Can you tell me what went wrong with my Oreo balls?

[maslex]

I have made these several times before so I really don't know what went wrong.

I normally make the cookie crumbs, mix in the cream cheese, roll into balls, put the cookie balls into the freezer to firm up a bit, dip into chocolate, place back into the freezer to firm up the chocolate and then store the Oreo balls into freezer bags until I need them.

My plan was to make 3 batches this year (one to bring to my brother's for Christmas Eve, one to bring to my SIL's for Christmas Day and one to bring to my work Christmas party) Well, after last night's disaster, I'm not making them anymore. It was such a pain in the XXX.

I was having a hard time keeping them into "balls" during the dipping stage. It was like they were falling apart. Then once I took them out of the freezer, there was NO WAY that I could get these damn things off of the plate. The chocolate completely stuck to the plate and whenever I went to grab them off of the plate, it was like the inside was too wet and they would literally smoosh in my hands. The outside chocolate would crack and I would end up smashing the truffles right in my hand.

Like I said, I have made these many times before and have NEVER had this kind of problem. Can someone try to explain what happened?

 

[mfd25wife]

I can tell you how I make them and so far haven't had a problem. Mix crumbs with cream cheese, scoop out with melon ball scoop, roll them well to make sure they form well and aren't crumbling apart. If they are, the cream cheese isn't mixed evenly. I let them freeze 30 minutes. Melt almond bark. Dip the balls and place them on wax or parchment paper. I leave on the counter until they harden. With almond bark, it's pretty quick. I don't freeze until they are completely solid.

 

[Starbrite]

I don't freeze mine during the process at all. I just refrigerate.

Sounds like maybe your chocolate was too hot and melting the balls inside.

 

[Grandmouse]

The weather here has been unusually warm. Do you think there was too much humidity? I know that sometimes has an effect on my baking.

 

[ENSOCK]

did you have enough oreos? Once when I made them, I did not notice that my oreo package was the smaller package. I found that they were softer that time.

 

[Imzadi]

Sounds like maybe your chocolate was too hot and melting the balls inside.

I'd say it was this, that you had the chocolate too hot. It has to "temper" at the right temperature, or it won't solidify correctly. Too hot or too cold can be a problem for the chocolate. The cracking may be because of that.

Plus, it makes a difference which kind of chocolate you used, especially if you didn't temper it correctly. Some chocolate is very unforgiving. Meanwhile other brands you can hardly mess up. Did you switch brands?

Was your cream cheese old? Did you freeze it at any time? Cream cheese changes texture after being frozen.

 

[nmmom95]

First of all, my stuck-at-12-year-old-brain laughed at the title.

Secondly, did you use a different brand of cream cheese? Sometimes I have problems with ricotta that is too milky, especially with cannoli filling. The filling stays too wet.

 

[wdwpluto]

I think the Oreo packages are getting smaller and it throws off the ratio. We made them with mint Oreos for Thanksgiving and it was an oily mess presumably because whatever they use to add the mint flavor

 

[maslex]

OP here.

I got to thinking about this disaster all day today. Usually, I use my food processor to make the cookie crumbs, then add in the block of cream cheese right into the food processor to mix it all up. But something was going all wonky with the food processor so I transfered the cookie crumbs with the cream cheese into my Kitchen Aid mixer and mixed away. I'm thinking maybe I mixed it for too long? This is the only thing that I did differently. I used the same cookies, same cream cheese, same everything. Except the way I mixed it. I'm wondering if that would do it?

 

[Gumbo4x4]

First of all, my stuck-at-12-year-old-brain laughed at the title.

Me too, couldn't help but think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R5xcydYKqU

 

[ebtbmom]

After dipping mine I put them on wax paper so they don't stick.

 

[maslex]

After dipping mine I put them on wax paper so they don't stick.

Yeah, sometimes I put them on wax paper, sometimes I don't. For the most part, I always put them on a plate (no wax paper) and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to let them harden up. That's exactly what I did this time too but they completely STUCK to the plate. And I mean stuck!!! We literally had to chisel them off with a fork. It's was a big mess.

 

[cornflake]

Never made these (I googled them - so I got nuttin as to what may have gone wrong there) but how did you melt your chocolate? I don't think I've ever frozen melted chocolate either, I just let it harden at room temp (won't it get condensation and not be glossy if you put it in the freezer?) but maybe you did something odd to the chocolate?

 

[kimmar067]

Can you tell me what went wrong with my Oreo balls?....

....is this a trick question?

 

[maslex]

Never made these (I googled them - so I got nuttin as to what may have gone wrong there) but how did you melt your chocolate? I don't think I've ever frozen melted chocolate either, I just let it harden at room temp (won't it get condensation and not be glossy if you put it in the freezer?) but maybe you did something odd to the chocolate?

I use a double boiler to melt my chocolate. I've always used Almond Bark and it's really good to dip things in. Never had a problem freezing them either. I only put them in there for about 5-10 mins or so. Just enough to harden them up. Then once the chocolate is all set, I toss them all into a freezer bag and throw them back into the freezer until I need them. They don't have any condensation or glossy or that weird white coating.

But the more I think of it, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I think where I went wrong is when I decided to put the cookie crumb/cream cheese in my Kitchen Aid mixer with the whisk attachment. The middle of them came out like a "whipped" texture. I think that was the culprit. Won't make that mistake again.

 

[wiigirl]

Me too, couldn't help but think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R5xcydYKqU

Thanks!

 

[disykat]

The weather here has been unusually warm. Do you think there was too much humidity? I know that sometimes has an effect on my baking.

Someone else already posted the link, but this post had me rolling! Yep, humidity can make balls schweddy!

 

[kimmar067]

Me too, couldn't help but think of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R5xcydYKqU

...guilty here too....

 

[Imzadi]

Someone else already posted the link, but this post had me rolling! Yep, humidity can make balls schweddy!

 

[goodeats]

I make peanut butter balls, which calls for 2 cups of chunky peanut butter. Usually I buy the super chunk jar of Skippy. This year I noticed the Skippy is only 13 oz, which is several TBSP short of 2 cups. Switched to Jif instead!