Oreo Truffles

I've been meaning to read SOMETHING so that I can write about it, but sadly, The Sims Medieval seems to have sucked my life away.  I'll try to pull myself away from it, or at least find something short to read, but in the meantime, here's another recipe!

All you need for extreme deliciousness!

Oreo truffles have got to be one of the simplest, yet tastiest, desserts I know how to make.  You only need four ingredients: Oreos (natch), cream cheese, chocolate chips, and shortening.  That's it. 

Those are some fiiiine crumbs you got there.

The first thing you're going to want to do is turn your nice new package of Oreos into a large pile of Oreo crumbs.  I personally recommend using a food processor since it'll give you some nice, fine crumbs, which will give your truffles a nice consistency.  If you don't happen to have a food processor, though, never fear!  A blender or even a good old fashioned rolling pin and plastic bag will work, if that's all you have. 

Next up, add your cream cheese.  I suggest using cream cheese that's at room temperature; it'll mix in much easier than cold cream cheese.  Just leave it on your counter for a few hours, until you're ready to make your truffles.  Mix in the cream cheese using your food processors blade attachment, your blender, or your muscle power until you can't see it anymore.  Your truffle mixture will form into a gooey ball on its own if you're using a food processor.  If you want to have truffles with a slightly different flavor than "Oreo", you can also add in a teaspoon of some extract, like vanilla, peppermint, raspberry, whatever.

Insert joke about chocolate balls here.

Now you're going to roll your mixture into little balls and put them on a large cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.  I suppose you could make them as large as you want to, even making just one GIANT truffle, but I'd recommend going with about a tablespoonish each.  These'll be very soft and very gooey, so stick 'em in the fridge for a good hour or two to firm up.  While you're waiting, you can go and play Medieval Sims.  The time will just fly by as you watch the romance between Queen Martha and Wizard Edward blossom, be amazed at how quickly Merchant Brandon is able to get Bard Erik into bed, and be amazed at the fighting prowess of Knight Commander Karen.  Or I guess you could do something else.

Pre-melted chocolate and shortening.

ANYWAY.  Once you've let those bad boys set for a while, it's time to bring your chocolate chips and shortening into play.  I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, whatever kind of chip suit your taste.  Put two cups of your chips and two tablespoons of shortening into a double boiler.  And I feel like I've lost a couple people here.  Ok, so you might not have a double boiler.  It's very easy to make your own.  Check out this page and come on back when you're done.  Ok, got that?  Good.  So put your chocolate and shortening in a double boiler, stirring constantly until it's all melted together..  You don't want to put your chocolate in a pan in direct contact with the heat source since it burns pretty easily.  You really, really don't want that to happen; it's unpleasant and will both smell and taste bad. 

Smoothy smooth!

Once your chocolate is all melted and smooth, turn off the heat and take those truffles out of the fridge!  Take them off of your cookie sheet, put them in a bowl, and line your cookie sheet with some fresh waxed paper.  One by one, toss your little truffle balls into the chocolate pot, get them nice and coated, and take them back out again, putting them on your freshly lined cookie sheet.  If you want to make them a little fancy, it's very simple to do so.  I tossed a few chocolate sprinkles on each one as they came out.  You can use other colored sprinkles, colored sugar, a drizzle of chocolate, white chocolate, or whatever you want.  It's pretty easy to make them look super fancy pants.  People will be impressed at your chocolatiering prowess.  Dazzle your friends and make your rivals jealous!

Just stick them in the fridge to firm up, then serve!

Once you've got your truffles all covered in chocolate, it's time to stick them back in the fridge.  You'll want to keep them in there until you're ready to serve them.  Remember, they have a brick of cream cheese in them.  If you leave them out of the refrigerator for too long, I can't promise good things will come of that.  Don't worry, though, once you take them out of the fridge and serve them, they probably won't last too long anyway.