Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies
Just like your favorite Golden Oreos, these Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies are a buttery and crisp vanilla shortbread cookie filled with vanilla cream! Perfect for holiday cookie boxes, a bake sale, or just a fun baking afternoon!
If you love Oreos as much as I do, but don't want to eat the originals as they are full of bad ingredients, then try recipes like Vegan Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies, Caramel Chocolate Oreo Icebox Cake, or Homemade Peanut Butter Oreos.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies
- Ready In: 30 minutes
- Makes: 15 sandwich cookies
- Main Ingredients: salted butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, all purpose flour
- Flavor Profile: creamy vanilla
- Dietary Info: eggless, no seed oils, gluten free swap available
- Difficulty: Easy!
- Why You’ll Love It: vanilla Oreo cookies with only 5 ingredients!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- 5 Ingredients: These homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies only have 5 simple ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.
- Better For You: You will love these homemade Golden Oreos. They will bring you nostalgia while indulging in much better ingredients! They are so good, you'll wan to make a double batch!
- Naturally Eggless: These organic cookies are naturally eggless. So these homemade Golden Oreos are perfect for anyone with an egg allergy. And, even if you eat eggs, you don't even need them here.
- Organic Cookies: These organic cookies taste just like your favorite nostalgic Golden Oreos, but made with a few tweaks to make them even better. So skip seed oils, high fructose corn syrup and more not so great ingredients in the originals and make your own instead!
Ingredients
- Butter: I use Organic Valley Salted Butter, but you can use your favorite. Just be sure your butter is incredibly soft for these cookies. If you're using unsalted butter, be sure to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the dough.
- Powdered Sugar: I use organic powdered sugar in the cookies and in the vanilla cream filling, making these super easy organic cookies as you only need one kind of sugar.
- Vanilla Extract: Use a high quality organic vanilla extract, not imitation. This really matters for flavor.
- Milk: I use organic whole milk in the filling, but you can also use water if needed.
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Baker's Tips for Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies
- Make sure your butter is soft. This is super important for these cookies in order to get the right texture, which is very important. I like to leave butter out on the counter to let it soften at room temperature overnight. However, in these colder months that may not be enough sometimes! So, if you have to microwave it, then only do 10 seconds per ½ cup. The butter should be soft enough that if you poke it with your finger you will make an indent.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before filling them. This is super important so the filling sets properly and does not melt.
- I used Ateco tip #864 for this recipe. But, you do not need to use a tip at all, you can fill these with no tip as well.
- Gluten Free – Replace the flour with 226 grams (scant 1 ½ cups) gluten free flour blend and 57 grams (½ cup plus 1 tablespoons) coconut flour.
- High Altitude – Bake at 350°F for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
How to Make Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Mix on low until combined and you don’t see powdered sugar anymore, there will still be a few chunks of butter but that is okay because it’s very soft.
- Add the flour into the butter mixture and mix on low until combined and smooth.
- The dough should be very smooth and soft, it will feel like play dough in your hands.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 30 balls and place them on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each one slightly so they are about 1 ¾-inch in diameter.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely on the cookie sheets. (If you're baking at high altitude, be sure to check the Notes at the bottom of the recipe for high altitude baking instructions).
- To make the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract and mix on low until combined. Speed mixer up to high for 1 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Make sure to scape down the sides of the bowl and mix again to ensure you have a smooth filling.
- Transfer to a piping bag with tip #864.
- Turn over every other cookie so they are all paired. Pipe a swirl of filling onto each cookie, starting at the outer edges and swirling into the middle of the cookie.
- Then sandwich them together.
Serving & Storage Tips
I love enjoying these with a big glass of milk! But, they are also amazing with Salted Caramel No Churn Ice Cream for a summer treat. And I love them during cookie season with Coconut Hot Chocolate or Chai Tea Hot Chocolate. And, make sure to include them in your DIY Christmas Cookie Box planning this holiday season.
These are shortbread cookies so they are best when stored in a cool, dry place. They'll last at room temperature for about a week. You can also freeze them in a freezer safe bag for up to 3 months.
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, if you only have unsalted butter you can use that in in its place. But, you'll need to add a little salt to the recipe. For the dough add ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt. And for the filling add ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt.
