Oreo Truffles

     There was suppose to be a BBQ for Christine and I thrown by my coworkers on Sunday but the weather did not cooperate. We decided to postpone until after we get back from the honeymoon. Unfortunately for people who planned on coming, they weren’t going to be able to have the Oreo truffles that I made Saturday. I made these truffles once before a few years ago but thought they would be a nice dessert. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and didn't have to change a thing when I attempted them for the first time. Here’s the recipe:

1 18oz package Oreo cookies

1 8oz package cream cheese

2 8oz packages Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate

     Start off by opening the cream cheese and leaving it out on the counter to soften a little bit. Next, take about 1/10th of the Oreos and put them in a food processor. Blend them down into a fine crumb and place in a small bowl. Set this bowl aside until the coating stage. Then take the other 9/10ths of Oreos and blend them until they turn into a fine crumb and pour in a large mixing bowl. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may have to do two groups on that step. Add the cream cheese to the large bowl of cookie crumb and mix with a spatula until there are no loose crumbs in the bowl and no pockets of cream cheese. It usually takes me about 5 minutes to accomplish this. Once you have done that, begin rolling the “dough” into 1 inch sized balls and place them on a plate covered with wax paper. I get about 24 out of a batch but mine are a little on the large side. Place the plate in the freezer to harden them up a bit or they will come apart during the coating step.

     As soon as you put the balls in the freezer, put the contents of both boxes of semi-sweet chocolate in a small sauce pan. Turn the heat on low to melt the chocolate and stir so it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. By the time the chocolate is all melted, the balls will be hard enough to handle without falling apart. Take the balls one at a time and coat them with chocolate using two spoons to “pass” the ball back and forth to get the excess chocolate off. Place these chocolate covered balls on a pan lined with wax paper. Sprinkle the crumbs from the small bowl of Oreo crumb on each ball as you place them on the tray. Put the tray in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least 2 hours once they have all been coated and topped. I leave mine in overnight so I know the chocolate on the outside has hardened.

     If you make the balls small, you could have two or three as a dessert but if you make them as big as I do, one is more than sufficient. The center will be moist and soft while the outside will be hard and crunchy. I store mine in a Tupperware container in the fridge and take them as I want them. I was surprised that just three ingredients could make such a rich and filling dessert.

Rating: Delectable – Try adding other ingredients like Butterfingers or white chocolate to change up the recipe

Meatball Cookies

     For Easter we made "meatball cookies" as Christine's family likes to call them. No they aren't made of meatballs and they aren't shaped like meatballs either. The recipe is calls for a basic Italian cookie and this is where meatball comes in. Like myself, her family are equal opportunity offenders. The actual name for these cookies should be birds' nest cookies.
     The topping is where you need to start because the coconut needs time to dry out. For this step all you need is coconut and green food coloring. Mix the two together and spread out on some aluminum foil until dry. The green coconut represents the nest part of the birds' nest. Jelly beans that have been cut in half lengthwise go on top to represent the eggs. We found some speckled jelly beans that looked very similar to actual birds' eggs. We used three jelly bean halves per cookie which gives a nice bit of sweetness to each bite.
     To keep the egg filled nest on top of the cookie, we made butter cream frosting from scratch. I didn't realized how few ingredients go into butter cream frosting but the majority of it is confectioners' sugar. Milk, vanilla, and butter are mixed in until it starts to firm up enough to spread. Spreading the frosting on each little cookie is the most time consuming part of the whole process.
     The base for the nest and eggs is a basic Italian cookie made up of flour, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and butter. Mix these until combined enough to spoon onto cookie sheets. You have to watch these bake because they can burn very easily. They should only be about the size of a half dollar when they are done.
Rating: Fair - I felt that they needed something more because the cookie was too basic. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though