Oreo Balls, Patriot Style

I’m just going to toss these out here, because I’ve posted cake ball recipes numerous times, but never Oreo balls. They are part of the same culinary family, as far as I’m concerned, and wickedly easy. Even easier than their cake ball cousins, if you can believe that, because – get this – you don’t have to bake anything. I’ll say it again: you don’t have to bake anything.

And you only need 3 ingredients:

• Package of regular Oreos (less 7 cookies or so), crushed
• 1 8oz block of cream cheese, softened
• Chocolate or candy coating for dipping

1.  First, remove those 7 cookies from the package. Treat yourself to a cookie. Then, take the remaining package of Oreos and crush them. I do this by putting them in a ziplock bag and beating them senseless with a rolling pin or a tamper. You could do it by using a food processor, I’m just too lazy to clean it. Treat yourself to another cookie, two if you crushed the Oreos by hand.

2.  Next, combine the crushed cookies and the softened cream cheese. I find it is easiest to do this in a stand mixer, this way if you don’t let the cream cheese soften quite enough (which I never do), the mixer will take care of the rest.

3.  Then, scoop out the mixture, form them into balls, and place on a wax-lined cookie sheet. I do this with a #60 cookie scoop.

4.  Put the balls in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so (a little longer won’t kill them). Then, you can melt your coating and dip. I usually take the balls out about 5-6 at a time for dipping, and leave the rest in the freezer so that they don’t start to soften.

5.  Once the coating is hard, you can drizzle on some decorations – my theme here is obvious, but get creative. Any method used to decorate a cake ball will work for these too.

6.  Here is one crucial difference between these and cake balls: Oreo balls need to be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese, so keep this in mind and make sure you have enough space in your fridge for a cookie tin (or whatever other storage device you plan to use).

These balls can be made with flavored Oreos as well. I’ve used mint Oreos and they are delicious! Just remember, most flavored Oreos are double-stuffed, so you need to compensate for the extra filling – for mint and other double stuffs, use about 22 whole cookies and 10 cookies with the filling taken out. I haven’t used peanut butter Oreos yet, but I am sure they will be fabulous. This can be done with nearly any sandwich cookie – Nutter Butters, Vienna Cremes, etc. For a cookie you’ve never tried before, I’d add about 2/3 of a package plus the cream cheese, and then add the remaining cookies, a few at a time. If it seems that the mixture is too loose, you can scrape out the filling of the remaining cookies before you add them, as with the double stuff Oreos.