Remember that Special K commercial which featured a woman who allegedly needed a chocolate fix and, with hardly any thought, reached for a perfectly-portioned bowl of Special K’s Chocolatey Delight? Yeah, I’m not buying it. Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m craving chocolate, the waxy brown stuff that appears in every few bites of that cereal isn’t quite enough to satiate my cravings.
When the need for chocolate arises, ditch your usual routine of a mad dash to the closest CVS, and stick it to Starbucks’ cake pops that, despite their deliciousness, will make your wallet bleed. Instead, try these easy, no-bake cake pops, courtesy of The Girl Who Ate Everything, that are arguably better than the ones at Starbucks!
You’ll need an eight-ounce package of cream cheese, one package of white chocolate chips, one package of original oreos, and paper sticks. That’s it! You can exclude the sticks if you’d prefer to make truffles, but where’s the fun in that?
First, finely crush the entire package of oreos. It doesn’t matter how you do it, whether you use a food processor or a plastic bag and your fist, as long as the final product looks somewhat like the picture above.
Now, soften the cream cheese in the microwave for no more than ten seconds on high power, and add it to the crushed oreos. Swap out the cream cheese for imitation cream cheese to vegan-ize the recipe.
Here’s where things will inevitably get messy. Channel your inner child and knead the mixture with your hands until it’s completely combined. Seriously, don’t try to be neat and use a spoon. It will turn the simple task into an excruciating and tedious one. Once the ingredients are mixed, pop the concoction in the freezer for no more than ten minutes to make sure it’s firm enough to stay on the stick without crumbling apart.
While your mix chills in the freezer, melt the chocolate. You can do this by using a double broiler or the microwave, but I recommend using the microwave. If you choose to use a double broiler, beware that if a drop of water vapor finds its way into the bowl, the chocolate will instantly seize up to the point of no return.
To melt using the microwave, heat chocolate in 20 second intervals on low power, taking it out to mix it after each interval. I did this for about 40 seconds total. Be careful not to overdo it, as white chocolate burns easily. Once the white chocolate’s creamy, add a touch of canola or vegetable oil to thin it out and make it easier to work with. Do not skip this step, or else the chocolate will look chunky on your cake pops. The oil won’t make it taste funny, I promise!
As soon as you’ve finished melting the chocolate, take the oreo mix out of the freezer and briefly knead it back together. Then, roll small portions into balls (I used a small ice cream scoop), poke a stick into each one, and use a spoon to “frost” your cake pops. No need to stress over making each one the same size because, remember, you won’t be baking these. Decorate the pops with sprinkles, or get fancy and drizzle some melted dark chocolate over them. Keep them in the fridge until the chocolate re-hardens, and voila! Give a cake pop bouquet as a gift (if you can bear to part with them) or horde them all in your fridge. I can’t believe I’m saying this as a self-proclaimed chocolate lover, but these are so rich, just one will leave you satisfied. Enjoy, fellow chocoholics.
