Well, you may be already be asking, “Why would I make my own Oreo cookies? I mean, aren’t they already vegan?”
I have to preface this blog post & recipe with a notation that, I am not trying to start a wildfire around non vegan sugar and the use of palm oil here today; I honestly just want to share my recipe for Homemade Vegan Oreos Cookies!
So to answer the question loosely whether or not Oreos are vegan, it depends first of all on where the Oreo manufacturer is sourcing their sugar.
Wait a minute! Sugar is not vegan!??? (The #1 most asked question I get)
Technically any sugar that was processed through animal bone char cannot be classified as vegan sugar, since obviously it is using exploited animal bones for the processing.
In the USA, Nabisco Brand is definitely making their Oreos from sugar that came from animal bone char processing, so technically here in the USA they are not vegan.
(In the UK though, I have been told they do not use animal bones, you lucky ducks across the pond!!)
So I suppose this poses another question then, which is “How vegan are you?”
This is a heated topic and one that I am not trying to debate here on my blog, but it does make you wonder “What else are they using animals in and for, that we don’t even realize!?”
Not to mention the heavy amounts of glyphosate found in many of the products we consume regularly (including Oreos that top the list); but that is for another day and conversation.
Uggggh, what has happened to the world and our food system!??
I didn’t even get into Palm Oil yet.
So for the self proclaimed hard core vegan, you probably wouldn’t catch them eating Nabisco Oreos not only for the sugar but because of that company’s heavy use of non sustainable palm oil.
To read more about it click here for Emily, the Bite Sized Vegan’s clear and supported article around palm oil and it’s exploitative practices.
Now with all that being said LET’S MAKE VEGAN, ORGANIC, SUSTAINABLE, NON GMO- GLYPHOSATE FREE OREOS!!
(Yikes, I will say it again, what has happened to our food system??!)
- For the Cookies:
- Organic All Purpose Flour unbleached 1 cup (125g)
- Dutch Process Cocoa * used used Hershey's Dark Blend ¼ (20g)
- Baking Soda ⅛ tsp
- Sea Salt pinch
- Organic Confectioners Sugar ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons (75g)
- Cold- Earth Balance Vegan Butter *or any vegan butter of your choice 10 Tablespoons (140g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- For the Filling:
- Organic Confectioners Sugar 1½ cups (180g)
- Earth Balance Vegan Butter *or any vegan butter of your choice 4 Tablespoons (65g)
- First prepare the chocolate cookie dough by combining the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and confectioners sugar in a large mixing bowl.
- Blend on low speed to combine, the add the diced cold vegan butter and continue blending on low to medium speed. It will seem that this is taking forever to come together and you will think there is something wrong with the recipe. Just wait. It may take 5 minutes or more
- It will eventually come together and at that point you can add the vanilla extract and blend on high for 10 seconds to incorporate well.
- Turn the very soft, sticky dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper (the plastic is way easier though) and then place another piece over top
- Roll to about ¼" thickness as shown in the video.
- Cut the dough with a 1¾" cookie cutter (dip the cutter in flour to make sure they don't stick in your cutter) and place them spaced ½" apart on a parchment lined (or non stick) sheet pan.
- Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack while you prepare the filling.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the confectioners sugar and vegan butter and blend on low until it all starts coming together to a thick paste like dough.
- This will also seem to take forever but it will eventually come together after about 2-4 minutes.
- Exactly as you rolled the sticky cookie dough you will do the same for this filling. Between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper (trust me the plastic wrap is way easier!) and then cut out with the same cookie cutter (or slightly smaller if you prefer) dipped in a bit of confectioners sugar to make sure they don't stick
- Sandwich the filling with the cooled cookies and that's it!
My cookies are already close to the Double Stuffed Cookies so you can adjust the thickness of the filling for the style you like best!
This recipe will also take flavorings like mint, coconut, strawberry extracts and many more!
For Chocolate stuffed cookies replace ¼ cup of the confectioners sugar with ¼ cup of cocoa powder
Thank you for bringing awareness to the issues of sugar filtered through bone char and palm oil. (I buy Florida crystals organic sugar which is vegan. I also buy Spectrum organic shortening [palm oil] that is RSPO certified, but not the other one – CPO? My understanding is that it’s better to buy RSPO organic rather than non-certified, because if we don’t buy their product, there will be no demand for it and they won’t even bother trying to make it sustainable.)That video by Bite-Size Vegan is excellent! I so admire you, as a previously non-vegan professional baker, for your willingness and openness to learning about animal exploitation, and your commitment to transitioning to a vegan diet. Many omnivorous cooks & chefs not only don’t want to hear about animal suffering, they’re critical and derisive toward vegans. So props to you, lady!
Thanks Louisa! I could no longer turn my eyes from it just because my paycheck depended on me living off of the cruel industry. My favorite quote from the book that made me go vegetarian in 2009 “The slightest sound will wake someone who is sleeping, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to sleep”
Thanks for all of your continued support!
Yummy yummy. That’s all I’m thinking about when I watched the video. But for sugar I use the Wholesome brand. It’s defininatly vegan.
Unfortunately Earth Balance also has palm oil in it. Besides making your own vegan butter from Coconut oil, I’m not sure there is a commercial vegan butter without palm oil. It’s tough to be 100% environmental. But we all do our best. Great video Gretchen. Keep them coming.
Hi Terri! Thanks! yes I know Earth Balance has Palm Oil, as they state this on their website: Earth Balance fully supports the production of certified sustainable palm oil. We are a member of the RSPO council and are currently working towards Mass Balance for our sustainable palm oil sourcing.
As some of us know though, there is much debate as to whether these councils are actually helping, as they have been found to be very loosely managed.
It’s like everything that gets exploited in these days of bigger, better ,faster, more. I often think of the amount of coconuts being harvested for oil, meat, water etc.. and the devastation that the huge demand we have placed on it in recent years could be doing? Anytime something comes into “vogue” (like the more recent celery juice that everyone and their dogs are now doing) I worry about the impact such a high demand of anything has on our planet, the workers and the manufacturing, since anytime demand increases, so does the need for cheap ways to fill it. 🙁
YAY! Home-made vegan Oreos!
Oreos company says “oreos” are not vegan, that it contains small amounts of milk.
Hello Gretchen! Thanks for this recipe!
I have a question! I made this cookies and they turned out great, but I used a vegan margarine in the dough, it is like shortening with almost no water content , the filling came out perfect, but the cookies where too crispy and did not held their shape on the oven (they basically fried). Should I add some water content to the dough and reduce the fat a bit when using shortening? would this help to hold the shape? I tried to use a cookie stamp but it faded away during baking… Thank you so much!
Oh wow yeah sounds like fried dough to me! LOL However vegan butter is essentially shortening afterall, Im not sure which brand you used since most people complain that vegan butter (aka margarine) has a higher water content which is NOT what we are going for! That said, I would probably want to look at your measurements first (CLICK HERE) since I cannot for see a problem by subbing what you did(at least not to this extent)