Gluten Free Homemade Oreos

It's been 3 1/2 years since I've eaten an Oreo, let alone a homemade Oreo. I used to make them with a devils food cake mix and store bought cream cheese frosting. But alas, there's no way you can get me to spend $6 for a cake mix when I can make a better, least expensive one from scratch. As for store bought frosting, I only really bought it when I was in a pinch...I much prefer homemade...and the ingredient labels seem to be in a constant state of change so why risk the discouragement of not finding what I want when I can make it myself!

I had a friend in Arizona who used to make homemade Oreos completely from scratch and I'd forgotten how I preferred them to the cake mix variety until I happened upon a chocolate cookie recipe in the Martha Stewart April 2008 magazine. I decided to take Martha's recipe (click here) and fit it to my needs. I reduced the sugar in the original recipe because I was planning to make sandwich cookies and didn't want them to be overly sweet. I also substituted gluten free flour mix for the flour, reduced the butter so they wouldn't spread too much, added baking powder for a little loft, and added guar gum for mouth feel.

Here's what I came up with:
Homemade Oreos

• 1 cup gluten free four blend
• 1/3 cup Dutch cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon guar or xanthum gum
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large eggs
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder,guar gum and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. drop dough by small spoonfuls onto greased baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake until set, about 7 -8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. When cool use your favorite frosting to frost the underside of half the cookies and sandwich with another cookie of similar size (you want the flat side of each cookie next to the frosting). I used cream cheese frosting on half and chocolate frosting on the rest. Enjoy!