Chocolate Oreo Cake Pops

Another original cake pop recipe!

And these aren't just any Oreo pops - they're Oreo cake pops.  Which means no, it's not just crushed Oreos and cream cheese dipped in white chocolate.  It's chocolate cake with Oreo frosting dipped in white chocolate and more Oreos.

You just got awesome'd.

These are rather like those Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops from way back when, but, you know, Oreo! :D

Enjoy!

Chocolate Oreo Cake Pops

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

REQUIRES ROOM TEMPERATURE EGGS AND MILK

REQUIRES COOLING TIME (1-2 hours/overnight)

REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (3-4 hours/overnight)

Makes 40-60 cake pops, depending on pop size

Chocolate Cake:

2 1/2 cups flour (spooned and leveled)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9x13-inch cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In another large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the sights of the bowl after each addition.  Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Add flour mixture a third at a time, alternating with milk in two additions: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.
5. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.  Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let cake cool completely (overnight works best) before crumbling.

Oreo Frosting:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk, if needed

3/4 cup crushed Oreos (there should still be chunks!)

1. In a large bowl, beat together softened butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.
3. Add milk if necessary to make the frosting more creamy.
4. Add crushed Oreos and stir gently.

Assembly:

1 cup FINELY crushed Oreos

1-2 bags Target white chips

40-60 lollipop sticks

Oil

Styrofoam block with holes for pops

1. Crumble the cake into a large bowl.  Add frosting and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly even.
2. Form into cake balls.  Place balls on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight or until firm.
3. Place crushed Oreos in a wide and shallow bowl.
4. Place a metal bowl over a saucepan of water and heat; make sure the water doesn't touch the other side of the bowl.  Drop in a few white chips - when they have melted you are ready to begin.
5. Pour a small amount of oil in the bottom of the bowl and pour in some white chips.  Let melt and stir smooth.  TURN OFF THE HEAT.
6. Dip lollipop sticks into melted white chips and then press into cake balls.  Refrigerate while you dip the rest of the sticks.
7. Dip pops completely in melted white chocolate, brushing off excess with a toothpick.  Immediately roll in finely crushed Oreos and stand in styrofoam block.  Make finished cake pops one at a time - white chocolate will set up quickly.
8. Continue dipping and rolling.  If more white chocolate is needed, turn on heat, add more oil, and add more chips.  Turn off heat once it has melted and continue to dip.
9. Let pops harden completely before taking them anywhere or serving them.  They may be refrigerated, tightly covered, for up to 3 days, and frozen, tightly covered, for about 2 weeks.

So, let's break it down:
Make that beautiful chocolate cake.

Crush your Oreos!  You'll want chunks for the frosting, and finely crushed Oreos for rolling the cake pops.

Make the frosting...

Add Oreo chunks/crumbs...

And combine with your crumbled cake!

Form into balls and refrigerate.

Then just dip, roll, and let harden!  Enjoy these!

They taste great chilled, also - and I'm sure milk won't mind being drunk with its favorite cookie in cake pop form! ;)
-JJ

Extra-Chocolatey Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars

Yes.

A thousand times yes.

Once I saw this in Joanne Fluke's Devil's Food Cake Murder, I was in love.

Completely in love with this recipe.  Even the name screams CHOCOHOLIC!

Okay, in the original recipe, the frosting is just a suggestion at the end of the actual recipe.  But HEAR ME OUT before you decide that it's too much chocolate!

One, the fudge frosting makes these look more like brownies and less like little cookie bars of death by chocolate chips.

Two, chocolate chips exposed to hot air (but not long enough to melt) taste sort of sketch.

Three, the frosting holds the whole cookie bar together and makes it look thicker.

Four, if you're only making a half-pan of this (8x8), then you'll have half a can of sweetened condensed milk leftover.  And if you're like me, the temptation of plain sweetened condensed milk sitting in your refrigerator cannot be resisted, no matter how much you try.  But if you make the frosting too, then you won't have any sweetened condensed milk leftover.  This is a good thing.

Five, it's more chocolate.  And that is never wrong.

So now you have my reasons.

I have made this twice so far.  And both times it received standing ovations.  Well, not really, but I got a lot of compliments, okay?

The first time I made the whole batch, with frosting.  The second time I made a half-batch, again with frosting.  I think the frosting adds a lot, though.  It makes it seem like the whole bar is going to be smooth and then you hit the cereal and the Oreo crust and it's like CRUNCH.

