Oreo Truffles - Mommy Improvised

I decided to do a little something fancy and sweet for Pat for dessert. A girl at work brought these in for a food day and I've been looking for a reason to make them ever since! They are melt in your mouth good, and aside from knowing I'd be sick, I could eat an entire batch by.my.self!

So here is the recipe:
1 - 16 oz package of Oreo's (don't use the double stuffed ones)
1 - 8 oz package of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
2 - 8 oz packages of Baker's semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

1. Crush 9 cookies into fine crumbs in a food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be crushed in a ziploc bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies into fine crumbs. Place in mixing bowl. Add cream cheese, mix until well blended. Roll cookies into 42, 1 inch balls.
2. Dip balls in chocolate; place on a wax covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with reserve cookie crumbs.
3. Place in refrigerator until firm, approx 1 hour.

And here's how I did it:

1. Strap child in safety seat as to help make truffles for Daddy:

2. Since I don't own a food processor, or a rolling pin, take a pyrex dish and use the edge to crush cookies:

3. Put cream cheese in microwave for 30 seconds to soften.
4. Mix cream cheese with crumbs:

4. Roll into balls.

5. (I used white chocolate.) Place white chocolate in the microwave and set timer for WAY too long, tend to a screaming baby and by the time you realize you set it to microwave for too long the chocolate is burnt.

6. Pack child up, run to Shop and Save to get replacement white chocolate.

7. Finally dip balls in chocolate, and since I don't own wax paper, use aluminum foil to coat cookie sheets instead. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

8. Place in fridge for a hour and enjoy one before plating and serving as a Valentine's Day treat.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY BABY! 

(And because I said I would just for him, these will now be referred to as 'Pat's Chocolate Salty Balls')

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I decided that for Christmas morning we were going to have an assortment of baked goods for breakfast but I wanted to try something new. I found this recipe for cookie dough cupcakes, and since I have such a love for cookie dough I decided I had to try it out.

The actual recipe has you make the cupcake batter and cookie dough from scratch but what new mom has time to do that? Certainly not this one! I just used boxed mixes and it turned out just fine. The only thing I did differently was I took the big chocolate chips out of the cookie dough mix and instead added a cup of mini chocolate chips... I'm just not a huge fan of the chocolate chips...

Directions:

Follow directions on package to make cookie dough (and substitute the mini chocolate chips if desired). Roll the cookie dough into 1 Tablespoon balls and place on a cookie sheet and freeze overnight.

Follow directions on package to make cupcake batter. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners and fill them with 3 Tablespoons of batter each. Once all the liners are filled, take a frozen cookie dough ball and place it in the middle of the batter. Bake cupcakes at 350 for 16-18 minutes.

Frosting:

3 sticks of softened butter
3/4 c. light brown sugar packed
3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla

Combine butter & brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together on a medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in salt, milk and vanilla until smooth and combined.

Once the cupcakes are done baking let them cool. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips.

Enjoy!

I really liked these, but they are kind of rich :) I'm not the biggest fan of the icing but it's probably because I'm not making it right. For some reason mine is still a little grainy from the brown sugar but oh well, the family loved them!