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Monday, October 3, 2016

October 3: Here's Looking at You Truffles


You know how making Oreo fudge is kind of my thing lately? (What do you mean you didn't know that? I feel pretty confident I mentioned it at some point, though, in fairness, I don't remember exactly when. So I guess you can have a pass. The point is, I've become somewhat famous around town--ok, town might be something of an overstatement, but let's just go with it-- for making this phenomenal Oreo fudge. It's a Sally's Baking Addiction recipe from her Candy Addiction cookbook. That's a fab book, by the way. You should get it.) Well, I've just found another Oreo-based recipe that, in terms of pleased-crowd reviews, is right on par with that fudge. 

I made these Oreo truffles for the first time at the beginning of September when my husband hosted Fantasy Football Draft Night at our house. This House of Yumm recipe for Oreo footballs looked so simple and festive, I decided to try them. They were a huge hit. And why wouldn't they be? Once you bite through the chocolate exterior, your teeth sink into the soft, rich truffle-y interior. Oreo goodness with just a hint of cream cheesy tang. Ahhh...

Since then, I've had several requests for more of them, but since we're pretty much swimming in sweets the whole month of October thanks to my Month of Tricks and Treats, I knew the only way I could make them is if I adapted them to fit my theme.

I'm kinda loving how they turned out.

Though, for such a simple concept, adapting them wasn't without its hiccups. (I will share those hiccups with you so you can see how my little projects evolve. Oy!)

I originally thought I'd make them into little spiders with the balls serving as the bodies and pieces of thin pretzels serving as legs, but because they're dipped, that would present an issue with mess so I ditched that idea before even trying it. Then I thought I'd do half of them in chocolate and half of them as pumpkins using orange melts instead of the chocolate melts. Turns out--which I should have remembered from past uses of the tinted candy melts--the texture of that stuff is simply not the same as the chocolate and, as such, was MUCH harder to work with in this capacity. My attempted pumpkins were disastrous. I was not a happy camper.
These drippy orange blobs were a nightmare--the white decoration can't hide it
So back to chocolate I went. I tried using white candy melts to decorate the tops to look like spider's webs, but the tip of the baggie was a smidge too wide (see thickness of the white in the photo above) to get the thin circles that would have worked best to make quality webs.

I stood glaring at these stupid brown balls, wondering what the hell I was going to do with them to make them look Halloween-y. Turns out the answer was staring me in the face. (Oh, the Halloween puns...gotta love 'em!)


Eyeballs!

What can I say? It just worked.

One of the great things about these is that you can use whatever kind of Oreo you like to make the delicious interior of the truffle. So far, I've only tried it with the original flavor, but I am eager to try it with the mint and peanut butter varieties, too. Mmm. Feel free to experiment with your favorite variety.

Here's Looking at You Truffles

Yield: 37 eyeballs

Ingredients:

1 pack of Oreos
8 oz brick of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
12 oz bag of chocolate candy melts (you can use real chocolate if you prefer)
2 oz white candy melts
candy eyeballs (I've purchased mine from the baking aisle at Target and at craft stores)

Directions:

1. In a food processor, pulverize your Oreos into crumbs.

2. Pour crumbs into deep bowl. Add brick of softened cream cheese. Use a fork to fully combine the crumbs and the cheese. Keep stirring until there are no white globs remaining.



3. Use a small OXO scoop (about 2 tsp worth), scoop out uniform blobs of the mixture. Roll the blobs gently between your hands to make them round.


4. Put the tray of balls in the freezer for at least 10 minutes to harden.

5. Melt your chocolate (follow the directions on the packaging, and be sure to watch it and stir in between heating so you don't scorch it). Drop your balls into the melted chocolate and use a dipping tool to roll it around and remove it. Because these are going to be eyeballs and are meant to be sort of ghoulish-looking, it's fine if they aren't perfectly beautiful. That said, you should still work quickly because the balls are cold and the chocolate is warm. Why does this matter, you ask? Because A. The chocolate will set up quickly on the cold ball, and B. If the ball gets too warm, it can start to flake apart and get crumbs in your melted chocolate. No bueno.

Replace on sheet to set.


6. Once the chocolate has set, melt the white chocolate and scoop into a baggie. (The freezer kind work best because they are thicker.) Snip the tip of one corner. Squeeze a small dollop of the white melt on the top of the ball, then position a candy eye on top. (Another option here, if you'd rather, is to add the candy eye after the original dip when the balls are still wet. That's up to you.)
 If you set the baggie over the top of a glass, it holds everything in place while you fill your makeshift piping bag.

And you're done! Eyeballs all around!


Now, if you were doing these for another occasion and didn't want to make a candy body part, you could just do a swirl or zig-zag across the top of your truffle.
Like I said before, the tip-snip I gave my baggie was a smidge too wide
so I didn't get the thin stream I was looking for.

No matter how you end up decorating them, the flavor is to die for.

Make them and see for yourself! (Hahahahahahaha)

2 comments:

  1. It's dangerous to know how easy it is to make truffles. I've been debating about getting a food processor and those perfectly ground oreos look like a pro to me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed. Dangerously easy AND delicious! I vote yes for buying a food processor-- I use mine for soups, hummus, nut butters, pulverizing cookies...you know, stuff like that! But I have a buying tip: Be sure the lower blade is relatively close to the bottom of the processor bowl. I had a very efficient processor for many years which I replaced not because it was broken but because the lid had a side spout that was completely impractical and made storage a pain. Thus, I "upgraded." Turns out the new one, while easier to store, doesn't operate as well because the low blade is too high in the bowl. I can't even make small batches of anything in it because the stupid blade goes right over the ingredients! It's terrible.
      But make these truffles. Mmm.

      Delete

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