Oreos Pretzel Frogs

Are these not the cutest little frogs you’ve ever seen?  And they are edible, made with one of America’s favorite cookies, Oreos.  And pretzels.  Almost too cute to eat.  Almost.

These are a fun, super easy treat that kids (big and small) will love.  I thought they’d be fun since today is St. Patrick’s Day, but you could find all kinds of perfect reasons to make them.  Spring is coming up.  Easter.  Heck, you could make these for no special reason at all. 

My mom sent me a picture of them a couple months ago, then I looked them up on the world wide web again and they are found in many places with each one made slightly different.  You can easily do them however you wish.  I used some candy eyeballs and Fruit by the Foot candy that I cut for the tongues.  These are fun because you can use any flavor of Oreos you’d like.  You could even live a little on the edge and do all different colors of frogs. 

Oreos Pretzel Frogs, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! adapted from all over the web

12 Oreos cookies, any flavor

24 pretzel twists

7 ounces (half a bag) of green Wilton candy melts

24 candy eyeballs

1 strawberry/red Fruit by the Foot candy roll up, or any other candy that can easily cut/shape

green sugar sprinkles, optional

Unroll the Fruit by the Foot and cut into small tongue shapes.  Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Melt the candy melts according to package directions.  Dip each pretzel in the candy, using a fork to lift them out of the bowl.  Tap the excess melted candy off the pretzel by gently tapping the fork that is holding the pretzel on the bowl.  Lay them on the baking sheet, laying two next to each other so they are just touching.  After dipping all of the pretzels, dip each Oreos cookie one at a time, also tapping the extra candy off the cookie and lay each cookie on top of the pretzels. 

Sprinkle the back of each cookie with green sprinkles if desired.  Stick a cut out tongue in the center of each cookie.  Let the candy melt harden slightly.  Once it is starting to set, put the candy eyes on the tops and hold in place for a few seconds.  If they aren’t staying upright very well, wait until the candy melt is hardened a little bit more.  If it has hardened too much, carefully dip the bottom of each candy eye into the candy melt to use as “glue”.  Let all the candy frogs set completely.  Easily double the recipe.

Served these cookies with a simple “Shamrock” Shake.  Filled the blender with vanilla ice cream (about 4-5 cups), added milk (about 3 cups), about 10 drops of green food coloring and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract.  Blend until smooth.  This made about 6 eight ounce cups.

Candy Cane Oreo Meringue Cookie—12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

We’re in the home stretch, Friends.  Today is Week 10 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  After Thanksgiving, I ended up with eleven egg whites to use for something.  I almost made an angel food cake, but ended up doing other things with the whites.  Someday I’m going to make an angel food cake since I never have made one from scratch and bought a pan a few months back to do so.  But I ended up doing one thing or another with a couple of the egg whites and then decided to make meringue cookies with some.  These Candy Cane Oreo Meringue Cookies turned out great!

After finding and loving the new, limited edition Candy Cane Oreos, I decided it would be fun to crush some up and put them in the meringue cookies.  They turned out great!

While they tasted fine as is, I dressed them up a little with a dip in some melted chocolate and a little more sprinkling of the crushed cookies.

I love meringue cookies.  The boys do, too.  And these were a hit at book group I made them for the other night.

Light and crispy, airy but flavorful, love these!  They are so easy to make and pretty low fat.  Win, win!

Candy Cane Oreo Meringue Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 large egg whites (66 grams), room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoons crushed or ground Candy Cane Oreo Cookies, and extra for sprinkling on the tops (about 5 cookies)

4 ounces dark chocolate (good dark chips or chopped chocolate)

1 teaspoon coconut oil (or butter/shortening)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Beat egg whites on high in an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk attachment.  As they are beginning to whip, add the granulated sugar a little at a time.  Add the vanilla extract.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the ground Oreo cookies.  Put the mixture in a large piping bag fitted with a large tip (I use a star tip, but round works just fine).  Pipe dough in to about 1  1/2 inch mounds spaced an inch apart.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool.

Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 20-30 second intervals with the microwave a half power.  (Should only take a couple minutes, stirring in between intervals.)  Dip half of each cookie into chocolate and set on parchment to harden.  Sprinkle with the ground cookies.  Let sit at room temperature until chocolate has hardened.  Makes about 20 cookies.

The 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats is brought to you by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic and all the blog hoppers you see below!

 

 

   

Candy Cane Oreo White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s Rice Krispies Treats—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

Candy Cane Oreo White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s Rice Krispies Treats

Wow—Now THAT’S a recipe title.  I didn’t want to shorten it or leave anything out.  They could easily just be called Peppermint Rice Krispies Treats or Candy Cane Rice Krispies Treats, but they deserve all the recognition from each addition.  Finish reading this and drooling a little, then run (or drive, I’ll allow that) to your nearest Target and find the new, limited edition Candy Cane Oreos and White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s, grab a box of Rice Krispies Cereal and some Kraft marshmallows (although if you’re like me, those are things I always have in the pantry).  Better yet, look to see if Target has the new Kraft Peppermint Mallows, which is what I used.  These treats are super kicked up for the holidays and are so good!

