Easy Oreo Bark

Okay, I promise that I will soon be all out of recipes for delicious Christmas treats very soon! I made a lot of stuff this year, and most of it was worth sharing on my blog, so that is why you are still seeing so much of it, even after New Year's has been long gone. This recipe is probably the very easiest one that was made the whole season....and I'm not technically the one who made it.

I wanted to make Oreo Cookie Bark for Christmas this year because my husband's family enjoys treats made with Oreo cookies. Last year I had made Oreo Truffles, but they are time-consuming and I needed something that I could make more quickly. When I discovered this recipe for Oreo Bark, I was immediately sold on it. It requires just two ingredients, Oreo cookies and white chocolate. Cinchy!



The bark comes together in just about zero time flat. I had my husband make it for me while I was out getting other things done one day. Just break the Oreos up, melt the white chocolate down, and mix the two together. Press it down flat in a pan, then refrigerate until firm enough to slice into pieces. Could not be simpler! I bought the fun, festive Winter Oreos for this, since I thought it would be way prettier, what with the red creme centers melting and swirling in with all the white chocolate and dark chocolate of the cookies. I was right; it looked very cool! I was afraid it would look a lot like peppermint bark, and that mint-fearing folk wouldn't even try it.

Turns out, I shouldn't have been worried. This bark disappeared in what seemed like seconds. It was by far the most popular candy I tried my hand at this year. I highly recommend it if you're trying to make something in a hurry that will impress people and look fantastic on a tray with other goodies. Just be sure to use good white chocolate for this; with only two ingredients in the whole recipe, they both really stand out. A poor-quality white chocolate would just ruin the whole thing. And that would be a real shame.

Oreo Cookie Bark

adapted from Allrecipes.com

makes about 2 pounds

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray

1 (16 oz.) Winter Oreos (with the red creme filling)
18 oz. good-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
1. Line a 10x15 jellyroll pan with waxed paper (I recommend spraying the pan before lining it with waxed paper as well). Coat paper with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, break the cookies into coarse pieces with your fingers or the back of a wooden spoon.

3. Place the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Melt the white chocolate, stirring often, until almost completely smooth. Carefully remove the bowl from the heat and continue to stir until all the lumps have been smoothed. Working quickly, add the cookie pieces and gently fold them into the chocolate.

4. Spread mixture evenly in prepared pan, then refrigerate until solid, about 1 hour. Remove bark from pan, place on a cutting board, and carefully peel off waxed paper. Cut into large pieces with a sharp knife and store in an airtight container. I kept mine in the fridge; that seemed to work best for me.

MSC: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

This month's Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Club recipe is Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, chosen by Nina of Nina's Cupcakes. This was the second time I've made these mini cheesecakes. I made them back in January for my father in-law's birthday (and you can find the full recipe in my post about them), and they went over very well. So when I realized I had an opportunity to make them again with the group, I was pretty excited. However, I decided to switch things up a bit, and use inside-out Oreos! The cookies I chose to use were vanilla cookies on the outside, chocolate filling on the inside. Yum.



One cookie is placed in the bottom of each cupcake liner, serving as the tasty crust to the mini cheesecake. Then, a very simple filling is mixed together and dispersed among the cupcake cups.



There's even more cookie goodness contained inside the cupcake batter, which really adds some great texture to the creamy cheesecake. These were loved by everyone who tried them (my husband brought them to work with him). It's always fun to surprise people with the Oreo cookie crust, and the fact that they had the chocolate in the center certainly didn't hurt, either!



Thank you so much, Nina, for choosing these cupcakes this month! It was great to revisit such a fantastic recipe. I'm even thinking about how good these would be with peanut butter-filled Oreos, or mint-filled Oreos at Christmastime. You've got options with this one. No matter what flavor Oreo you use, these are awesome! Make sure to check out the blogroll to see how the other MSC members fared.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Time flies when you're neglecting your blog. I really can't believe it is the last week of January already, and a month after Christmas. I feel like this whole month has been a blur. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the kids and I were sick for a while and we're still just barely getting back into the swing of things after the long winter break. Plus, we're trying our best to eat healthier in the new year, which means that sweets and treats will be made fewer and farther between.
But that won't stop me completely! We celebrated my father-in-law's birthday this past week. I know that my in-laws love Oreo cookies, so I thought I would use that as an excuse to finally dig into my Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook. I'd been eyeing this recipe for a while, and it was time to bust it out.
Well, I sure am glad I did! The method for these little cuties, titled Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, is simple enough. To assemble the cupcake-sized cheesecakes, you simply drop an Oreo cookie into each cupcake paper liner, and that becomes your crust. Then you mix together just a few ingredients, and voila! Just 22 minutes in the oven, and you get a perfect little cheesecake that tastes like a cross between cheesecake and cookies and cream ice cream. Plus, when you flip the cupcake over, you can see the Oreo cookie peeking through the wrapper. Heavenly, and adorable!
The pictures hardly do these justice, but take my word for it: they're awesome. I've posted the recipe below because I couldn't find it anywhere on Martha Stewart's website. I highly recommend making these. The recipe can be easily cut in half; that's what I did.

Cookes and Cream Cheesecakes
makes 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
42 Oreo cookies (30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped)
2 pounds (4 packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
pinch of salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.