Basket of Apples OREO Cookie Balls (Perfect Gift for Teachers!)

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A “Basket of Apples” OREO Cookies Balls are easy to make and delicious!  The added hint of brown sugar &  cinnamon make them taste like Fall  and with just a little imagination, you can make them into a perfect teacher’s gift for Thanksgiving!

You all eat OREO Cookie Balls, right?   If not, you need to remedy that right now!  But if you have had them, today I want you to try them again… but change them up… use Golden OREOS with a little hint of cinnamon and brown sugar that make them taste like Fall.

And what else just screams “Fall”?  Apples.   Right?

So today I’m going to show you how to make a super cute, and even more yummy Fall treat that will be perfect as a teacher gift for Thanksgiving!   I promise your kids teacher’s will thank you a million times over for these adorable, delicious OREO Cookie Balls!

Basket of Apples OREO Cookie Balls

When I was at Walmart looking at all the flavors of OREO Cookies, I decided to go with the Golden OREOS for two reasons… first, the inside of the cookie balls would look like the inside of an apple:

and second… I knew the flavor would be perfect to combine with brown sugar and cinnamon.

After getting everything together yesterday, I got busy making the OREO Cookie Balls and they came together so fast!    I used my food processor to crush the OREOS to a fine texture, then I mixed in the softened cream cheese!  If I’m being honest here, I tried doing it with that spoon you see up there, but I ended up using my hands and it was so much easier!

After you have it all mixed up, if you want to add that “fall” taste – also mix in the cinnamon and brown sugar.  Of course those are optional, but I highly recommend trying it!

Now – you’ll need to roll the mixture into balls!  I actually used a small cookie scoop to get my cookie balls uniform, but you could easily do this without a scoop!   I scooped it out, rolled the dough into balls, then placed them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

From here, you’ll need to pop them into the freezer so they can firm up before dipping them in chocolate.

While they’re getting cold, go ahead and melt your white chocolate or if you want to skip the coloring step, use red candy melts.

I melted mine in the microwave 1 minute, then stirred and microwaved again in 15 second intervals until it was smooth.  Next, if you want to make the apples, add in some red candy coloring and stir to get a bright red color.

Please note- you will need an oil-based candy coloring that you can find in the cake decorating aisle.  “Regular” food coloring will not work – it will cause your chocolate to seize!

After the cookie balls are cold, take them out and dip into the melted chocolate.  I placed mine in the bowl, rolled them around, then used a chocolate dipping tool to lift them out.  You could just as easily use a fork to do this!  Tap it on the edge of the bowl so any extra chocolate will drip off, then slide them onto wax paper.

Before the chocolate sets, add a small piece of broken pretzel and a green candy or chocolate covered sunflower seed (the green ones are the perfect shape for a leaf!) to the top so that you have an “apple”!  Aren’t they just SO cute?!   Pop them all in the frig to set and they’re ready to devour!

To make these into perfect teacher gifts for Thanksgiving, I cut some squares of parchment paper, then lined tiny little baskets and filled them up with “apples”!  I placed them in a large cellophane bag, added a pretty ribbon (you’ll see a few ribbons in my pics – I’m a terrible decision maker) and a “Happy Thanksgiving” label as a finishing touch!

Download the label here:

Do you have any questions about making these?  Leave me a comment!  For more holiday OREO Cookie balls recipes, check out this link: http://cbi.as/14pvf!   I’d love to hear about your favorite homemade gift ideas!

And here’s the printable recipe for ya:

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