Sugar Cookie Truffle's and Pops, and a Give Away!

How cute, that poor guy on the right looks sad.

 Hey all, I am so excited to post this today. Last year I posted my first give away with a cute little cake pop mold. And when I got that cute mold I also got another gift to give away, a four pack set of all the molds that My Little Cupcake makes.  I was super excited to share this and I thought since Valentines is coming up what a perfect time to try out the heart mold and to give away the whole set to one of my readers!

  So this is going to be a tutorial with a new cookie truffle I have not tried before, using my new molds.  And if it all works out, then you will have some new ideas and one of you will have the new molds to try out for yourself!

This is all my left over sugar cookie dough, rolled out and cut so it bakes faster.

  To start I saw this recipe for sugar cookie truffles a while back on Cookies and Cups.  I filed it away in the back of my mind, this is before I knew what pintrest was, and I was set to make them as soon as I had extra sugar cookie dough.

  As it turns out, I never have extra.  I did make some cookies and had some scraps before the holidays, but not enough to make these.  So when I made like a million cookies I saved all the scraps from the good cut outs.  ( by good I mean I try to only roll my dough out twice, only because I have been told your cookies can get tough if you roll the dough too much.  So after two roll outs, it is either tossed if there is not a lot or now I save it for cookie truffles.) I had so much I just rolled it out, cut it into large rectangles with a pizza wheel, and baked them until they were crispy.  You do not want soft cookies for this, or they will not grind up well.

They sat in this bag for a few days, I was in no rush to get to them. Too many other things to do!

  Once baked I let them sit out over night to dry even more, then put them into a bag.  I did not bother freezing them as I want them dry.  Then when I was ready I got to work.

Sugar Cookie Truffles
Idea from Cookies and Cups

-crispy sugar cookies, either from a mix or your favorite recipe
-1 block of cream cheese
-candy melts to coat them

  Now I did not measure at all, just sort of went with it because I had so much dough left.

Just break up your cookies to fit into your food processor.  If you don't have one, put your cookies in a freezer bag and bash them with something, a rolling pin, Hubby's head, a hammer.  Whatever you have.

I did have a few chunks that no matter what would not break up. I picked them out and ate them.  Waste not want not!

  To start cream your cream cheese to soften.  Then take your cookies and break them up and put them in a food processor to grind them up.  You want them fine so there are no chunks, they are hard and you don't want that.  So once you grind up your cookies, just start adding them to your cream cheese and mix.  I added until it turned into a dough that I could roll and it would hold it's shape.  Sorry I don't have measurements, this was really just to use up the left over cookie dough.  You can also do the same thing with Oreo's, that is what My Little Cupcake uses all the time.

See nice and thick.  But still really soft.  So I put the whole thing in the fridge to set up.

  Anyway, once I got it all blended I used my hand to fill the molds I had, and it stuck.  Of coarse, when I am on a roll and everything!  So I put the whole bowl in the fridge to set up.  Then I forgot about it for like 2 hours.  So then I went back and I made cones and hearts.  I was going to make the balls, but they are so big, and I think they might be too big for this.  They work awesome for cake pops, so trust me you want this mold.  Saves you from rolling all those cake balls.

I was trying to keep my hands clean to take pictures, so I used my mini ice cream scoop to put the stuff in.  But just use your hands, unless you are taking pictures   

Squish it together!

See? Perfect!!!

  So once all my shapes were made I covered the pan they were in and put them in the fridge over night. (okay two nights, I got lazy and left them another day.)  I ate a few, but you know, I had to make sure they tasted good.  And they did, just in case you were wondering.

I made Hubby take me to the bulk store to get more sprinkles, I just don't think I have enough.  (Says the girl who is only showing one of two bins she has)

The next day I got my dipping stuff ready.  To do what I did, you will need the following:

-candy coating, melted in any colour you want
-paraffin crystals or shortening to thin out your candy melts if needed
-lollipop sticks
-sprinkles or whatever you want to decorate with
-Styrofoam block to stand them in to dry
-bags and ties

  Now I wanted to make something Valentine like, so of coarse the heart mold was perfect for that.  I made them into cookie pops because anything on a stick is cuter.  That's a saying right?  No?  Well it should be.

  I melted my candy melts and thinned them with paraffin crystals since I have no clue what I am doing half the time and my coloured and white chocolate gets all lumpy.  I don't think there is a cure for what is wrong we me, I just try to work with it.  So once the chocolate was melted I worked a few pops at a time.

They look huge but they are really a perfect size.

Taking the plunge.

This looks good, but just you wait, my chocolate will crack and do horrible things.

