Peanut butter chocolate acorn Oreo truffles

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

I am the biggest sucker for festive baked goods. It’s my favorite part of every holiday season. I mean seriously, there’s nothing cuter than jack-o-lantern cupcakes and Christmas tree rice krispies treats.

So last week I started getting really excited about all the fall treats that are now in season. And I’ll tell you what – trying to decide on a single fall dessert to make is very overwhelming! To be quite honest, I was stressing out about it!

But when I laid eyes on these Oreo acorn balls, I knew I had to make them! These are so stinkin adorable.

The first batch I tried to make wasn’t necessarily a disaster, but they weren’t exactly the cream of the crop.

The issue was that the acorns were very difficult to dip in the chocolate.

First of all, it is imperative that you use a toothpick to dip the acorns in the chocolate. I tried dipping with a candy scoop and a fork, but nothing worked as well as using a toothpick. The reason being is that you want the chocolate shell to look smooth in order for the acorn effect to really come out. And nothing looks as smooth as using a toothpick.

But this is where it gets tricky.

The acorns are a little bigger and longer than regular Oreo balls. They are also heavier and easily break off in the chocolate. Fix that problem by freezing the Oreo truffles for 30 minutes before dipping them in the chocolate.

And since there are so few ingredients in these truffles, it's important that you only use premium ingredients. I only use Challenge cream cheese because it doesn't have any preservatives and it's made with real milk and cream so it's really smooth and blends with the other ingredients well.

Peanut butter chocolate acorn Oreo truffles

Ingredients

• 30 peanut butter Oreos
• 8 ounces Challenge cream cheese, room temperature
• 16 ounces milk chocolate
• 8 ounces dark chocolate
• Chocolate sprinkles
• Pretzels, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Directions

1. Put Oreos into a food processor and pulse until the Oreos are fine crumbs.
2. Mix Oreos and cream cheese together until they're completely combined. Refrigerate mixture for 15 minutes.
3. Use a tablespoon of mixture and form into a ball. Pinch one end of the ball so it's slightly tapered and looks like an acorn. Then freeze acorns for 30 minutes.
4. Melt milk chocolate and dip each acorn into chocolate with toothpick; set on parchment paper to harden.
5. Melt dark chocolate; dip tops of acorns into dark chocolate and immediately add chocolate sprinkles.
6. Stick pretzel into top of acorn and return to parchment paper to harden before serving.
7. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerate for up to one week.

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Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

When I was little, I loved the ice cream man. The neighbor boys and I would chase after it whenever we heard his siren coming down our street. And my favorite item to purchase was the Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bar. I remember it being the most delicious thing I had ever tasted in my life on a hot summer day.

I hadn’t had one of those delicious treats in years until recently when I saw it at the grocery store. I don’t normally peruse the ice cream aisle, so I was shocked to discover that you can just buy them at the store and you don’t need to chase down an ice cream truck to get one (pretty silly of me to think otherwise – I realize that now). So of course I bought a box. And it was just as delicious as I remember.

I wanted to recreate my own version of the strawberry shortcake bar because sometimes I feel adventurous. But I still wanted to make it as easy as possible.

After some experimentation, I decided to use strawberry cheesecake ice cream as the base because it has elements of both strawberry and vanilla ice cream. I wanted to try to make my bars by layering vanilla ice cream with strawberry sorbet to be more authentic, but the strawberry sorbet was nowhere to be found. And strawberry cheesecake ice cream is delicious. If you can't find strawberry cheesecake ice cream, you can just use strawberry ice cream, but as with any recipe, when you make a substitution it won't taste the exact same.

For the coating I combined vanilla sandwich cookies with freeze-dried strawberries and a little bit of butter to help it all stick together. The crumble coating is my favorite part so this had to be perfect!

At first I tried making these in my new popsicle maker, but the ice cream didn’t seem to work well in the molds. Maybe I’m not doing something right. I don’t know. But anyway, I just decided to layer it in a pan instead. It worked out really well! And since not everyone owns popsicle molds, this was probably the best option anyway.

After you cut the ice cream bars, I recommend rolling them in the crumble mixture again because extra coating is always better!

The best part about these bars is that you don’t even need to chase after an ice cream truck to get one!

Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

Ingredients

• 20 vanilla crème sandwich cookies
• 1/4 cup freeze-dried strawberries
• 3 tablespoons Challenge butter, melted
• 1/2 gallon strawberry cheesecake ice cream (take out of freezer 20 minutes before making recipe so it softens)

Directions

1. Line an 8 x 8 pan with aluminum foil or wax paper; set aside
2. Pulverize sandwich cookies in food processor; add freeze-dried strawberries and butter and pulverize again.
3. Add half of your crumble mixture to the bottom of the pan. Spread the ice cream on top of the crumble mixture. Add the remaining crumble mixture to the top.
4. Freeze for 4 hours or overnight.
5. Use the overhang from the aluminum foil to lift the ice cream out of the pan.
6. Cut into bars and serve right away before if melts! You can serve them on popsicle sticks so it’s more authentic if you like.

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Oreo cheesecake-stuffed strawberries

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible!

Cheesecake and strawberries make the perfect pair. The tanginess of the cream cheese combines perfectly with the natural sweetness of the strawberries.

So with today being the first day of strawberry season in Indiana and with it being National Pick A Strawberry Day, I thought cheesecake-stuffed strawberries would be the perfect treat to showcase.

Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries are an extremely simple, no-bake dessert that looks very fancy. They’re the perfect little treat for graduation parties and summer cookouts.

And while I was thinking about cheesecake I thought, ”Well, Oreo cheesecake is better than regular cheesecake!” So I decided to add crushed Oreos to the mix and make Oreo cheesecake-stuffed strawberries!

A lot of people cut off the tops of the strawberries and then scoop out the inside of the strawberries, but I discovered that it was easier to turn the strawberries upside down, cut the pointy side crosswise and then pipe the filling in the center.  And this way, you don’t waste any part of the strawberry!

Oreo Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberries
Ingredients

• About 2 pounds strawberries (about 24 strawberries)
• 18 regular Oreo cookies (this is 1/2 of a 14.3 ounce package)
• 1 (8 ounce) package Challenge cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Directions

1. Cut the stems off the top of the strawberries, so the strawberries sit wide-side down.
2. Cut a deep cross starting at the tip of the strawberry down, being very careful not to cut all of the way through. Set strawberries aside.
3. Crush the Oreo cookies with a food processor.
4. Mix the crushed cookies with the cream cheese and powdered sugar and vanilla until it’s completely combined.
5. Gently open up each strawberry and pipe the cheesecake mixture into each strawberry using a pastry bag (or Ziploc bag) with a star piping tip.
6. Top with a mini Oreo, if desired.
7. Store chilled in an airtight container for up to three days.

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