Oreo balls are the tastiest things I’ve had in a while. Miranda, a coworker and friend, brought some in to the office a while ago and everyone instantly became hooked. After spending weeks thinking and asking about them, she agreed to make a couple of batches with me!
Prep Time: 1 hour, inactive prep time: 2 hours, cook time: 0 minutes
Yield: 24 pieces
- 1 package of Oreo cookies
- 1 8oz brick of Philly cream cheese
- 6oz milk, white or dark chocolate
The majority of the prep time consists of waiting around while the Oreo balls freeze. You can easily scale the recipe without adding too much extra prep time, so go ahead and make a ton. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did.
While these are called Oreo Balls, I guess that any other chocolate wafer cookie with a cream filling could be used. We made two batches, one using original Oreo cookies and a second with Oreo cookies filled with mint cream.
I’ve received a lot of emails from people with comments on my cranberry almond biscotti recipe since last week. Thank you for all of your feedback! Here are a few more biscotti recipes that I worked on over the weekend. They are all variations on the cranberry almond recipe, but each have their own, distinct, appeal.
Cranberry Almond Biscotti
Cookies with tart cranberries, almonds and dark chocolate. My first attempt at making biscotti.
Apricot Almond Biscotti
This recipe is nearly identical to the cranberry almond biscotti, but with dried apricots replacing cranberries. The apricots make for a less tart cookie, and a great accompaniment to a cup of coffee to get you through the morning.
Lemon Almond Biscotti
Light and bursting with lemony flavor, these cookies are filled with slivered almonds and dipped in white chocolate.
Triple Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
This slightly bastardized version of biscotti is a true chocolate lover’s dream. Pernigotti cocoa powder, chocolate chips and dark chocolate in one cookie? Hazelnuts instead of almonds? Am I on something? Yes. Snorting the cocoa powder? Possibly.
These cookies are a great twist on traditional biscotti, especially for chocolate lovers. A chocolate cookie with chocolate chips dipped in chocolate? Yeah. Exactly.
These almond cookies are a great, less tart alternative to cranberry almond biscotti.
Biscotti are twice-baked cookies, often filled with almonds. This particular recipe involves the addition of dried cranberries and dark chocolate, making for an extra tasty, and somewhat healthy, treat. Continue Reading…
I made a ton of marshmallow as favors for my recent 10-year high school reunion, and decided to take a few pictures before getting everything packed up and ready to go. I made 5 different flavors, but only took photos of the coconut and black raspberry ones. The photos, especially the one up top, came out great – especially since I just used my Canon point and shoot. Now that I have some great display platters and a light box, I’m thinking that it might be time to get a decent macro lens for my DSLR. I recently helped a coworker pick out a great Sigma macro lens for her Nikon, and may see if I can get the same for my Olympus. Any other suggestions for appropriate macro lenses out there?
One of the most enjoyable things about all of the work I’ve been putting in to the marshmallows is the chance to take some time and work on new ideas. A couple of friends from the city came out on Saturday to give me a hand with some “marshmallow prototypes” and we had a great time. Now, before you read any further in to this post, keep in mind that nothing created in my kitchen was meant for the public. This means that absolutely no time was taken on presentation and most procedures that I have put in to place for the sake of efficiency and cleanliness weren’t exactly followed. This was about fun and trying out some new things, not business.
In other words, there was a lot of beer involved.
I like wings. I really like wings. Some people have told me that I’m a bit of a wings snob. If I’m having them outside of my home, I’ll only have them if they’re from a few different places. Theres BonChon and Kyochon, and just a few places in the city that really know what they’re doing.
When it comes to wings, I follow a few basic rules:
- Wings must not be fatty.
- Wings must be crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. A soggy wing is a big no-no.
- Wings must be flavorful, not fiery.
It’s been some time since I posted an update related to the marshmallows here. I’m always posting stuff on my Facebook page, and then completely forget that not everyone can see what’s there. I’ve been working on quite a bit lately…
I spent some time over the weekend working on my marshmallow graphic, adding some depth and trying to make it more marshmallow-like while keeping the original idea intact. The gradients and other details in the above graphic (which is nowhere near complete) are subtle, but are turning out exactly like what I have in mind. I’ll continue posting updated versions until I’m happy with it. Please comment and let me know what you think as the design progresses!
I’ve been spending a lot free time working on marshmallow recipes that contain no corn syrup and other less desirable ingredients. So much so that I have cut retail sales I’ve been doing out east this summer. I’m hoping to get back to normal pretty soon though. There has been talk about a marshmallow tasting/toasting at the Hamptons Marketplace, and I want to revisit the idea with the owners with the intentions of doing something before Labor Day. I’ve even burned some silkscreens so that I can make some T shirts with the brand logo on them to wear at the event.
A lot of orders have been coming in since June; Mostly for weddings, graduation parties, and other sorts of events. Word of mouth sales have been crazy. I’ve had several orders placed where the conversation starts off like, “I work with this woman whose cousin’s son had some of your marshmallows at a BBQ his girlfriend’s parents threw a couple of weeks ago, and managed to try a couple. I need some for this weekend!” Seriously, it’s crazy!
A friend, Patrick, is going to be coming over to the house next weekend to give me a hand with a couple of new test flavors. We are going to try to make wild cherry marshmallows, and blueberry marshmallows covered in white chocolate. Both are going to be made with natural flavorings, and we’ll probably end up using some colorings to make them visually appealing. I realize that the addition of colorings can be a bit of a contradiction of what I said about removing undesirable ingredients earlier, but you eat with your eyes first right? I guess it’s all about balance. I’m thinking that the wild cherry marshmallows can be 2 tones of red and look similar to the cotton candy ones below.
There are some other things going on, but it’s still to early to talk about them. Hopefully I’ll be able to give some details soon.
I’ll be sure to post some pics of next week’s test batches as soon as they are done!
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