A Trio of Treats

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With a name like Candy, I was marked to love sweets. In keeping with my name and in honor of Valentine's Day I made a trio of candy treats. I knew I had to include Oreo Truffles as they are my daughter's favorites. I added pink icing hearts on top to make them more festive. A lot of the hearts more closely resembled teeth but they still turned out OK. (A little free association - teeth = nibbling = romance) I also wanted to make turtles, my husband's favorite. Turtle candies were also my father's favorite candy and making them brought back fond memories of buying boxes of them for him at Father's day. Last, for me, I decided to make a Nutella/hazelnut trufflely thing. I think Nutella is one of the world's most perfect foods with it's chocolately smoothness and nutty undertones. Yum! I searched a lot of truffle recipes and ultimately ended up taking pieces of various recipes for the end result found in the last recipe below.


I've also included a picture of the candy box I made for my girl. I took a cheapy box of Valentine candy, removed the candy and cut out the plastic lining. I added zebra paper to the top and bottom (zebra is her current favorite thing) and finished with a few scrapbooking stamps and embellishments. I especially love the 'sweet thing' tag! Inside, I poured in some red hot hearts and nestled Oreo truffles on top. This was a super easy, cheap, and fun project that I may expand on next year.

Now friends, three recipes today for the price of one - my Valentine's Day gift to you!

Oreo Truffles

(recipe given to me by a friend a few years ago)

1 box Oreos

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

1 package white candy coating

Process the cookies in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Add cream cheese and mix until combined. Roll into balls (about 3/4 inch) and place on cookie sheet. Place in refrigerator until slightly firm. Melt chocolate. Using a toothpick, dip balls into melted chocolate and coat thoroughly. Place on wax paper covered cookie sheet to harden. Cover toothpick holes with melted chocolate chips or tint leftover white chocolate and decorate. I prefer these stored in the refrigerator.

Turtle Candies

pecan halves

caramels

chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper. Arrange three pecan halves on sheet so that the pecans are touching in the center and are fanned out. Place a caramel on each cluster. Place in over for about 5 minutes, until caramels are slightly melted. Add a generous dollop of melted chocolate chips on each candy and cool until set.

NOTE: The caramel was very hard after cooling. If I make these again, I think I will melt the caramel and add a little cream to soften, then cover the pecans and eliminate the oven step.

Nutella Truffles

1 1/4 cups Nutella

1 14 1/2 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla

hazelnuts (see note below)

dipping chocolate (optional)

Melt Nutella, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate chips in a pan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Place in refrigerator until mixture is set. Cover cookie sheet with wax paper. Roll mixture into desired size. Add nuts if desired (see note). Melt chocolate and dip balls. Chill until set.

NOTE: I used the following options to add nuts to the truffles: 1) take a whole hazelnut and roll the mixture around it so that the nut is in the center, 2) chop hazelnuts and roll balls in nuts until covered then dip in chocolate, 3) dip balls in chocolate then cover completely with nuts, and 4) dip balls in chocolate and dip half the truffle in chopped nuts. The fourth option was the easiest and my preference.