Oreo Truffles

If you are in a rush to make some goodies for family and friends during this next week before Christmas, these are for you!  Timothy's aunt made these truffles last year and I've pretty much been craving them since then.  I had to make some treats to take to a Christmas party last weekend and I decided to throw these together.  I remembered that Annette said something about them being ridiculously easy, so I figure what the heck?  I called her to ask for the ingredients, and get this.  There are only four.  Yes I said it.  Four.  Even better is it can all be done in the food processor.  I'm all for cooking that involves only one dish to clean.  So keep reading and I'll show you just how easy these are, and they will make you look like a rock star.  Or they will make you look like you spent tons of time and money, which you definitely will not!

Start by crushing up your Oreo cookies in the food processor. 

Make sure they are very finely chopped, almost like sand.  You don't want your truffles to have any big chunks in them. 

Throw in one brick of softened cream cheese.  Yes you are doing this all in the food processor.  No need to stir all this up and get crumbs all over your counter.  You have your husband or kids for that.  Just kidding!

Pulse your cream cheese and Oreo mixture to blend it together.  After is is combined it will resemble wet sand.  Now it is ready to roll baby!

Now it is time to roll them into small balls.  I would say about the size of a Tablespoon scoop, or smaller than a golf ball.  They don't need to be perfect, real truffles aren't.  Place them in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes.  They will be easier to dip in the chocolate this way and won't fall apart.

Now for the dipping, which is super simple.  I would have taken more pictures of this process but I apparently am not an expert dipper and dropped a big piece of dark chocolate into the melted white chocolate and had to start over.  Plus at that point my hair wasn't even dry and we were already thirty minutes late.  You want to melt your chocolate with some shortening to help it to set and not be goopy.  I know goopy isn't the best term, but it's the best I've got right now.  It's easy to remember though, because it's a 1:1 ratio.  1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp of shortening.  I happen to prefer dipping the truffles in the white chocolate (real white chocolate not almond bark) because the inside is dark and then it's like a reverse Oreo.  But I'm weird like that, do whatever you want...or whatever is on sale at the time.  Melt the semi-sweet chips the same way and spoon them into a Ziploc baggie.  I used a toothpick to dip my frozen truffles into the chocolate then sat them on wax paper.  Once the white chocolate dried (this will also happen very fast if the truffles are frozen), I snipped the end off the dark chocolate bag and piped some stripes on top of each truffle.  Then just store them in the fridge until you are ready to eat them, which is probably as soon as you are finished if you're like me.

Oreo Truffles
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Yield: about 36 truffles
Ingredients:
1 bag Oreo cookies
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
Chocolate chips for dipping
shortening

Directions:
1.  Run the cookies through the food processor until fine crumbs form.  Add in the cream cheese and process until combined, looking like wet sand.
2.  Roll into Tbsp size balls and freeze for 15-20 minutes. 
3.  Melt 1 cup of chocolate with 1 Tbsp shortening in the microwave (go slow on this) for 15-30 seconds at a time, stirring constantly.
4.  Use a toothpick to dip truffles into the chocolate and set on parchment paper to cook.  Decorate either with chocolate, cookie crumbs, or sprinkles.

Courtesy of Annette A.