Cocoa Crazed

Happy holidays, everyone:)) today I will be sharing about these delicious cocoa treats! 

Who likes to bake during Christmas (or anytime of the year)? I sure do, and I think baking during Christmas especially has its own “vibe” if you will:)) Okay, let’s dive into the chocolates, shall we?

Just yesterday, my sister and I finished up this dessert tray for the holidays. It took a fair amount of time, being that a lot of melting chocolate was involved. 

The first thing up is the chocolate dipped cocoa cookies (far back of tray);

I’ve been trying to perfect these for three Christmases…and I always forget what the “trick” is each Christmas!  But, this year I’ll have it documented in a blog post to remember! 

The recipe will be listed below, but here are some pointers I’ll give you now…

•use a tad bit more flour than is listed. This year, I only put in two cups of flour and they kind of started falling apart. But, be careful, you don’t want them to be as hard as rocks!

•when you melt the white chocolate to drizzle/spread over, do it rather quickly and add the toppings (I use crushed candy canes) on top before it dries. ( I promise this is not a relay race haha!)

Secondly, we have the chocolate dipped Oreos! (Front/middle of tray) 

This honestly, is very explanatory! Just dip the Oreos in the chocolate, add toppings and boom! 

•my sister had the idea of making Oreos into reindeer! (See front of tray) 

Thirdly, the infamous Oreo balls! 

My family got this recipe from a family friend and we’ve used it for a few years! It’s quite simple! (Recipe below!) 

A tip I would give you is this…

•make sure the balls are as round as they can be, but don’t over do it. If they crumble, you’re rolling them too much. 

•when dipping in chocolate, know that no Oreo ball is perfect! If it doesn’t look exactly uniform, it has character, haha! 

One huge factor here when making all these particular deserts…

•Use your chocolate wisely. Each one requires melted chocolate, and depending on which brand or what kind you get, it can dry very quickly. Lay out what your making and manage your time table. (Sounds like a syllabus/orientation lecture, huh? Well, try not to overthink it, haha!) what I usually do, is prepare the Oreo ball mixture/rolled balls, and make the cookies before any chocolate is melted. If you do all the chocolate at once, i’d recommend not doing it alone, to save time (and chocolate;) I’d also recommend crushing the candy canes ahead of time, as well!

•Accept it will make a mess. It’s chocolate, so it’s bound to stick. If you’re ocd, you could clean as you go! This helps my ocd, too! 

Recipes:

White cocoa peppermint cookies

1 cup of butter 

2 cups sugar 

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 

2 cups of flour 

3/4 of a cup of cocoa powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/8 teaspoon of salt 

Melted white chocolate 

Crushed peppermint candy canes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

Cream butter and sugar

Beat eggs and stir in vanilla

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt

Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients

Drop on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes!

After cooled, decorate with chocolate and candy canes :))

Oreo Balls

1 package of crushed Oreo cookies (the cookie part, not the cream!)

1 eight once pack of cream cheese 

White chocolate :)