Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

Who doesn’t love truffles during the holidays? Last year I made the oh so popular White Chocolate Oreo Truffles that were eaten in a matter of days. They are actually pretty healthy…the filling was comprised of instant chocolate Jell-O pudding, Oreos and skim milk (the healthy part), while the outside was a white chocolate candy coating drizzled in semisweet chocolate.

Why change something that’s already so good? If you know me well, you know that I love trying NEW recipes, so while I loved the above white chocolate Oreo truffles, I was ready to give Brown Eyed Baker’s Oreo Cheesecake Truffles a try!

The name “cheesecake” ought to give the ingredient list away in these truffles. The filling is comprised of just two ingredients: Oreos and cream cheese, while the outside is melted semisweet chocolate, sprinkles and crushed Oreos.

The truffles were very tasty, but also very rich due to the cream cheese filling. I’m a white chocolate person, so next time I make these I’ll probably use the white instead of semisweet chocolate. Matt also like these, so they pass the husband test.

Enjoy the Christmas season of baking and eating sweets, try not to gain too much weight, and let me know what you think of these!

Crush Oreos.

In a stand mixer, add cream cheese and mix until thoroughly combined.

Roll into balls, about 2 teaspoons in size.

Dip in chocolate and garnish with sprinkles and crushed Oreos.

Oreo Cheesecake Truffles
Ingredients
1 (18-ounce) package Oreo cookies
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Directions
1. Crush the Oreos until finely ground. A food processor does the best job, but if you don’t have one, throw the cookies in a ziplock bag and crush them using a rolling pin.
2. Transfer 3 cups of the Oreo crumbs to a bowl and add the cream cheese. In a stand mixer, beat until cream cheese is completely mixed into the Oreo crumbs and you have a soft, homogenous mixture. Using a small cookie scoop (or the equivalent of 2 teaspoons), scoop/roll balls of the Oreo/cream cheese mixture and place on wax paper-lined baking sheet. Once you have scooped out all of the filling, refrigerate the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes, until firm.
3. In a small bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and shortening in 30 second increments at 50% power, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth. Working with one Oreo ball at a time, dip it into the melted chocolate, roll it around to cover completely, then use a fork to remove it from the chocolate, letting an excess drip off. Place the dipped truffle back on the wax paper-lined sheet. Repeat with all truffles; once finished, return the baking sheet to the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
4. Serve the truffles, or garnish with sprinkles and leftover crushed Oreos. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Yield: 4 dozen truffles
Recipe adapted from: Brown Eyed Baker

Homemade Ice-Cream Sandwiches

Happy Labor Day! I hope your day was as relaxing as mine! This weekend I spent time at the lake visiting with friends and family, and then headed over to my parents’ house for some pizza and dessert.

As a huge fan of Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream ice-cream and Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies, I was in dessert heaven today!

My sister is an awesome baker. The monster cookie bars she made last week before her wedding were amazing, and the ice-cream sandwiches she made this week were just as good!

While Brittany was on her Hawaiian honeymoon last week, she and her husband Colby were laying out by the pool, when they saw a cooler that had a picture of an ice-cream sandwich on it. Unfortunately when they lifted the lid of the cooler, there were only drumsticks. 😦 Colby was disappointed, so when they returned to Dallas, Brittany decided to make homemade ice-cream sandwiches for him to enjoy!

Lucky for me, when I came to visit this weekend, there were leftovers! What’s great about homemade ice-cream sandwiches is that you can customize them any way you’d like. Mix and match your cookies (sugar, snickerdoodle, chocolate chip oatmeal raisin, white chocolate cranberry, double chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut, etc.) with your favorite ice-cream flavor (vanilla, cookies ‘n cream, chocolate, strawberry, birthday cake, cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, coffee, butter pecan, the list goes on.)

A little side note…. Pokey O’s of Dallas supposedly has the best ice-cream sandwiches around. I’ve never tried one, but that’s about to change soon!

My favorite combination is definitely a chocolate chip cookie with cookies ‘n cream ice-cream! But I won’t eat any ‘ole chocolate chip cookie…. it must be the Neiman Marcus recipe – they are my absolute favorite!

Let me know what combination you try. Enjoy!

Homemade Ice-Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients
1 batch of your favorite cookie recipe (I recommend Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies)
2 pints of your favorite ice-cream (I recommend Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream)

Directions
1. Bake cookies according to recipe directions. Let cool completely.
2. Place one scoop of ice-cream on the cookie. Place second cookie on top.
3. Eat immediately or wrap individually in plastic wrap and freeze. If frozen, remove from freezer about 5 minutes just prior to eating.

White Chocolate Oreo Truffles

Tis the season for holiday baking, and I did just that this weekend! Tomorrow is our first annual Holiday Potluck at work, and I am bringing Quick Chicken Parmesan and a variety of desserts including Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies, fantasy fudge, candied pecans and these truly addicting white chocolate Oreo truffles.

If you know me very well, you should know that I LOVE Oreos! I will only order ice cream, gelato and/or custard with Oreos. If I don’t get that flavor, I’m very upset. Don’t be fooled though, I may sample 3-4 flavors before ordering, but 99.999% of the time I will order cookies n’ cream.

This truffle recipe did not disappoint. The only trouble I had was forming the balls. With only 1/2 cup of milk for a whole package of Jell-O and crushed Oreos, I found the batter was extremely thick. I had to add a little extra milk to help the truffles stay together and not crumble when rolling into balls. In addition, I had never made truffles before, so these definitely look “home-made”. They are not perfect little round balls. Instead, some truffles have more chocolate coating than others, some have too much chocolate drizzle, and some look lop-sided. I guess it gives them character, right? Plus, I think home-made truffles taste better than the boxed kind.

Even though no truffle looks the same, they all taste the same: delicious! They are full of Oreo flavor and are extremely moist, like you would expect from a cream-cheese filling. However, I like to think these are “healthier” since they have instant pudding mixture and skim milk! (That is probably just wishful thinking!)

My aunt Uny discovered this recipe and then shared it with my aunt Jolene, who shared it with me. Even though all three of us made the same truffle recipe over the weekend, we all had different results in terms of number of balls. I made 21 balls, Uny made 31 and Jolene made 49 balls! I guess it largely depends on how big you roll them. The original recipe calls for 42 truffles.

Enjoy!

Whisk together pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes. Add Oreo crumbs.

Shape into one-inch balls. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Once balls are firm, dip them in melted white chocolate. Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Enjoy and see if you can keep yourself from eating more than one!

White Chocolate Oreo Truffles
Ingredients
1 package (3.9 ounce) Jell-O instant chocolate pudding
1/2 cup cold milk (more as needed)
36 Oreo cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
1 package white chocolate candy coating, melted
1 semi-sweet chocolate square, melted

Directions
1. Beat pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes with a whisk (pudding will get thick). Add cookie crumbs and mix well.
2. Shape into 42 one-inch balls. Freeze the balls for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt white chocolate according to package directions. I used the tray provided and melted the chocolate in a 250 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
4. Dip balls into white chocolate and place in wax paper-lined pan.
5. Melt semi-sweet chocolate. I used the microwave, but be careful not to scorch the chocolate (use a very low-power setting). Drizzle truffles with semi-sweet chocolate.
6. Refrigerate balls until firm.

Yield: 42 one-inch balls (I made 21 large truffles)
Family recipe, Aunt Uny