The Candy Cane Oreos are one of their best limited editions yet.  They have that Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints taste, but in Oreo form.  They are good.  My kids really like them.  And they are somewhat picky and often don’t like the “new” flavors of things.   One wouldn’t even try them at first, but after doing so, is hooked.

I really like the White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s, too.  They are strong, but not as much as a candy cane and have that great hint of white chocolate.  The peppermint flavor is the dominate flavor.  I kind of wish it wasn’t quite so strong, but I still love these!  They are easy to snitch a few here and there when they are hiding in your baking closet in an open bag.  (So I’ve heard.)  I don’t have as much of a problem doing that with cookies, but I’m glad I bought two bags of the cookies, because my kids keep snitching those.  And I’ll be back to Target soon for more of the M&M’s before they’re gone!  Run!  How many agree that M&M’s should come permanently in “plain” White Chocolate M&M’s flavor?  Maybe we should all start a petition on their Facebook page or something.  My only wish would be that they just come in regular “plain” M&M’s size.  I kind of think all the new, limited edition, different flavors should just be the regular “plain” size, but they make them a little bigger, I guess so you aren’t confused. ;)

Anyway, these Rice Krispies Treats were delicious!  I made some and took them to a baby shower I attended.  Felt a little bad that it was a shower for a baby boy, but I think they made up for that in flavor and were accepted just fine.  These treats definitely put me in more of a holiday mood. 

Perfect for the 8th week of The 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, hosted by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic.  So nice of her to head up the group and keep it running smoothly each week!

Candy Cane Oreo White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s Rice Krispies Treats, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

10 ounce bag of Kraft Jet Puffed Peppermint Mallows (regular mini marshmallows would work, too)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 cups Rice Krispies cereal

15 Candy Cane Oreo Cookies, chopped

about 1 cup White Chocolate Peppermint M&M’s

Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with foil (nonstick is my favorite!), spray lightly with cooking spray.  Chop the Oreo Cookies, set aside.  Put the marshmallows and butter in a large microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for about 40 seconds.  Stir.  Microwave again for 30 seconds.  Stir until butter is mixed in with the melted marshmallows.  (You CAN also do this in a large saucepan, but it takes longer.)

Stir the cereal in to the marshmallow mixture.  When it is all combined, fold in the cookies, then the M&M’s.   Spread the mixture evenly into the baking pan.  I like to tamp it down with a potato masher sprayed lightly with cooking spray to get it even, then I don’t have to have sticky hands. ;)  Let sit on the counter for about an hour to firm up.  Remove from the pan using the foil edges and peel off the foil.  Set on a cutting board and cut into desired sized bars. 

While I think, “Hey, at least wait for Thanksgiving to come and let’s enjoy that before Christmas is here.”  I also know it will be here (and gone) before we know it.  Start making treats—it will get you right in the spirit of it all, at least it has for me.

Coconut Delight Oreo Fudge Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Coconut Delight Oreo Fudge Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Have you seen the newest member of the Oreo Cookies family?  Coconut Delight Oreo Fudge Cremes.

If you like coconut, you’ll like these Oreos.  I like to take things like this and make something else with them—kind of like Anna at Cookie Madness did recently with brownies.  She put these cookies inside some brownies.  They look great!  After seeing her post about them, I was on a mission to find them and make chocolate chip cookies with them.  That is my go-to treat to play around with—well, that and Rice Krispies Treats and brownies.  You can do so much with them.  I’ve added all kinds of things to those three goodies.  Yet Kevin has said to me, “Can’t you just make regular boxed brownies or plain Rice Krispies treats?”  How boring is that?  And how unethical of me?  Like it would look good to post here on my blog boxed brownies!  Like I’d ever even entertain the idea of posting plain Rice Krispies treats.  Anyway, let’s not get in to all of that!

Cookies—I made cookies.  I used my favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe, but to make things a little bit easier, instead of the “fancy” flours those cookies use, bread flour and cake flour, I used all purpose flour.  Oh, I changed up a few other things, but knew by using that favorite recipe as a base, these would come out great, too.  They are good enough that I ate a few bites of the cookie dough (I think I like cookie dough more than a cookie!  Shhh!), but after that, I’ve steered clear of the cookies because I’m, once again/still, trying not to eat too many things like that.  Boring!  I know.

At least I’m here to share the cookies (photos and recipe at least) with you. ;)  That and I was practically yelled at by a friend and fellow blogger, Suzanne, at Thru the Bugs on My Windshield, for not getting the post up for these as soon as I posted a teaser photo of them on Facebook on Saturday.  So here you go, Suzanne. 