What's that?  Oreo crust?  Cereal?  What's in these things?  Let me break it down for you.  In order.

Oreo crust.  Semisweet chocolate chips.  Mini marshmallows.  Sweetened condensed milk.  White chocolate chips.  Chocolate cereal.  Milk chocolate chips.  Optional but highly recommended fudge frosting.

Ohhhhh yes.

About the cereal.  (Yes, I know, shut up already we want the recipe, but you might just want to pay attention to this.)

The original recipe calls for Cocoa Puffs or Cocoa Krispies.  Now, I have grown up on Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares, and I have never had these - and for good reason.  There is NOTHING healthy in them.  Like absolutely zilch.  And while these cookie bars are the opposite of healthy, I feel a lot better if I try to stick something half-healthy in there.

Chocolate Chex, baby.  It exists, and it's good.  And it's sort of healthy.  And it has plain Rice Chex in there too - which gives the cookie bars some more contrasting color.

Also, it crunches really truly delightfully when you take a bite.  It's an experience that you don't want to miss out on.  I'm serious.  That crunching noise it makes seriously has made my day.  Really.

Oh, right, also - WARNING: You will become addicted to these bars.  You will want to make lots and lots of them.  You will become a chocoholic like meeee. *evil chuckle*

Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars - with Chocolate Frosting

2/3 package Oreos (approximately)

1 stick butter

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided

2 cups miniature marshmallows

2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

1 cup white chocolate chips

2 cups Chocolate Chex

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease 9x13 inch pan.
2. Crush Oreos and measure out 1 1/2 cups.
3. Melt stick of butter in large microwave-safe bowl.  Add crushed Oreos and combine thoroughly.
4. Spread Oreo mixture into prepared pan.  Sprinkle extra crushed Oreo over gaps if necessary.
5. Evenly sprinkle 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips over Oreo crust.
6. Evenly sprinkle miniature marshmallows over the semisweet chocolate chips.
7. Pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk over marshmallows as evenly as possible.
8. Sprinkle white chocolate chips over that as evenly as possible.
9. Sprinkle Chex over white chips as evenly as possible.
10. Sprinkle milk chocolate chips over Chex as evenly as possible.
11. Press down on layers with the back of a metal spatula.
12. Bake 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
13. While the bars cool, melt remaining 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.
14. Once melted, add remaining can of sweetened condensed milk to the chips and stir vigorously for about 2 minutes.
15. Remove from heat and immediately spread on fully-cooled bars.
16. Once the frosting on top has cooled, cut into bars and refrigerate covered.  Makes 24 bars.

Breaking it down:

Melt the butter...

Combine with those crushed Oreos...

And spread out a beautiful Oreo crust for yourself.

Sprinkle with those semisweet chocolate chips...

Then the marshmallows...

And then pour on that sweetened condensed milk that I've ranted about so many many times.

Sprinkle on those white chocolate chips...

And the Chocolate Chex (because if you're using another cereal you SHOULDN'T BE)...

And at last, the milk chocolate chips.

Press it down and bake it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  So delightful.

Whip up your frosting while all this loveliness cools...

And frost those puppies!  Delish!

And of course, while you enjoy probably 5 million milligrams of caffeine and pure chocoholic high heaven, eat it with a fork. xD

You will be in love.  I guarantee it.
-JJ

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars

Mmkay.

An explanation is necessary for most people except those part of the fandom.  This is a picture of Sherlock, the British TV series about Sherlock Holmes set in the modern era.  And it is freaking amazing.

It's intelligent, and intense, and British, and it's got Benedict Cumberbatch (best name EVAR) and Martin Freeman in it.  And they're amazing.  (Fyi, they're both going to be in the Hobbit.  Martin's Bilbo and Ben is Smaug, lol.)

Why am I going on about Sherlock?  Other than the fact that it is pretty much my favorite TV show?

There is a connection.  I promise.  I'm just taking my time getting to it, that's all.

So, since I and my lovely friends love Sherlock so much, we all got together and had ourselves a little Sherlock marathon.  All six 90-minute episodes.  It was a fun time.

And for the marathon, I made these brownie-cookie-bar-things.  There is no word for it, I swear.  Just look at the title - such a mouthful!  (And they are mouthfuls.)

Like many things, these brownie/cookie bars age well.  The second day they were great, the third day they were divine.

And because I am really forgetful, I left out the fudge sauce that's called for in the recipe, which, no doubt, would have made these taste even greater and would have probably made for much better-looking pictures.

