putting something on a stick makes it automatically better.

putting things on a stick somehow makes them more fun. hot dog on a stick. ice cream on a stick. soap on a stick. frozen banana on a stick. pizza on a stick. fried potato on a stick. i could go on forever, a la bubba gump and his shrimp.

i've recently been drooling over bakerella's creations, both those on and not on a stick. we had a birthday boy to see this weekend, so i thought i'd try making these and distributing at his party. i used her adaptation of kraft's oreo truffles, which kate, wan, and a few others have raved about.

i busted out one of our wedding gifts that was still sitting sealed in its box. it's got a base that takes either a food processor top or blender top--handy and kinda sorta space-saving.

so shiny and new!

then i went to work mashing lots of cookies, mixing the crumbs with cream cheese (mmm...cream cheese), rolling the mixture into balls, and sticking a [4" lollipop] stick in each. see? oreo truffle upside-down forest:

dipped some in white/vanilla wilton candy melts; dipped some in dark chocolate wilton candy melts. stuck 'em in styrofoam. sprinkled some extra cookies and chocolate sprinkles on top. please ignore the messy styrofoam.

there were a few casualties. even though i let the balls chill for an hour or so before dipping them, some of the centers were too soft to hold up their own weight + the weight of the chocolate.

first casualty. the ball started on the right side of the stick.

the wounded on the battlefield. don't mind the white-chocolate-blood spills--those were treats for the white-chocolate-loving bear. the ones without sticks completely fell off their sticks.

lesson learned: chill for longer, stick in the freezer if you have the space, or make your centers smaller than i did. the kraft recipe yields 42, bakerella's yields 36, mine yielded 23. oops.

i loved the contrast of the white chocolate. plus the white gives you visual hints to the pops' cookies 'n' cream centers.

too bad white chocolate is usually too sweet for me. even the dark chocolate ones were too sweet for me, so they all got individually wrapped up for distribution.

yes, i said too sweet for me. everyone else liked them, at least to my face. i may make them again just because they're so cute and just to see if i can prevent the truffles from sliding down their sticks. even the bear had to admit they were pretty cute, and he's not usually one to be swayed too much by presentation.