Oreo Bites

This dessert is very easy to make, and is truly a delicious crowd pleaser!  It's tough to go wrong with oreos covered in chocolate!  There are two variations floating around, one with cream cheese and one with sweetened condensed milk  I chose to go with sweetened condensed milk so that I could make them ahead and keep them at room temperature.  The version with cream cheese needs to be refrigerated.



As you can see, I had some problems with the chocolate. I was bound and determined this time to A) temper the chocolate and B) not want to throw a fit while trying to dip the oreo balls in the chocolate and coat them evenly. I'd been wondering if the trouble that I have with dipping things in chocolate has to do with me terribly overheating the chocolate.

This time I followed these instructions, from Cooking for Engineer to temper the chocolate. I dutifully monitored the temperatures... up over 105, add the seed chocolate, then back down to 90. I was quite impressed with myself for not killing the chocolate out of impatience. Then came the dipping... and wow! This was the easiest it had ever been for me! Chocolate flowed right off the oreo bite when I lifted it out of the chocolate, and with a few taps to nudge it along, I had a beatifully, evenly coated oreo bite.

I went along my merry way, dipping bite after bite, ignorant to the horror going on behind my back. When I had completed my batch of oreo bites, I turned around to gaze, lovingly, at my little treasures. And immediately wanted to cry. As you can see in the above photo, my little bites of oreo heaven had bloomed.

Blooming is nary a cosmetic bump in the road, as the chocolate is still perfectly fine to eat, but to me, it ruined my little bites of oreo heaven. I've had chocolate bloom on me before, sure, when I carelessly went back and forth from the freezer. What was the problem here? Apparently there are two kinds of blooming in chocolate:  fat bloom and sugar bloom. The sugar bloom is what I was more familiar with, and is a crystallization of sugar caused by high humidity or bringing a cold product to room temperature.  Could this somehow still be the problem?  I don't tend to think of my home as having high humidity (especially in winter).  The fat bloom is the accumulation of large cocoa butter crystals on the surface of the chocolate.  Apparently you can tell the difference by the feel of the chocolate, but I didn't know this until after they were devoured, so it will remain a mystery. 


Oreo Bites
Source: Re-written from Kraft Recipes / Beantown Baker
Yield: about 40

1 package oreos
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
chocolate, for dipping

Crush oreos down to a fine texture in a food processor. Pour into a large bowl. Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract, and stir until the mixture is well blended. Using a 2 teaspoon scoop, scoop rounded balls of oreo mixture onto parchment lined pans, then refrigerate to set. Melt chocolate over a double boiler (tempering is best), then dip the oreo bites to coat. Set back on parchment paper and allow chocolate to set.