OREO Cookie Balls on Gingerbread Cookie Cake

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Are you ready for the holidays? What do you do to celebrate New Year's after the thrill of Christmas is gone? I am never ready to take down our tree just yet. Our family likes to prolong this time of year and the festivities at least into New Year's and sometimes even a couple days after. It only comes every 12 months ya know! ;)

Well, I have the perfect dessert/snack for you to make this holiday season! (And really, it works for almost anytime, because there are so many different ways you can mix it up!) BUT, not only do I have a great recipe for you today for some OREO Cookie Balls, and fun variations, BUT...I also have a super fun new IDEA/tradition to go along with it for you! Keep reading to find out how they go together! ;)

Who doesn't love #OREOCookieBalls?! 

I have NEVER met anyone who doesn't just sink their teeth into them. YUM! They're so easy peasy to make and so delish! But, we wanted to mix it up a bit this time and even thought of having a fun night of taste testing with blindfolds. So fun! So we decided to make a variety of flavors with the original OREO cookie ball recipe to make it even more fun!

We started with this original OREO Cookie Ball recipe and headed over to find all of the ingredients needed at our neighborhood Wal-mart store. Before you head out though, I ALSO have a coupon for you for 50¢ off a package of OREOs!

OREO Cookie Balls Recipe

• Ingredients:
  • 1 pkg (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, softened
  • 36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)
  • 4 pkg. (4 oz. each) semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
• Make it!
  • MIX cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended.
  • SHAPE into 48 (1-inch) balls. Freeze 10 min. Dip balls in melted chocolate; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan.
  • CUSTOMIZE it with your own ingredient additions or decorative skills.
  • REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm.
    Share and Enjoy!

We bought OREOS in a few different flavors and made more than one batch. We used Mint OREO's, Peanut Butter OREO's, and regular OREO's. It's a super easy recipe to follow and to make with minimal ingredients needed! (Tip: The easiest way to crush those OREOs is in a food processor.)

Then we added a little bit of our own touches to some of them as well.

Optional ingredients that you MAY include (and that I used in some are):

-Essential oils of your flavor of choice. I split one batch of OREO cookie balls into three different bowls and added two drops of peppermint oil to one, and two drops of Wild Orange essential oils to another bowl, and left the third bowl as is. 

-I also added Andes mints bits and peppermint candy bits on top of some of the OREO cookie balls as well as sprinkles and cookie crumbs on others.

I decorated them all a bit different on top, to be sure that at least "I" knew, which ones were which flavors. haha BUT nobody else did! (Can you guess which ones are which? There are 5 flavors. Peppermint, Green mint, Orange, regular OREO, and Peanut Butter) Then the fun part comes! You can either just arrange them all on a plate (where they look beautiful even by themself!) or you can have fun with them and be creative! You can pull out the blindfold and have a fun activity for New Year's Eve...or....

I decided that since we never want to take the tree down, that we could make it into a "Taking the tree down Party!". 

So I made a huge gingerbread cookie cake, (You can just use your favorite recipe to make a gingerbread house for the cookie cake) and then I decorated it with the OREO Cookie balls. They are perfect for ornaments on the cookie cake tree! And they look beautiful!

Then if you want to add more, you can add other candy pieces as the lights and garlands on the cake. (Optional: I used string licorice, frosting, Sixlets, sprinkles, and added another gingerbread cookie in the shape of a star to the top of the cookie cake tree).

I then took all of my optional ingredients and decorated around the OREO cookie balls. I LOVE it!

And now the plan is...

as we de-construct the REAL tree in our house after Christmas and on New Year's Day, we can also de-construct (consume! hee hee) these yummy OREO Cookie Balls and Gingerbread Cookie Cake Tree at the same time. It will be so much more fun this way! It'll be a party!

 When do you take down your tree? Are you always ready to get it put away? Are your kids ready for it to be gone? This time, make it just as fun as putting the tree up and have a party!