I first had a “homemade” oreo-style cookie in the late ’90s at the original La Brea Bakery. It was indeed on La Brea Ave next door to Campanile, the amazing Italian restaurant started by Nancy Silverton’s then-husband where she was the Pastry Chef and the Head Baker at the bakery next door. The now very famous La Brea Bakery – just love her story and that of the bakery itself. She reinvented bread in Los Angeles. And as a new foodie in my late 20s, at the time, I was eating it up like crazy!
Back to that oreo! It was soft and deep dark chocolate. Not a crunchy cookie-like you buy at Vons. The white cream filling inside wasn’t hard and so stuck to the cookie sides that you had to lick it for a good 5 minutes to get it to melt off. It was creamy. And vanilla. And blew my mind.
It was the second “knock-off” I attempted in a long list of missed foods when I went gluten-free. Converting recipes and creating whole new ones became my obsession. The hostess cupcake was of course the first, and became our famous “Karma Cake”.
These oreo-look-a-likes came out really good. They looked very rustic and natural just like at La Brea. I didn’t roll out the dough or use a cookie-cutter as we do at the bakery now. These were more like a rolled-up dough balls that I pressed with a metal spatula. They looked like this…
The recipe is still the same, because when it’s perfect – don’t change it! And if you do your customers will let you know about it – lol… so this is the recipe, the one we use at the bakery every day. Click Here to purchase our organic flour blend!
Karma Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie
- 3 cups Karma Baker Organic Gluten Free Flour
- 1 1/4 cups Unsweetened Organic Cocoa Powder The best quality you can find
- 1/2 cup Arrowroot Powder may sub tapioca starch here
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Sea salt
- 2 cups Organic Evaporated Cane Juice
- 1 1/4 cups Organic Coconut Oil Refined. Unscented. Warmed and melted before measuring
- 2/3 cup Organic Applesauce (unsweetened)
Vanilla Cream Filling
- 1/2 cups Organic Palm Shortening
- 2 cups Organic Powdered Sugar
- 1 TBL Organic Rice Milk
- 1/2 tsp Good quality Madagascar Vanilla
Instructions
- To make Cookie Dough…Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir to mix. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, combine sugar, warm coconut oil, warm applesauce and vanilla. Mix on low until sugar is dissolved. 2-3 minutes.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix on low until the dough comes together and all of the ingredients are combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350.Clear your work area and create space to roll out the dough.Roll dough to ¼” thickness and cut out 2” circles. Place circles on parchment lined cookie sheets. Cookies will not spread much so 1” apart is fine.Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes.Cool completely on a wire rack and make Cream Filling.
- To Make Vanilla Cream Filling…Using a whip attachment on your mixer, beat the palm shortening at high speed, until light and fluffy and doubled in size. About 3-5 minutes. Slowly add in the powdered sugar and rice milk, mix until incorporated. Add vanilla.
- On cooled cookies, spoon out 1 TBL of Cream Filling onto ½ of the cookie sides and cover with opposing cookie. Allow to cool in fridge to set.
- Enjoy!
