Secrets from the Cookie Princess: Oreo Truffles

Friday, December 9, 2011

Oreo Truffles

My mom makes the best chocolate. Seriously, she has been making it for years and my family has been fighting over it for just as long. Instead of baking during the holidays, my mom would make pound upon pound of homemade fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, and clusters of various nuts. She even makes molded candy for all kinds of occasions. She would make Easter candy in cute bunny shapes--hollow, solid or even these tiny one inch bunny molds she'd make in all kinds of pastel colors. She would make this to sell to friends for use in their Easter baskets. Embarrassingly enough, I'd sit at the kitchen table as a child and watch her toil away, never putting two and two together when some eerily similar looking bunnies showed up in my Easter basket. But I digress, as it's almost Christmas. Several years ago, my mom noticed a local chocolatier selling chocolate covered Oreos for a dollar piece. Out of her mind, my mom figured she could sell them three for a dollar and turn a profit and thus added those to her repertoire. Then a couple of years ago, she figured out how to make Oreo truffles--these delicious crushed Oreo treat dipped in milk chocolate that are both decadent and simple to make. She taught me, and today, I'm sharing with you.

This is less of a recipe and more of a process and has been featured on lots of blogs. I'm not sure where my mom learned, but since I got it from her, she's my citation. These are delicious. Rich and chocolatey, they are perfect for adding a little bit extra to a cookie tray or packing up in a box for the chocolate lover on your gift list. Have a little fun and be creative with the topping--you can used colored chocolate to drizzle over or all kinds of sprinkles. These can be personalized or color-coordinated for any occasion, so keep these in your back pocket for year round indulgence. I'd wanted to color mine in the traditional red, green and white for the holidays, but my green chocolate melts must have been a little old because they wouldn't melt properly, even with a little shortening to help them along. Melting chocolate, as long as you use a good quality chocolate (my mom and I use Merkens), is easy and you don't need any fancy tools to do it. In fact, Dave did most of the work on these--I just rolled the balls and drizzled the colored chocolate on the finished truffles. Don't be scared--these truffles are totally worth it.

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients

1 package Oreo Cookies (I used double-stuf, but regular are fine)
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 pound milk chocolate melts
colored chocolate melts or sprinkles of choice for decoration, optional

In the bowl of a food processor, crush the Oreos (all of them) into fine crumbs.

Dump the Oreo crumbs into a large bowl and add cream cheese. Stir together until combined.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the Oreo mixture and roll into about 1 inch balls. Arrange Oreo balls on a lined cookie sheet (waxed paper, Silpat, parchment, whatever you have).

Chill Oreo balls for one hour.

Before removing Oreo balls from fridge, place milk chocolate melts in a glass contained. We used a 2 cup measuring cup because we wanted something deep but not too wide. Microwave chocolate for 2 1/2 minutes at 40% power. Note: Changing the power level of your microwave is key. Otherwise you will burn the chocolate. Low and slow is the motto here.

Stir chocolate until smooth. If you need to melt it more, microwave it in 20-30 second increments at 30% power until you get a runny consistency. Note: If you have difficulty getting your chocolate to melt smoothing, add about a Tablespoon of vegetable shortening before heating again. If it still is clumpy, the chocolate is likely too old to be smooth for dipping. But you could empty the dish into a zip top bag, let the chocolate harden, and then chop the chocolate for use in cookie recipe or something similar.

Using two forks, dip the Oreo balls in the melted chocolate until coated. Remove from chocolate and allow excess to drip off before placing on your lined cookie sheet.

To decorate with sprinkles, scatter sprinkles on top of truffles immediately after dipping before the chocolate hardens. If using colored chocolate, melt chocolate in small bowls (for a small quantity, start by melting for 1 minute at 40% power, then in 30 second increments at 30% power). When chocolate is smooth, use a small spoon and drizzle chocolate back and forth across dipped truffles.