Oreo Balls

Oreo Balls
My "famous" recipe, come Christmas-time, is hands-down Oreo Balls or its variations.

These little bits of heaven can be made with many variations of the following three ingredients:

Cookies
Cream Cheese
Chocolate Coating

The Basic Recipe
One package Oreo Cookies
One package Philadelphia Cream Cheese
One package Candiquik Vanilla Candy Coating

Directions:
1. Soften cream cheese.
2. Blend together Oreo cookies and Cream cheese until you reach a consistent texture.
3. Spread the mixture on a shallow sheet pan. Put in the freezer.
4. After mixture has hardened, break up the oreo mixture and form into balls
5. Place the balls back in the freezer, on the sheet pan.
6. Heat up the candy coating in a deep sauce pan. The smaller the circumference and deeper the pot/pan, the better! Once the coating has melted, reduce the heat!!
7. Take the balls out of the freezer, dip them in the coating, and then set them aside on wax paper.
8. Enjoy!

Hints & Tips I've picked up over the years:
*I added steps 3&4 for aesthetic reasons - if the balls are warm when dipping, they tend to break up and the coating will end up looking more like cookies & cream rather than the smooth white
*For dipping: I take disposable forks and remove the middle two prongs. Then, I use two of these to balance the ball and dip it, then move it onto wax on the side.
*To form the mixture into balls, I use a small ice cream scoop like this one
*Only put in as much candy coating as you need at the time! Melted chocolate and coating has a tendency to "seize" up, so only put in 1/4-1/3 of the package at a time until you get the hang of it. [Do not use a double boiler!! We tried this, and the extra moisture caused everything to seize up.] [Using chocolate chips also led to more seizing than the candy coating]
*Some people crush the cookies and mix with the cream cheese within a Ziplock bag - this works, but leads to crunchy bits in the center. To each his own! I use a food processor/blender.

Successful Variations
1. Substitute Nutter Butter Cookies for the Oreos and Chocolate Flavored Candiquik
2. Using Double Stuf Oreos - but reduce the amount of Cream Cheese used, or it gets too soft
3. Using Mint Oreos with green food coloring in the coating - use the paste type of food coloring. The liquid drop form of food coloring led to seized coating!

Unsuccesful Variations
1. Chips Ahoy Cookies- the cookies need some sort of "filling." (Maybe adding more cream cheese would work?)
2. Using melted chocolate chips to coat - I couldn't get more than a handful of balls coated before the mixture would seize - more seasoned cooks may have more success.

Happy Cooking!