The Coveted Oreo

I think oreos are by far the best cookie sandwich in the whole world. Perfectly crisp and sweet on the outside and a rich smooth creme filling on the inside. I wanted to try my hand at making Oreos. But here’s the catch… I wanted to recreate the perfect replica of a Vegan Oreo without soy, dairy, gluten, egg, or nuts. The nemesis of store bought gluten free vegan oreos being: yep, you know what it is: soy!

History of the Oreo

If you’re interested in the history of Oreo check out this awesome article!

---

This post may contain affiliate links. See full disclosure HERE.

---

My Oreo Journey

When I dived into creating a Vegan Oreo copycat recipe, I went at it head first, all in. I was tired of trying other people’s recipes only to be dissatisfied and throw out the batch. Oreos were my most favorite snack growing up (besides Cheetos; still want to recreate those). I was determined to recreate soy free allergy friendly copycats. Now, keep in mind, I wanted a copycat Oreo, so this recipe is not a healthier alternative. But this vegan Oreo is everything I crave when I want the classic Oreo. After countless hours of food science research, cooking in the kitchen, failing in the kitchen, problem solving, & food testing, I feel like I have accomplished my mission. I have successfully created allergy friendly Oreos; my inner child is so happy. Shout out to my amazing friends without allergies who could compare and taste test my recipe alongside store bought Oreos. They are the real heroes of making this recipe happen. The only con with this recipe is that it does take some time and effort to make. But hey, It’s SO worth it. So, if you’re down to spend some time in the kitchen, let’s get cooking!

Common Questions

Why use a blend of black & regular cocoa? 

Using a blend of black cocoa and regular cocoa gives you the perfect flavor, texture, and color profile. When I first was creating this recipe, I tried making it with regular cocoa powder. Using regular cocoa powdered produced an Oreo that was void of the sweetness and crisp texture. It also was too light in color.

Then, I went to other extreme and tried using all black cocoa powder. This resulted in a much yummier cookie, but was too dark in color, too crisp, and too sweet. So, I found the happy medium by combining 50% black Dutch cocoa powder with 50% hersheys brown cocoa powder. This was the best of both worlds.

How to have a perfectly white Oreo filling: 

It’s my understanding that Oreo uses soy and canola oil and processes them into shortening to create the ultimate white creme filling. I think it’s also safe to assume Oreo also uses powdered vanilla, also called vanillin, instead of vanilla extract to maintain that white color, since vanilla extract is brown by nature and vanilla powder is usually white.

So for my recipe, I recreated the filling by using palm oil and vanillin powder. Because the palm oil is slightly yellow on its own, it does turn the cream slightly more off white than your store-bought cookie, but it doesn’t affect the taste at all. If you really want your filling a little bit whiter than my recipe, you can try using refined coconut oil for the palm oil in the creme filling ingredients. If you try that, let me know in the comments how it turned out!

The key to Oreo’s mystery creme filling: 

If you’re like me, you have tried multiple online oreo copycat recipes and were disappointed in the results. Those cookies tasted soft and thick, kinda like shortbread, and the filling was more of a frosting buttercream, not the filling we know and love from Oreo. 

So, when recreating Oreos recipe, I did a deep dive science experiment…I wrote down the Oreo gluten free ingredients and went through a deduction process. I was trying to see what ingredients would be in the cookie and which would be in the filling. I learned the key to Oreos mystery creme filling: Homemade invert syrup. Amazingly, after my first trial run, the creme filling tasted very close to the flavor of an Oreo. And after adding in their “secret” artificial flavoring (vanillin) in additional trial runs, and eating way too many homemade Oreos, this filling became a perfect copycat.

Why use sunflower lecithin 

If you haven’t used lecithin before, sunflower lecithin loves both fat and water. Because of this, sunflower lecithin grabs both fat and water when mixed into other ingredients. Then, sunflower lecithin continuously binds all ingredients together. This helps with the shelf life by retaining moisture. It also aids with the texture of your Oreo to stick together and not be as crumbly.

Oreo’s “secret” artificial flavoring 

When I first was trial testing my recipe, there was something missing when you smelt the cookie. It didn’t have those strong vanilla notes like the Oreo cookie did. And thanks to my amazing taste testers, who don’t have allergies, and could taste test Oreos side by side with my homemade ones, they confirmed my cookie needed a bit more sweetness to make the cut to be considered an Oreo. So, In following test trials (and eating many yummy homemade oreos), I learned that vanillin powder is the second key to the perfect Oreo wafer and filling. What’s awesome is vanillin comes in a powder form. This means you don’t compromise the texture of either water or filling with powdered vanillin! It is also two to three times as potent as pure vanilla extract and doesn’t contain alcohol. This gives the cookie a perfect sweet flavor profile. 

The perfectly crisp cookie wafer 

Another dilemma I ran into was recreating the consistency and texture of the Oreo wafer. Oreo’s cookie is perfectly crispy, not too crumbly, and has a good snap to it when broken. It also holds up to dunking in your choice of non dairy milk. When I began testing recipe ideas, my cookies came out more like shortbread. My Oreos were too crumbly, and lacked that crisp snap. After some failed attempts and at least 100 homemade Oreos later, I learned that palm oil (you can sub refined coconut oil), which is fairly solid at room temperature, allows the cookie dough to not be too oily. Then, when the dough is baked it has that crispy crunch and snap that you’re looking for with an Oreo!

Why use Caster sugar?

Speaking of grittiness, DO NOT make these cookies with regular granulated sugar!!! When I was first testing my own recipe, I tried using regular sugar. It ultimately turned the wafers into an extra gritty cookie that sat on my counter for two weeks and then got thrown out.

*Pro tip: If you do have a high powdered food processor, you can turn granulated sugar into caster sugar, simply by processing the sugar for a few minutes on high. The result is a fine powdered sugar without the additional corn starch. 

What kinds of flour should I use? 

The store-bought gluten free Oreo uses three flours: rice, tapioca, and whole oat flour. Rice flour gives you the bulk you need, tapioca flour gives you the binding qualities you need, and oat flour retains moisture while also counteracting the gritty texture of the rice flour.
I recommend buying ultra fine rice flour and oat flour, because your cookie will have a better and less gritty texture. Alternatively, if you own a high powered food processor, pop your rice and oat flour into the machine on high for a few mins, till both flours are a fine powder. The results will be a great Oreo copycat.
If you cannot have tapioca, I recommend subbing in potato starch or arrowroot starch. Also, if you’re allergic to rice or oats, like so many of us are, I recommend subbing in two of the following flours: Amaranth, buckwheat, cassava, and/or sorghum flour for your cookie. If you want to learn more about how to create your own gluten free allergy friendly flour blends, check out my in depth guide here! And If you try a new blend let me know in the comments how it goes! 

STEP BY STEP GUIDE with pics 

coming soon…

THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP

Resting your dough is the most important step of this recipe. For this recipe, I recommend resting your cookie dough for at least one to two hours. This will ensure your rice flour and caster sugar, which are both known to be a bit gritty, soaks up the moisture adequately and is not gritty.

Baking Pans

Another thing I learned was that what you cook on matters. I was using some nice new pans along side my grandmas hand me downs and the cookies on the old pans baked too fast and came out too crispy and oily. I weighed this pan and compared it to my new pans and found out they were almost half the weight of my new ones and their bottoms felt thinner. So all that to say, if you cook on a pan that is a bit thin, you may end up with overly crisp wafers. If you want to use the pans I use, you can find them here.

Print