  First you dip the lollipop stick in the chocolate then put it into the heart.  I let it set for a minute or two then started dipping the whole thing.  As usual my chocolate cracked, but again, I don't care, I just let them set at room temperature while I dipped all the rest, then went back and dipped them again.

  When I was done with the second coating,  I let them dry in a block of Styrofoam.

These are the food markers I used, I was not in the mood to be super fancy.

You could stop right here, but you know, I have sprinkles and I want to use them.

A cute girl with a bow, and blush.

  Once fully dried I used Americolor food writer pens and drew on cute happy faces and stuff.  You know, because a real heart has a happy face.  Trust me it does, they just don't want you to know that. And I used heart sprinkles to add bows and stuff, because they needed it!

So cute, perfect for your Valentine.

  So there are my super adorable valentine pops, but I also wanted to make something with the cone shape.  A reader on my last mold post suggested party hats.  I sort of wanted to make them for new years, but you know that hospital stay put a damper on a lot of fun things.  So I will make these for a birthday.  And who has a birthday coming up?  Hubby does, on February 1st.  Perfect, except that he won't eat these, they have cream cheese and cream cheese is the devil to him.  As are most things I make.  ( Again why I keep him around I will never know)

  So to start I melted chocolate, I used regular milk chocolate since I think brown is in, and I like it better.  So I did the same dipping of the lollipop stick and put it into the cone.  I then dipped the whole thing and used tweezers to place sprinkles to be polka dots.  Then I let it dry.

I got nothing to say about this.

For some reason my chocolate was really thick, but I was too late in figuring that out so whatever, it still worked.

After this all I did was add the bottom trim.

  Once dry I used a paint brush to paint the bottom of the hat, then rolled the edge in sanding sugar to look like a band.  Then I dotted on chocolate on the top and put a sugar pearl, or sprinkle or whatever I liked.  And there you have it super cute party hats.

  And bonus to Hubby when I said, what do you think it is, he said "a party hat?"  It's like when your kid shows you a picture of a dog, and you say, "wow what a nice flower"  and they give you the look.  Well it's the same with me, but my dog pictures are awesome.

The pink one is for me, I am a girl after all.  And I did a few little circle ones, and just rolled them in sprinkles.

And these are the plain truffle ones I did for the guys at work.  Because I don't think the manly men would eat the glittery cookie pops.  At least not in public.

  I so have an idea to make Mickey Mouse heads with the  large ball, so that will be with cake balls when I do them next!

  I hope this has given you some ideas, and you could do these without the molds, but really they make the job so easy you should give them a try.  And one of my readers is going to get the chance to try them all.

These are my molds, the winner's are all nice and snug in a pretty pink box.  I put the ice cream scoop there because I made some small truffles too.

  So here it is, my super huge contest!!!! One winner will get the four piece set of molds from My Little Cupcake. The contest will close January 20th, at 12 noon Toronto time, 2012.  I will announce the winner soon after in a new post.  As I moderate the comments, any comment that arrives in my mail box before the end of the contest will count.  So they may appear to be late entries, but as long as I get them before noon, they will qualify.

  To win all you have to do is leave a comment, and answer my skill testing question.

***Make sure you put the answer to 7-4=? in each comment or entry or else it will not qualify*****

  To get extra entries do one or all of the following, just leave a comment letting me know you have done each and include the skill testing question (7-4=?) answer in each one.

Ways to get extra entries:

-become a follower of my blog, and leave a comment to let me know
-check out the My Little Cupcake  site and let me know which mold you think you would use the most and how you would use it
-follow my face book page, and come back and let me know.  No comments on my face book page will count

  So there you have it, 4 chances to win. The winner will be chosen from all the qualifying entries (meaning they all have to have the answer to the skill testing question) by Random.org.  The winner will be contacted and posted here in a new blog post.  The winner will have 48 hours to get in touch with me and send me their information so I can mail out the prize. If the winner does not contact me within the 48 hours, I will choose another winner. The contest is open to residents of the USA, Canada (except Quebec, sorry) and International readers.  The winner will be responsible for any duties that may be charged when the item is shipped.  The value of the prize is approx $23  USD funds.  I will be shipping from Canada.

  This give away was made possible by My Little Cupcake, because when I asked them for a pamphlet to put in with my last give away they sent me this whole set to give away too!  I was not paid, I just really love the product.

  As people will make entries that do not qualify or I may add a comment, I will start with the first entry and work my way down including only the entries that qualify and use the total number to make the draw from.

  I also wanted to say thank you for all the kind comments you all send me.  I love reading them all!