Rudolph Oreo Balls – Easy Kid-Friendly Festive Cookie Truffles
My Rudolph Oreo balls recipe is incredibly easy to make and fun for the whole family! They make the perfect bite-sized dessert treats that simultaneously function as table decor or giftable snacks!
If you love these, try some of my other delicious snacks. For savory options, I love these Battered Fried Shrimp and Spinach And Feta Empanadas.
And, for other sweet dessert ideas, try my Sweet Potato Brownies or this Vanilla-Chocolate Cheesecake.
Why I Love These Rudolph Oreo Balls
If you are looking for fun sweet treats to make with your kids this festive season, then this recipe for reindeer Oreo balls is perfect for you!
They are surprisingly quick to make, extremely easy, and they look adorable!
All you need for the truffles themselves are Oreo cookies and cream cheese. Once the balls are shaped and set, you only need to cover them with easy-melting chocolate discs. Finally, you can create your Rudolph balls with red Smarties (but I prefer M&M’s), store-bought or homemade candy eyes, and pretzels.
These balls are fun and can be enjoyed by kids of all ages – the adult ones too!
And, you can make them up to a week in advance! This way, you don’t have to be overwhelmed by the number of dishes you have to make for the big family dinner!
Variations of This Oreo Balls Recipe
There are virtually NO variations I use for this Rudolph Oreo balls recipe. That’s because it’s already incredibly simplistic, easy, and effortless.
To create the Rudolph cartoon face, you can pretty much only use what I’ve listed. By all means, if there are other similar candies, use them too. But just make sure Rudolph doesn’t end up looking like a circus clown!
If you really want to, you can use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Rudolph will look a little strange, but it’s fine in a pinch.
And of course, if you’d like, you can swap out some of the cookies for crushed nuts. Alternatively, you can just add more cream cheese along with the extra crushed nuts.
You can also roll the just-shaped cookie balls in cocoa powder. This will create the chocolate covering instead of using high-calorie chocolate. The chocolate obviously looks better. But the cocoa powder works in a pinch or for health reasons.
How To Store Your Rudolph Truffles
These Rudolph Oreo balls should not and cannot be stored at room temperature. That’s because you set the cream cheese and oreo mixture inside the fridge. This creates a ball that is contracted.
As the oreo ball heats (comes to room temperature), it expands. Once you covered the chilled Oreo ball in chocolate, the ball shouldn’t expand or it will cause the chocolate coating to crack.
Furthermore, cream cheese is a highly perishable dairy product. Even if you don’t “set” the ball inside the fridge, the cream cheese won’t even last a day at room temperature.
So, the bottom line is as follows:
The balls have to be stored inside the fridge to prevent the cream cheese from going rancid. When you store the balls inside the fridge, the Oreo truffle and chocolate coating are set in a specific size. When the ball heats, it expands, which will cause the coating to crack.
Therefore you always need to store the Rudolph Oreo balls inside the fridge.
To prevent them from drying out, store them inside an airtight container.
When you serve them, don’t leave them outside for too long. This may cause condensation on the surface of the chocolate or sugar bloom.
Tips And Tricks To Make Reindeer Oreo Balls For Christmas
- When you are blending the Oreo cookies, you may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides between pulses. Or you can work in smaller batches. Either way, don’t stop until your mixture is uniform and fine in texture.
- If any of the garnishes falls off, simply use a little bit of melted chocolate to “glue” it back on. You can also leave the dipped Oreo ball to set for a little bit before adding your garnishes. This trick will help prevent the garnishes from simply sliding off the ball instead of sticking to it.
FAQs
Why are the Rudolph Oreo balls breaking apart?
That could be due to an incorrect ratio of cream cheese (the binding ingredient) to cookie crumbs. It’s also essential that you chill the balls so they can set and keep their shape.
Can you make Oreo balls vegan?
Oreos are already vegan. So, if you want to make vegan balls, you will need to use vegan alternatives for cream cheese, and ensure the milk chocolate is vegan. The garnishes may also not be vegan, so just make sure that you choose the best vegan substitutes.
More Dessert Recipes
Rudolph Oreo Balls – Easy Kid-Friendly Festive Cookie Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 packet Oreos
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
- 10 ounces Ghirardelli's dark chocolate melting wafers
- 20 pretzels, halved
- 20 red M&M's
- 40 candy eyes
Instructions
Shape the cookie balls
- Place the Oreo cookies inside a blender. Then, pulse it until you have a completely uniform, sticky crumb mixture.
- Transfer the blended cookie mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Add the softened cream cheese. Use an electric hand mixer to combine the two ingredients well. Again, keep mixing until you have a uniform mixture.
- Next, take a tablespoon of the mixture at a time and roll it into beautiful balls.
- Place the balls onto a plate and store them in the fridge for about 1 hour. They should set during this time.
Prepare the garnishes
- While the Oreo cookie balls are setting, prepare the garnishes.
- Melt the Ghirardelli's chocolate wafers as the package instructions indicate.
- You can also place the candy eyes, red M&M's, and broken (halved) pretzels into bowls. This will make decorating much quicker and easier.
Decorate your Oreo Rudolph balls
- Insert a toothpick into an Oreo ball. Then, dip it into the melted and slightly cooled chocolate.
- Carefully remove the toothpick from the ball. Place each chocolate-covered ball onto a parchment-lined plate or baking sheet. Make sure the tiny hole (where the toothpick was) is facing downwards.
- Immediately after dipping and placing the chocolate-covered Oreo ball, add the candy eyes, red M&M candy nose, and two pretzel halves. Take a look at my images to see how you can place the items to make Rudolph.
- Repeat the process until all of your balls have been decorated and set.
- Store these balls inside an airtight container inside the fridge. They will last up to a week!
