Weekend goodies

With our spouses otherwise occupied, Lindsey and I decided to crash Michael and Kendra's weekend beach getaway. We'd both been eyeing some amazing-looking recipes, so we told our friends we'd bake for them if allowed entry to the Pacific City cabin. Access was immediately granted.

Lindsey found this graham cracker recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I'm not sure if/how she altered it, so I'll just let you check out the original instructions.
They were very tasty - lots of honey flavor. And of course, we had to turn them into s'mores!
Soooo good!

And I recently found this homemade Oreo recipe, also on Smitten Kitchen (she has lots of excellent creations!). I honestly couldn't stop thinking about it, so I had to make it happen.
It supposedly makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies - unless you're like me (and Lindsey and Kendra and Michael!) and eat a lot of the dough. But it still made plenty.

Cookies:
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour (I was out and used cake flour. Worked just fine)
1/2 c unsweetened Dutch process cocoa (I just used Hersey's)
1 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 to 1 1/2 c sugar (I went with the higher amount - I wanted sweet)
1/2 c plus 2 T (1 1/4 sticks) butter, room temp
1 large egg

Filling:
1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter, room temp
1/4 c vegetable shortening
2 c sifted powdered sugar (like I'm going to sift it... yeah, right!)
2 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a food processor or electric mixer (I didn't feel like pulling out the mixer so I did it by hand), thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar. Add the butter and then the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

3. Place rounded teaspoons of batter (I used my smallest cookie scoop) on a greased baking sheet and slightly flatten. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. (I wanted mine less crispy and more soft, so I baked 8 minutes). Cool cookies on rack.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl. At low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Beat on high until filling is light and fluffy.

5. Mrs. Smitten said to pipe the filling onto cooled cookies. I'm not that fancy, so I just spread with a knife.

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I made the dough and filling at home and then baked and assembled these beauties at the beach. They are amazingly good. The cookie dough is excellent raw or baked. The filling was very heavy on the fat and tasted like it when eaten alone. But on the sandwich, it was perfect!

These came together without much trouble and tasted SO good. I would definitely make them again.

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As for the rest of the weekend, it was fabulous! The weather was surprisingly pleasant - even sunny at times. Lindsey forced me to go running Saturday evening (during the one of the day's only downpours), which was exactly what we both needed. We watched a movie, played with M&K's kiddos, ate yummy food, laughed, puzzled and talked until 1:30 in the morning (Lindsey was smart enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour - but she missed some crazy late-night discussions!)

Sunday, we ate at Hawk Creek Cafe in Neskowin before cruising the Lincoln City outlet mall. Lindsey and I split a scrumptious smoked salmon/cream cheese/avocado omelet with potatoes and biscuits. I will be returning to that little hidden treasure!

I've said it a million times already... my friends are amazing. Thanks to them for a wonderful weekend away :)