Oh the serendipitous luck of it all! Leftover cookies, of all the things, as inspiration. What started as a 'hummm...what should we do with these leftover cookies' train of thought turned into a fabulous new idea for Easter treats! Leftovers cookies magically turned into ginger spiced cookie flavored centers delectably coated with creamy, buttery white chocolate, otherwise known as the fabulous Cookie Butter Truffles!
So, in addition to making our usual amazing Easter decorated sugar cookies, we also spun out these wonderfully elegant and easy to make Cookie Butter Truffles. Something for the kids and something for the kidults, amiright? OMgosh, these little truffles are totally gonna appear every Easter from now on, they are so scrummy!
As I said, inspiration started with a leftover cookie. Specifically, a couple of leftover packs of gingerbread cookies that we overbought for one of my little girl's school projects. I was moving these boxes of leftover cookies around all the time (tiny house syndrome) and so finally decided to do something about them. But what, exactly?
Some shuffling about on the internet informed me that you can make something really, really nommy called 'cookie butter' with pretty much any type of cookie. Have y'all heard of this? I hadn't. Even though later on I realized, lol, that I had a jar of cookie butter in the pantry all along! Only we didn't know it was cookie butter, we just thought of it as lotus cookie flavored peanut butter. Turns out that, on closer scrutiny, it says 'cookie butter' right on the label. But I digress.
The first step to making a cookie butter truffle is to make your own cookie butter. So, yeah, basically cookie butter is a spread (like peanut butter) that you can very easily make with your own favorite cookie. We used gingerbread cookies but I'm pretty sure that most cookies will do the trick, even cookies with fillings like Oreos and Nutter Butters (my dad's favorite cookie of all time).
Toss that fine cookie crumb in with some melted butter and evaporated milk. Canned evaporated milk is milk cooked down to reduce its water percentage. Note that 'evaporated milk' is different from 'condensed milk' which has similar packaging and is usually shelved side by side. Actually both are evaporated milk but condensed milk is evaporated milk with sugar added. If you want additional sweetness to your cookie butter use condensed milk instead.
And to really pick up the flavor notes of your cookie butter add a pinch or two of sea salt. Then mix it all up.
Mix until a nice firm ball of cookie butter is achieved. If you're actually making cookie butter you'll want the mixture to be soft and smooth and spreadable. But...since you're making truffles here you'll want make this cookie butter mixture firm enough to hold as a ball. Add more crumb or evaporated milk as necessary to achieve the correct firmness.
Here are my nice balls of firm cookie butter. To get really good looking truffles weigh each ball out on a food scale. That way your finished truffles will look super professional!
Let these beautiful babies chill in the fridge while you prepare the chocolate.
We decided to use white chocolate to coat our cookie butter truffles. Its buttery, milky sweetness was just the perfect match for the spice heavy flavors of the gingerbread.
To make dipping chocolate we like to use a 50/50 mix of real chocolate (left)/chocolate melting wafers (right). Real chocolate means regular bar chocolate, baking chocolate, etc, made with cocoa butter. Chocolate melting wafers, also known as chocolate buttons, are made with vegetable fat. The 'real' chocolate provides that creamy depth of chocolate flavor while the wafers allow the chocolate to harden without the need to temper the chocolate.
Chop the chocolate to smaller pieces so as to allow the chocolate to melt faster. To melt chocolate one must use a double boiler as the gentle heat of such a system will not allow the chocolate to burn.
You can set up a homemade double boiler really easy at home. Just set a large mixing bowl on top of a small pot that can hold the mixing bowl steady. You can see our set up in our photos above. Add an inch of water to pot and heat to a bare simmer, making sure that the water does not touch the mixing bowl.
Place chopped chocolate and wafers into the mixing bowl, then stir occasionally until all the chocolate is melted into goopey goodness. Let the melted chocolate cool down.
Time to dip! Take your chilled balls of cookie butter one at a time and drop it into the melted chocolate. Using two forks, roll about to coat completely. Then lift the coated ball with the first fork, give the fork a few taps, then use the second fork to scrape away the extra chocolate as it drips from the bottom of the first fork.
