Tasty Tuesday

This weekend I broke my self-imposed Sunday “day of rest” and attended an annual Christmas party and cookie exchange that my anonymous friend throws with her mom and sister. It’s always a fun time and this year was no exception.

If you’ve never been involved in a cookie exchange before, this is how it works…each attendee makes a lot of one kind of cookie. In this case we each made 6 dozen cookies. Upon arriving at the party, the cookies are displayed and each person takes 2-3 of each kind of cookie. If there are remaining cookies after everyone has had their turn, the process starts over again. At the end of the exchange you go home with a nice variety of cookies for your holiday needs.

This year’s spread…
(Those chocolaty/caramely things to the right were to die for)

Close ups…

Just looking at all these cookies makes my teeth hurt.

Last year I made sour cream cutouts which are the best cookie I have ever eaten, but very time consuming. I didn’t have the time, plus I’m still ticked that I couldn’t decorate them with silver balls, so I made another quick recipe which also happens to be a crowd pleaser.

I call these White Trash Truffles.
They taste just like professionally crafted truffles, but they are far from the real thing as the ingredients leave much to be desired. In fact, I hate to even post the recipe because I don’t think there is one natural ingredient in them (are chocolate chips considered natural). But they are so easy and do taste good. They are sure to be a hit!

White Trash Truffles
Ingredients
1-16 oz package of oreo cookies
1-8 oz package of cream cheese
1-20 oz package of chocolate chips or baking chocolate
various sprinkles, toppings, etc.

Directions
1. Place package of oreos in a food processor and chop until finely crushed.
2. Add cream cheese to the cookies and blend together in the food processor until well blended (no longer see white)
3. Stick mixture in the refrigerator or freezer until chilled and easier to work with.
4. Roll out chocolate mixture into small balls and lay them on a cookie sheet lined with wax/parchment paper. Note: Since the cream cheese will soften in your hand the balls should be placed in the fridge to chill back up before moving onto the next step.
5. Once balls are chilled, melt the chocolate (a small batch at a time) in a double broiler or the microwave.
6. Place a chocolate ball on a fork and pour chocolate over it with a spoon. Roll ball into the spoon in order to get the bottom, and then used the form to roll it back onto the lined cookie sheet. (This takes some time to get the hang of as the chocolate is quite thick even when melted).
7. Before the chocolate hardens completely sprinkle with candies, jimmies, crushed cookie, etc.
8. Place the chocolate dipped balls back in the fridge until ready to serve or pack up for a cookie exchange.
This recipe makes 5-6 dozen depending on the size you want them. They are rich so I don’t make them too big.

I have heard of others replacing the oreos with other sandwich cookies (peanut butter, mint, etc) and the melted chocolate with other flavors (white chocolate, yogurt, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc.)