Old School Homemade Oreos

December 14, 2020

Hello! Let’s talk about something that is charmingly old school and also VERY DANGEROUSLY DELICIOUS:

Homemade Oreos.

This is important to say right off the bat: there’s no crunchy cookie and no dry frosting here. We’re just borrowing the concept of all Oreo layering but swapping the dry stuff for a soft, buttery, moist, perfectly dense little chocolate cookie stuffed with cream cheese frosting. Oh my word they’re so good. They’re an easy holiday baking win, giftable, party-able, and a total gift to humanity.

It feels wrong and unholy to say these are better than real Oreos but honestly, these are better than real Oreos.

Give me a soft, moist, cakey-meets-fudgy-meets-cream-cheese-frosting situation over a dry cookie any day. Or every day.

Cocoa powder, vanilla, butter, cream cheese, flour, and eggs on a counter top.

Say Hello To Boxed Cake Mix (Yes)

Okay. Now. Please accept that this is a recipe which uses a boxed cake mix. If you need something more homemade than that, you’ll need to find another version on the internet.

This is old school, and old school means we use the box cake mix like the low-to-moderately ambitious home bakers that we are.

Trust.

A Fudgy, Dense, Buttery Miracle

What results from this mind-bendingly easy combination of ingredients is nothing short of a holiday miracle. Bless you, Homemade Oreos.

The fudgy cookie, the thick swirl of cream cheese frosting, the dense, soft, buttery texture of all of it together after chilling in the fridge (or sitting on your snow-covered Midwestern porch) for a few days is a specific brand of joyful moment that I wait all year for.

Put on the cozy sweater, get a mug of milk, or eggnog, or hot dark coffee (omg), and let the magic loose.

Watch How To Make This Recipe:

Click here to see the step-by-step web story instructions for this recipe!

More Old-School Dessert Gems

Give us all the retro baked goods and desserts (like good Midwesterners). Some other favs from the blog:

The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (classic of all classics!)
The Best Easy Peanut Butter Pie (peanut butter, cream cheese, whipped topping, YES)
Blender Lemon Pie (grandma’s favorite ️)
Golden Grahams Bars (gimme all the cereal bars)
Modern Scotcheroos (modern makeover on a classic)
Fruit Pizza (more cream cheese frosting happiness!)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Saltine Toffee (yes, saltines – trust)

The sweet mom of the family that I babysat for in high school used to make these, which is why I’m calling these old school. ♡ Sometime in the early 2000s, I got the recipe from her and then gave it to my mom who went on to make these for all our swim meets. To this day, I have friends who make these every year as a Christmas cookie (myself often among them). They’re wonderfully basic, charmingly old school, and dangerously good.

Common Questions About Homemade Oreos

How do I serve these?

You can serve these at room temperature for a softer cookie or straight from the fridge for a more dense cookie.

I can’t find Devil’s Food cake mix. What can I use instead?

Any brand of boxed chocolate cake mix should work as a substitute.

Do these freeze well?

The cookies will freeze well, but we’d recommend making the frosting fresh.

Old School Homemade Oreos

5 from 7 reviews

Author: Lindsay
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 15-20 sandwich cookies

Print Recipe

Description

Life-changing Homemade Oreos that are soft, buttery, moist, perfectly dense chocolate cookies stuffed with cream cheese frosting. SO GOOD.

Ingredients

Cookies:

2 eggs
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 box Devil’s Food cake mix

Frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

Video

Beat cookie ingredients together with an electric mixer until combined.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll into small one or two tablespoon balls. Place on a baking sheet. (Chill the dough for about 30 minutes if it’s too soft to roll.)
Bake for 8 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.
Beat frosting ingredients together with an electric mixer. Using a plastic bag with the end cut off, or a pastry bag, pipe a swirl of frosting onto one cookie and gently press a same-size cookie on top. Voila! Store in the refrigerator – or on your cold porch if you live in Minnesota!