With the excess chocolate shaken off, it's time to transfer your now starting to look gorgeous truffle to your parchment lined tray. I tried using the second fork to push to coated ball onto my tray but that left marks on my wee truffle. In the end I found that slanting the fork and tapping the end of the tines gently on the tray allowed my coated truffles to slide down onto the tray with a minimum of fuss.
As a final touch we opted for the classic zigzag of thin chocolate lines across the tops of the truffles. I'd actually never done this before but I was so pleased that it turned out pretty easy to do. If you have a really small piping tip add that to a piping bag, fill with the last bit of your melted chocolate and just zig zag lines over your truffles. It was actually kinda fun.
You can also make your own piping bag which is what I did. Just use parchment paper to make one as per the video here. As you roll up the parchment into a piping bag shape make sure that the tip is tight and closed. That way you can fill it with the last bit of your melted chocolate without it spilling out, then cut just the tiniest bit of the tip off so that when you squeeze the bag a thin line of chocolate comes out.
And, et voila, there you have it, the perfect special and unique treat for Easter, a most lovely white chocolate truffle with heart of spicy gingerbread cookie. Nom, nom, Easter Bunny, here we come! Happy Easter to all!
Cookie Butter Truffles Recipe
(makes 20) Prep: 15 mins Chill: 30 mins Set time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
(makes 20) Prep: 15 mins Chill: 30 mins Set time: 30 mins
Cookie butter
- 10.5oz gingerbread cookies, 300g
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 57g
- 2 tbsp evaporated milk
- 1/4 tsp sea salt, or to taste
Chocolate coating
- 3.5oz white chocolate, 100g
- 3.5oz white chocolate melting wafers, 100g
- parchment paper, for making small piping bags
Directions:
Prepare the butter: Heat butter over a low heat until just melted. Take off the heat and let the butter cool to room temperature while preparing the cookie crumb.
Prepare the cookie crumb: Break cookies into pieces. Use food processor to pulverise the cookies into a fine crumb.
Make cookie butter: Combine cookie crumb, melted butter and evaporated milk. Add sea salt to taste. Mix until the mixture comes together in a ball and is smooth. It should be able to form a ball and hold together firmly. Add additional cookie crumb or evaporated milk to adjust as needed.
Roll balls: Weigh out 17g of cookie butter and roll into a firm ball. Repeat until all cookie butter used up. Place balls on tray and set in fridge to chill for 30 mins or until firm.
Set up double boiler: Set a largish mixing bowl on top of a smaller pot that can hold the bowl steady. Add an inch of water to the pot and heat to a bare simmer, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl.
Make dipping chocolate: Chop the chocolate roughly. Add both chopped chocolate and chocolate wafers to the mixing bowl of double boiler. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is all melted. Remove from heat to cool until it feels warm to a dipped finger.
Dip the chocolate: Drop a ball of chilled cookie butter into the melted chocolate. Using two forks roll the ball until covered. Use one fork to lift up the chocolate coated ball, tap fork a bit to help shake off extra chocolate and then use the other fork to scrape any remaining drips under the holding fork. Tip the truffle holding fork towards parchment paper lined tray, tap fork tines on tray to encourage truffle to slide off. Repeat until all balls are coated. Let truffles set for 30 mins.
Decorate the truffles: While the truffles are setting prepare a chocolate filled piping bag. Use parchment paper to make a small piping bag (see how here.) Fill the bag with the rest of the melted chocolate, then cut just a tiny bit off the tip of the piping bag. (Tiny to keep the piping lines thin). Fold the bag over at the top and then squeeze out chocolate lines over the truffles in a zig zag pattern. Let the chocolate set.
Your beautiful cookie butter truffles are done! So pretty to look at and oh so yummilicious to nom, nom on. A great kidult treat for all your loved ones this Easter or at any other time when a bit of chocolate makes the day better. Which is always, amirite?! Enjoy and Happy Easter!
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