Homemade Oreo Cookies for One

Makes 3 cookies plus a straggler.

Everyone likes Oreos, and everyone has their own way of eating them. As this recipe makes three cookies, I propose that you dip one in almond milk or cocoa, disassemble one and lick off the icing, and chomp the third like a sandwich. The best of all worlds!

For the Cookies:

1 teaspoon ground flax seed

1 TBLSP water

Pinch baking soda

Pinch salt

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 TBLSP cocoa powder

2 TBLSP vegan butter, softened

2 ½ TBLSP brown sugar, packed

1 TBLSP granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1 TBLSP vegan butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

3/4 TBLSP teaspoon non-dairy milk (I like almond milk, but soy, rice, or coconut would do too)

Slosh of vanilla extract

To Make the Cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

1. In a small bowl, combine the flax seed and water and set aside to become a glop.
2. In another small bowl, whisk together baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa powder. Set this aside too.
3. In a third small bowl, cream the butter and both sugars until it’s fluffy and well combined.
4. Add the flax-seed glop and vanilla to the butter and mix until it’s well combined. Then add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Using a tablespoon measure (you want the cookies to be roughly identical), make balls of the dough and place on the cookie sheet about 2-inches apart. You’ll want an even number of cookies. I got 6 regular-sized and 1 tiny one. (I probably should have made them a little smaller.) Flatten the little balls with the bottom of a juice glass. Keep the glass handy because you’ll be doing this again.
6. Bake for 7-8 minutes, and then take the pan out and press the little darlings flat with the bottom of a glass or a spatula—they will have puffed up a bit. Put them back into the oven for another 4 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
7. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a baking rack.

Let them cool completely before frosting. Make the filling while the cookies are in the oven to give it a chance to “set” before slathering on the cookies. If it’s a warm day, consider letting it rest in the refrigerator, too.

To Make the Filling:

1. In another small bowl (or one of those other ones, cleaned and dried), cream the butter until it’s smooth and a little fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it’s crumbly, like rough sand.
2. Add the milk and vanilla. Mix until it’s smooth. If you need more milk to make it spreadable, go slowly. You want this to be thick icing.

You might want to refrigerate it for a little while, like half an hour or so, while the cookies are cooling.

Assemble the Cookies:

1. Frost the bottoms (the flat side) of half the cookies and sandwich the bottom of the other half on top of them.

Variations:

• Try adding 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder to the frosting for chocolate filling.
• You could create the complex taste of chocolate and oranges by adding 1 TBLSP of orange zest to the dough and then replacing the milk with orange juice in the filling.
• You could make a smear of raspberry jam on top of the vanilla icing for a more grown-up cookie.
• Add a little peppermint extract and a drop of green food coloring to the filling for a little zing.
• Put ½ teaspoon of instant espresso powder in with the cocoa and flour mixture for a mocha cookie. You could use coffee instead of milk to make the filling, too.