The butter needs to be soft so it can incorporate into the dry ingredients completely. Butter that is not completely softened can leave little pieces or pockets of colder butter in the dough. When that goes into the oven, it melts, creating steam, which creates air pockets. This process is something of a thing of beauty in pie crust, but in cookies, it's really the exact opposite of what we want as it creates holes in the cookie with a less than ideal texture (it will be much more crispy and hard compared to buttery, crisp and melt in your mouth). So, soft butter is key for the right texture! Don't use cold butter or melted butter.
The dough feels incredibly similar to play dough (for all my 80s and 90s kids out there!). It's incredibly soft, pliable and easy to form. The dough ends up with this texture when you combine soft butter, powdered sugar and flour, which are the main ingredients in this shortbread cookie recipe. Because the powdered sugar and flour are very fine, when combined with the butter, the dough feels like play dough. If your dough doesn't feel like play dough, chances are your butter was not soft enough!
If they are under baked, the cookies will be soft instead of crisp. Look for dry top sand golden brown edges, it's better to be a little over baked than under baked, in my opinion!
Look for dry tops and golden brown edges. Because these are shortbread cookies, they can withstand an extra minute or two in the oven without burning right away. You want these to be golden brown because that means they will be crispy with the best texture!
No, if you don't have these things you can just frost the filling with a spoon or butter knife! If you want a pretty finish, like the photos, then a piping bag and decorating tip are essential.
If you used too much milk, the filling can be too runny. You can easily fix this by adding in a little more powdered sugar to get the desired consistency.
Whip the filling until it's super fluffy. This can take as long as 3 to 5 minutes. And, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl, this part is key as it incorporates butter that may be stuck on the sides of the bowl.
After the cookies have cooled completely on the baking tray. If cookies are hot or warm, the filling will just melt into the cookies, which is not ideal.
The cookies are buttery, crisp and melt in your mouth and the filling is creamy and sweet.
Homemade Oreos are essentially shortbread cookies, where they are crisp and buttery (even though real Oreos don't even use butter!). So, these need to be stored in a cool dry place. I usually just leave out on a plate on the counter while we enjoy them. But, if you want to keep for more than a few days, I recommend storing in the fridge because of the milk in the filling. These will stay good in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
You should fill the sandwich cookies and then store them.
Yes, just store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
More Nostalgic Cookie Recipes
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Homemade Vanilla Oreo Cookies
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Half Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper Sheets
- Piping Bag
- Ateco Tip #864
Ingredients
Dough
- 226 grams salted butter (softened)
- 142 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 255 grams all purpose flour
Filling
- 226 grams powdered sugar (sifted)
- 113 grams salted butter (softened)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined and you don’t see powdered sugar anymore, there will still be a few chunks of butter but that is okay because it’s very soft.
- Add the flour into the butter mixture and mix on low until combined and smooth. The dough should feel like play dough in your hands.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 30 balls and place them on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each one slightly so they are about 1 ¾-inch in diameter.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely on the cookie sheets.
- To make the filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract and mix on low until combined. Speed mixer up to high for 1 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Make sure to scape down the sides of the bowl and mix again to ensure you have a smooth filling. Transfer to a piping bag with tip #864.
- Turn over every other cookie so they are all paired. Pipe a swirl of filling onto each cookie, starting at the outer edges and swirling into the middle of the cookie, and sandwich them together.
- Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Video
Notes
- Make sure your butter is soft. This is super important for these cookies in order to get the right texture, which is very important. I like to leave butter out on the counter to let it soften at room temperature overnight. However, in these colder months that may not be enough sometimes! So, if you have to microwave it, then only do 10 seconds per ½ cup. The butter should be soft enough that if you poke it with your finger you will make an indent.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before filling them. This is super important so the filling sets properly and does not melt.
- I used Ateco tip #864 for this recipe. But, you do not need to use a tip at all, you can fill these with no tip as well.
- Gluten Free – Replace the flour with 226 grams (scant 1 ½ cups) gluten free flour blend and 57 grams (½ cup plus 1 tablespoons) coconut flour.
- High Altitude – Bake at 350°F for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Nutrition
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Amaaaaazing!!! So moist and the vanilla is the perfect amount of incredible flavor.
Thank you Mary!
I’ll never want to eat a regular Oreo again, these cookies are amazing 😋
Amazing!!