Homemade Valentine treat: Oreo truffles

So you know what tomorrow is, right?  The worst day to buy cards, chocolate or roses   They will be at their all time HIGHEST price in the whole year (not to mention the long lines.)

To save you from over-priced chocolates (that were probably made in a factory somewhere while your Christmas tree was still up), I have the BEST, the easiest, melt-in-your mouth homemade truffle recipe.  And you only need 3 ingredients (which you might have on-hand already.)

Three ingredients:

• 1 pack of Oreos
• 1 package of cream cheese
• 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate (or chocolate bark, white chocolate, whatever you prefer)

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.

Crush your Oreo’s– in a food processor or in a large Ziploc bag.

Blend cream cheese until smooth with a mixer then add in Oreo crumbs and mix for just a few seconds till combined.  At this point, you will want to eat it by the spoonful right out of the bowl.  BUT hang on, they get even better!:)

Scoop out into equal size balls.  I use a medium cookie scoop and usually get 24-26 truffles out of one recipe.

I then re-roll the balls in my hands so they are good and smooth.

Pop them in the freezer or fridge to chill.  (I prefer freezer for about 20-30 minutes.)

While they are chilling, melt your chocolate.  You can do this in the microwave or in a double boiler.    If you do it in the microwave do it for short intervals (30 sec. at a time on medium power.)  I prefer using a double boiler so that the chocolate stays a consistent temperature the whole time.  You can easily make a DIY double boiler by just using any glass or metal mixing bowl over a saucepan.  Fill the bottom of the saucepan with an inch or so of water.  Use low to medium heat until the chocolate is melted and then turn down to low until you are done dipping all your truffles.

After making many of these truffles (I make and sell them in my my small cake business for Valentine’s Day), I have found my preferred utensils to be a fork and a spoon.  I use the fork to pull the truffle out of the chocolate so the excess chocolate can drain off the truffle and back into the bowl and the spoon to scoop the truffle off the fork onto the pan so I don’t leave fork marks on the side.

Here’s what a fresh dipped one will look like.  (Don’t worry about the drizzles – you can break those off once it is cooled.)  Dip all of your truffles in chocolate.

If you want to dress them up a little, you can melt some white chocolate or white bark to drizzle on them.  Want a easy way to do fancy drizzles? 

Melt some white bark in a Ziploc bag in the microwave – using the same microwave melting instructions above..  (Make sure to use a FREEZER Ziploc bag as those are much thicker and stronger – the other ones will break open – ask me how I know 🙂

Then cut the TINIEST bit off the corner of the bag and you are ready with your DIY piping bag!  Drizzle away!  No particular design just a fast little drizzle on each truffle.

And if you are REALLY wanting to dress them up, I am loving these sprinkles this year.  (I used one of the red hearts in my Peppermint Mocha recipe I posted the other day.)

Adorn each truffle with a red or pink heart if you wish

Chill again in the refrigerator until cooled and firm.  Keep refrigerated. 

If you want to go even one step farther and package them up pretty too, I place each truffle in a mini cupcake wrapper.  Then you can package a dozen in a little box like this (this a 4-cupcake box without the cupcake insert – fits a dozen truffles or chocolate dipped strawberries perfectly!)

Or package them in little tin.

Whatever you do, save a few for your Valentine!    Don’t devour them all…

They are very rich, and extremely delicious!  No one ever guesses they are made with just Oreos and cream cheese – they seriously have that creamy truffle inside that the most expensive truffles have.

(Don’t worry, no half Oreo truffles were wasted during the taking of these pictures.  I promise it was promptly devoured as soon as the camera was put down.)

So what are your romantic plans for tomorrow?  Dinner out? Dinner and movie at home?  Devouring 2 dozen truffles with your hubby? 

{cj}