball of dough forms.

• Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

• Roll out dough. I rolled mine out pretty thin, maybe about 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. They will rise a bit in the oven. I rolled out my dough using the Pie Crust Maker. This is seriously the best gadget for working with gluten-free doughs!

• Using a small circle cookie cutter, cut out the cookie wafers.

• Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350° for 8 – 12 minutes (mine were ready at 9 minutes in a convection oven). Let cool for a couple of minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Cream Filling:

I used the recipe on the back of the Pamela’s Simplebites Extreme Chocolate Mini Cookies package.

1/2 c. Butter (I used Earth Balance Non-Dairy Buttery Spread)

1/2 c. shortening (I used Crisco, but Spectrum would also work well… I am going to start using the Spectrum shortening again in 2010.)

2 c. Powdered Sugar (I used a bit more until the icing became the more solid consistency of what I remember Oreo icing to be)

2 tsp. water

Red and Green Food Coloring

• Mix together. Place dollops of icing between two layers of cookies and press together.

The cookies taste great and were a big hit with the kids. They are a lot “crunchier” than what I remember the real Oreo wafer to be. I might try to use shortening the next time I make the cookie wafers to see if that makes a difference. The cookies also tend to split when they spread in the oven. If anyone has a tip on how to prevent this from happening, please let me know! 🙂