Thomas Keller Oreos

For a housewarming party I threw a couple of weeks ago, I decided to have a dessert theme and recreate some childhood desserts for my guests. I thought we could have some good clean fun – catchphrase, Wii bowling, and some cookies and milk. In preparation for the party, I had to think about the desserts I ate as a kid – Oreos, Nutter Butters, Vienna Fingers, Rice Krispie treats, brownies…(now you know why I was such a fat kid). Since I had a great experience at Bouchon and knew they had great cookies (Nutter Butters AND Thomas Keller Oreos), I looked up the recipes online to make them for my party. My dear friend Julia kept insisting I should just save a ton of time and buy them from a super market, but I really wanted to try to recreate Thomas Keller’s cookies (in preparation for The French Laundry, of course). I found the recipe for Thomas Keller’s Oreos (TKO’s) on curiously ravenous’ website.

TKO’s
from The Essence of Chocolate
makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies

For the cookie:

1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
15 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3/4″ cubes, at room temperature

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed:

Note: make sure your bowl is big enough so everything doesn’t splatter!

With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time:

The mixture will be dry and sandy at first, but over 2 minutes, will form pebble-sie pieces that start to cling together. Stop the mixer and transfer the dough to your board (no pictures here because it was too messy and I was working by myself).

Preheat oven to 350F. Separate dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to 1/8″ inch thick. Using a fluted cutter, cut into rounds. Scraps can be pieced together and rolled out again. Place 1/2″ apart on baking sheets lined with Silpat liners or parchment paper.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

For the Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz. white chocolate, chopped

Chop 8 ounces of white chocolate (Whole Foods sells white and milk chocolate bricks by the ounce):

In a small pan, bring the cream to a boil:

Remove from heat and add the chocolate:

Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up.

I stuck the filling in the fridge (because I am very impatient and it was 4 in the morning), but the mixture turned out really well. Here are the cookies:

The cookies are amazingly crisp, simple, and delicious. If I make the cookies again, I’d probably use less salt in the cookie dough mixture. They were a big hit at the party (I also made a green tea oreo) and everyone thought they were a great treat!