Eating Oreos reminds me of whenever we would go to Taiwan; we would touch in the airport, typically in the middle of the night, and we would be hungry. The only places open nearby our apartment was a 7-11, so junk food was often what we ate to stave off our jet-lagged hunger. One memory I have in particular was eating Oreos and dunking them into Taiwanese milk, which is lighter and sweeter than American milk. Separating the chocolate sandwich cookies, dipping them into the milk, then taking a bite out of them. Doing that takes me back to my childhood on multiple levels.

Another ingredient I grew up on is black sesame. I just love the flavor of it in desserts, so I wanted to combine two childhood favorites together to create something entirely new. Oreos themselves, I have made Oreo crumble in the past during my stage at L’Espalier, where we would serve that with our malted chocolate plated dessert. We used malt, barley powder, and cocoa to flavor the dough, so I used malted milk powder, ovaltine, and cocoa to replicate that flavor in my sable dough.

The filling was where it got more unique. I did a cream cheese-coconut fat mixture, set with gelatin, and sweetened with simple syrup. It’s definitely not a true homage to the original thing, since Oreos are vegan, but it has a similar flavor profile and texture. My favorite part of this entire recipe is piping the filling and sandwiching the cookies together. It’s somewhat therapeutic, but more so than anything else, satisfying to do.

Makes 28 mini (1 inch in diameter) sandwich cookies
For the cookies:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour + more for rolling out
1 tablespoon Ovaltine powder
1 tablespoon malted milk powder
1 teaspoon black sesame powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 egg yolk

Whip together the butter, sugar, baking powder, egg yolk, salt, and cream. Fold in the remaining ingredients. Chill down the dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8th an inch, and cut out. Bake at 375 degrees F for 11 minutes. Cool completely.

For the black sesame filling:
3 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon gelatin powder + 1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons black sesame powder
a pinch of salt

Bloom gelatin. Bring water, coconut oil, sugar, salt, and gelatin to a simmer. Once the coconut oil and gelatin are melted, whip into the cream cheese. Fold in the black sesame powder. Transfer to a piping bag and cool completely.

For assembly:
Pipe the filling onto the cookie, being dots no bigger than the size of a finger nail. Sandwich the cookies.