As it is, I only have one picture of the final version.  And since I wanted to save that for the end, I thought, Hey, I can just put up a picture of Sherlock instead and ramble on about it for a little while.

Because these things will make up for any time wasted reading this.  I guarantee it.

Also, before you forget, you're going to need this.  Buy it now.

This recipe is from kevinandamanda.com.  Amanda has much nicer pictures than I do, so if you're confused, just go here instead.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Oreo Fudge Brownie Bars

REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

11.5 oz. bag milk chocolate chips

1 package Double Stuf Oreos

1 9x13 brownie mix (family size)

1/4 cup hot fudge topping (optional but recommended)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt with a fork.
4. Add to flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Stir in milk chocolate chips.
5. Spread in the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch pan. (It is very hard to spread into a wax-paper lined pan.)
6. Top with a layer of Oreos.
7. Prepare brownie mix as directed.  Add hot fudge to the brownie batter if you choose.  Spread batter over Oreos.
8. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake additional 15-25 minutes.  Do not overbake - these should still be gooey in the middle.
9. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack.  Store covered at room temperature.

If you have a sharp knife, you can cut these bars into large, brownie-like pieces.  Since I was doing this with a plastic knife (so as to not scratch my nonstick pan - which I still grease just in case, btw!), I just cut around the Oreos - which are still hard.  Don't be surprised like I was.

Breaking it down, with very few pictures this time:

Cream butter with sugars...

Add eggs and vanilla...

Combine dry ingredients and add to the wet...

... and stir in the milk chocolate chips.  The real recipe calls for 2 cups, but since the most common size bag of milk chocolate chips comes in 11.5 ounces, I figured that would be okay.  (And it is.)

YUM.

Spread that in your pan - try it with wax paper, I dare you.  It's not fun.  I had to use chip clips to make it stay in place because this cookie dough is soooo thick.

Top with Oreos - don't worry, you'll have extra! ;)

Pour brownie batter (with fudge sauce!!!) over the top and bake as directed.  I overbaked and it didn't look very pretty or gooey and pretty much burned on the bottom.  Yuck.

Yeah, aren't they beautiful?  Not.  But they still taste really good - especially the middle ones with the brownie batter still fudgy. :3

Don't make my mistakes!  Enjoy!

-JJ

P.S. Are you watching Sherlock yet?  You should be!







...How about now?

Oreo Pie

OREOS = NOMS

For my mom's birthday, she wanted me to make her an Oreo pie.  Since I'd been dying to make one since December, it's more of a gift for me than from me! ;)

Ever since I saw this recipe on therepressedpastrychef.com, I wanted to make this.  Badly.  So now I have, and hopefully it will satisfy my Oreo craving, too! XD  You can find the original recipe here, but of course I've made some tweaks and notes.

Oreo Pie
1 Oreo pie crust
17 Oreo cookies
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups Cool Whip*, plus more for garnish

1. Place 12 Oreos in a plastic bag and crush into small-to-medium pieces.
2. Combine cream cheese and sugar in a medium/large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add Cool Whip and crushed Oreos.  Stir gently with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until the Cool Whip and Oreos are evenly distributed.
4. Spoon into the Oreo pie crust and smooth with spatula.
5. Scoop a dollop of Cool Whip into the center of the pie.  Cut 4 Oreos in half and arrange them evenly around the dollop.  Take the cookie part of remaining Oreo and sprinkle dollop with cookie crumbs.  (Eat the rest of the Oreo :D)

*Note: I used Lite Cool Whip, and it tasted just fine - with less calories.  You can also use Reddi-Whip or any other whipped topping.

Breaking it down:

Crush 12 Oreos...

 

(I did it with a spoon in a bowl like the original recipe said, but it'll probably go much less messier in a plastic bag.)  The pieces should be about this big:

 Then combine your SOFTENED cream cheese with sugar...

and seriously, use an electric mixer/beater to do this.  For someone who detests taking the "lazy route," this saves a LOT of time.

So now that it's light and fluffy, add the Cool Whip...

and the crushed Oreos...

and stir.

When thoroughly (and gently!) stirred, it will look like this:

Now unwrap your pie crust (unless you've made one of your own and then I am in awe of you and your awesome) ...

Add spoon the filling into it.

Smooth it out with a spatula and garnish as directed or desired. :)

I really liked this pie - and so did my mom! :) Despite only having five ingredients (and one of them Cool Whip) it tasted amazing!

Have an scrumptious day!
-JJ