Vegan Comfort Food: PB Creme Oreos

While Oreos may be vegan in the US, it doesn’t mean one should be munching away on them crazily…it was something that caused Kirk to have an involuntary twitch when I attended Vida Vegan con if 2010. That so many of the attendees bragged about how they were vegan and how much they loved Oreos, thus it was OK to indulge. The fact that they are made of crap ingredients didn’t seem to register. Don’t get me wrong…there is something about them for sheer junk food feasting. Like on a 11 hour drive from Utah to Washington. Bought at a sketchy truck stop.

But…does one need high fructose corn syrup? Hydrogenated rapeseed oil? Artificial flavoring? Why, when you can make a (small) batch up, that is fresh and full of quality ingredients. I adapted Chocolate Covered Katie’s recipe. OK, I know they don’t taste quite like the real thing. But I can tell you I’d rather indulge with these. The taste is clean and delicious. And I can tell you that keeping children out of them is nearly impossible!

Walker helped me roll the cookies out (And eat the dough scraps…the dough being vegan has its advantages!)

And well, duh, they are not diet food. But hey, who said dessert has to be healthy? Although my ingredient list is more appetizing than this, from Nabisco’s website:

“Ingredients: SUGAR, UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), PEANUT BUTTER (PEANUTS, HYDROGENATED RAPESEED AND/OR COTTONSEED AND/OR SOYBEAN OILS, SALT), HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL AND/OR PALM OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), MALTODEXTRIN, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SALT, CORNSTARCH, BAKING SODA, SOY LECITHIN, CHOCOLATE, VANILLIN – AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR. CONTAINS: WHEAT, PEANUT SOY.”

PB Oreos

Ingredients:

Cookies –

• ¾ cup white whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp maple sugar or coconut sugar
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ cup organic coconut oil, melted
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened non-dairy milk (almond or coconut work well)
• 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup or agave nectar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Filling –

• ½ cup natural peanut butter, chunky or smooth
• ½ cup Creamed Coconut, finely grated (see notes) or coconut butter
• ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup powdered sugar, preferably organic
• Pinch fine sea salt (see below)

Directions:

Whisk first 5 ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together in a small bowl, add to dry and work into a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300°, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the chilled dough between two layers of plastic wrap, roll out thinly, the dough will be a bit sticky. Cut circles out with a cookie cutter (see notes), place on prepared baking sheets, using an offset spatula if needed. Roll out the scraps until you are out. Bake for 14 minutes, the longer baked, the crisper they will be after cooling. The cookies will look a little under done when removing. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Note:

Makes about 18 cookies when using a 2½” biscuit cutter, which is the smallest I have. These are large cookies. Should you own, say, a 1″ cookie cutter, you will get normal sized cookies 😉 Then when baking, check at 11 minutes for being done.

Filling –

Mix the peanut butter and creamed coconut together with a stiff spoon, until smooth, working in the vanilla, and then the powdered sugar. If your peanut butter is not salted, add a pinch or to taste, of fine sea salt.

When cookies are cooled, drop a Tablespoon or so of filling one 9 cookies, top with a second cookie and gently press.

Chill cookies to set filling. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Makes 9 filled cookies, or well, depending on size of the cookies….a very happy toddler –

Note:

Creamed coconut comes in a bar, that well, looks kind of like soap. This is the brand I use: Let’s Do Organic Creamed Coconut. There are other brands, I haven’t tried them though. I have found Amazon is the cheapest source of it, but many natural food stores carry it (Whole Foods does). Do look at the dates though, I once got a bar that was a year past its date in a store!

The best (and easiest) way of handling it is to strip off the plastic wrap when it is solid (if your house is warm you can chill it first. Put a box grater on a large rimmed plate and finely grate it, starting with the softer white end (which is mostly oil), the tan section will take hand strength to grate, it goes fast though.. Once grated, transfer to a pint mason jar and store in your cupboard. What you have is essentially coconut butter at this point. But best of all? Since you grated it, it is ready to use. No melting jars in a pot of warm water to scoop out hard-as-rock butter to measure.

~Sarah