Truffles

For the more adventurous, here's an easy chocolate-rich treat.
(Don't ask me about the calories though)

• Ingredients
  (LaVerde's run...but Star Market is cheaper.)

  • 1 package of oreo cookies
  • 1/3 cup of orange juice
  • 1 8oz package of milk chocolate chips

   

• Utensils

  • 1 baking sheet
  • 2 sheets of wax paper
  • 1 blender or one ziploc bag
  • 1 spoon
  • 2 mixing bowls (again Tupperware works nicely)
  • 1 double boiler (or 2 pots, one which fits inside the other (except the handle))
  • 1 sandwich bag
  • 1 Stove
  • 1 Refrigerator

   

• Directions:

• Wash your hands!!
• Now, separate out 24 cookies, coarsely crushing these by either placing 6 in the ziploc bag and grinding them up by hand, or putting them into a blender and using the blend button (be careful here--make sure the lid is on--oreo cookies can really fly. Also, you will need to periodically empty the blender as the crumbs tend to clog the bottom and prevent all of the cookies from being crushed.)
• Now, with the crushed cookies, add the orange juice and mix well. It should be a gooey mess.
• Place the entire mixture into the freezer for about 5 minutes.
• While that cools, take the remaining cookies, and finely crush these.
• Set these aside in a separate container.
• Going back to the cookie/juice mixture, remove it from the freezer and proceed to use a teaspoon to scoop out a lump of the mixture.
• Roll this, in your hand, into a ball.
• Place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet.
• Work quickly, as the mixture will start to become gooey again in your hand. (Now do you see why you needed to wash your hands?)
• If the mixture becomes too soft to work, place it back into the freezer to harden.
• Also, the balls should be roughly bite-sized-- not golf-ball sized!
• With all of the mixture formed into balls, place the baking sheet into the freezer for 15 minutes.
• Now, in the double boiler, add water to the bottom pot and heat to a boil.
• In the upper pot, melt all of the chocolate.
• Remove the pot from the stove.
• An alternate method to melt the chocolate is to place it in a microwave bowl and heat it for 1 minute.
• Stir it, then if it is not completely melted, repeat the process. Careful, the bowl may get extremely hot.
• Now, get the truffles from the refrigerator.
• Dip each truffle into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back into the pot.
• Roll the dipped truffles in the finely crushed cookies.
• Place it back on the waxed paper-lined baking sheet.
• If the chocolate gets too hard to dip well, reheat it over the double boiler, or in the microwave.
• Now with all of the truffles dipped and coated, take the remainder of the chocolate and place it into the sandwich bag.
• Squeeze it into one of the corners, then carefully snip the edge of the corner, such that a thin stream of melted chocolate can come out.
• Drizzle the chocolate over your truffles.
• Then chill the truffles in the freezer until firm (about 30 minutes).
• Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or serve as is.