I don’t allow sugar in our house because I gave it up years ago so poor old Jules can feel a bit deprived at times. This Christmas I made him gingerbread syrup for his coffee, which he loves, and for Valentine’s day I have made him the sweetest (and easiest) chocolates in the world. I used to work with Shannon, who is from Texas, and every time there was a cake day, celebration or end of year party you should have seen the delights she would bake, make and decorate. What I liked best was when she made a typical American recipe like the Oreo truffles I want to show you today. I don’t think I even knew what an Oreo was before Shannon made these truffles but it was before I had given up sugar so I can remember how good they were. They are perfect for a quick homemade present, to make with your kids or if you need an intense sugar hit – they are seriously sweet and rich.
I made the chocolate box extra special with some customised wrapping paper from Wrap.me – yes, that is my face plastered all over it. Jules, you had better open this present carefully! This is such a great product and so easy to create. All you have to do is hand pick photos from your Facebook, Instagram, computer or phone that you want to feature on your wrapping paper – it’s so much fun going through old photos. I went through my Instagram account and chose the really cheesy ones of me and Jules, made them all black and white and uploaded them to the Wrap.me site – a really, really simple process. You can choose up to thirty different photos and, of course, you can have as much colour as you want to. Wrap presents or buy a roll and do a little craft project like making a notebook cover (a two metre roll only costs £9.99).
I had to get a photo of Otto in (obvs) sporting a dashing comb-over courtesy of my hair. In fact, I may have to create a whole roll of Otto wrapping paper – he’s got his own hashtag on Instagram so I’ve got plenty of shots to choose from (true fact – look up #ottoorme!).
Order your photo wrapping paper from Wrap.me.
But now back to the chocolates. Here’s how to make them…
Ingredients:
To make approx 12 truffles
1 pack of Oreo biscuits
80g of full fat cream cheese
Melted dark or white chocolate (use dark if you want to tone down the sweetness slightly)
Decorations or leftover cookie crumbs
Recipe:
1. Blitz the cookies in your food processor to a fine crumb (keep a few crumbs to one side for decorating the truffles).
2. Add the cream cheese to the blitzed cookies and combine well so that you end up with a firmish dough – you don’t want it to be too sticky so add the cream cheese bit by bit.
3. Roll the dough into small balls, place on a tray covered in grease proof paper and put into the freezer for at least 20 minutes.
4. Melt your chocolate over a bain marie. Pop a ball onto the end of a kebab stick and spoon over the melted chocolate until it is covered and allow any excess to drip off. Place back onto the grease proof paper and decorate with anything you fancy or the leftover cookie crumb before the melted chocolate hardens. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until you are ready to gift them (or stuff them all into your own gob!).
Cake decorations are so on trend at the moment as I managed to get edible ‘copper crunch’ and ‘blush glitter’ to decorate my truffles 😉 I also covered an old Christmas bauble box with some Mini Moderns wallpaper to create a chocolate box.
I hope you try and enjoy the recipe and thank you to lovely Shannon for the idea.
All packaged up and ready for Valentine’s day – just hope Jules doesn’t read this post!
Katy x
P.S. For more great ideas from some of my blogging friends for how to use this photo wrapping paper pop over to our shared Pinterest board…