Coconut Delight Oreo Fudge Chocolate Chunk Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

5 ounces (12 cookies) Coconut Delight Oreo Fudge Cremes, chopped

4 ounces (3/4 cup) dark chocolate chunks or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Scrape sides of bowl again.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together to sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat just until combined.  Stir in the coconut, cookies and chocolate with a spatula.  Scoop cookie dough into desired-sized balls on baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies sit on the baking sheet for a couple minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

TWD—Baking With Julia—Chocolate Truffle Tartlets with Oreos and Andes Mints

Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking With Julia today!  This recipe was a little more involved than the first one for white loaves of bread.  The group has decided that each month we’ll just be doing two recipes (instead of weekly) and one will be more difficult or involved than the other.  We all agreed that would work well with our schedules and with Baking With Julia being more involved recipes.  Still having two weeks instead of just one this time around, I waited until yesterday to get to these Chocolate Truffle Tartlets!  When will I learn? ;)

I decided after looking at how decadent this recipe was that I needed to cut it down a bit.  So I only made 1/4 of the recipe, which made two small 3 1/2 inch tarts instead of six!  The recipe called for a little added white chocolate and milk chocolate as well as a chopped up biscotti.  After making a failed recipe for almond biscotti the other day that only had egg whites in it, I decided on some chocolate filled Oreo cookies I had on hand and some chopped up Andes mint chocolates and I thought these tasted great!

I thought the chocolate crust was good.  Kevin thought it wasn’t sweet enough, but to me it worked well with the sweet filling.  The filling was not really what I thought it would be, I was thinking more of a custard or something.  I thought it was delicious and I’m glad it wasn’t custardy.  It was more like fudge—a nice minty fudge with a little extra crunch from the Oreo cookies!

Everyone ate a little tiny slice or two for dessert and the two little tartlets were gone in a flash!

We have a number of bloggers hosting this recipe this month.  You can find the recipe on their blogs.  But I do suggest you just get the book, Baking With Julia.

Spike at Spike Does Stuff

Steph at A Whisk and a Spoon

Jamie at Good Eats & Sweet Treats

Jessica at cookbookhabit

Check out all their tarts!  You can also see a bunch of others on the Tuesdays With Dorie website.

Cool Mint Oreo Cocoa Krispies Treats

Almost have nothing to say about these latest Rice Krispies Treats creation of mine—because the pictures do all the talking.  If you like Oreo cookies and particularly the Mint Filled Oreos, you’ll really like these Cool Mint Oreo Cocoa Krispies Treat!

I was inspired by a couple of things in my pantry.  One was a bag of yet another Kraft marshmallows I’d found recently—chocolate mint.

I like them.  They aren’t too chocolate minty, but were perfect for making these treats.  My family must have liked the mallows, too—as I only had half a bag left because they thought they’d be perfect in their chocolate mint hot cocoa recently.  So I made these Rice Krispies Treats with only half a bag of the chocolate mint ones and a whole bag of regular mini marshmallows.  I also had some Cocoa Krispies cereal, so I used those, but regular Rice Krispies would be great, too!

So, besides having the chocolate mint marshmallows, I also just happened to have some Cool Mint Oreo cookies, too.  I’m working on using things in my pantry!  (Oh, I’ve still got lots of sweet goodies in my baking pantry, so stay tuned!)  I’d bought the Oreos for just such a treat as these—and then, once again, my family started eating the cookies.  So these treats actually don’t have as many cookies as I would have liked to put in them, but still plenty and if you make these—put as many Oreos as you’d like!

Cool Mint Oreo Cocoa Krispies Treats, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

10.5 ounce bag of regular mini marshmallows

4 ounces (1/2 a bag) Chocolate Mint Marshmallows (if you can’t find them, just use more mini marshmallows)

7  1/2 cups, (310 grams) Cocoa Krispies cereal (regular Rice Krispies would be fine, too)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

16 Cool Mint Oreo cookies (or more, if desired), roughly chopped

Line a 9x9 inch pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In a large microwave safe bowl, combine all the marshmallows and the butter.  Microwave in 30 second intervals until all melted.  (It only takes a minute to a minute and a half.)  Stir with a wooden spoon.  Add the cereal and stir together until combined.   Fold in the cookies.  Spread the mixture evenly in the pan and press down evenly.  (I use a flat potato masher that is lightly sprayed with cooking spray—it works perfectly!)  Let set at room temperature for an hour or two.  Remove from pan with foil edges.  Peel off foil and cut into desired size pieces on a cutting board.

 If you like chocolate mint things, you’re really like these.  The mint flavor isn’t too strong and perfectly sweet!

Christmas Treats—Bugles Santa Hats and Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix

Y’all ready for the big day?  Ready or not, here it comes!  I think we’re about as ready as we’re going to be here.  I’ve just about made all the goodies I can and happily given most of them away.  What you see in the picture above here is some Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix I made and some cute Santa Hats made with Bugles.  Are you familiar with Bugles?

You know, those crispy corn snacks that look like, well, bugles.

Dip them in red candy melts with a marshmallow on top and some white candy sprinkles around the rim and you have a Santa Hat!  Bummer that I didn’t really take any more photos than the one at the top there and almost forgot that one.  (*Note, after dipping them in the red melts individually, tap the extra coating off and set them on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper.  Let dry (or chill for a few minutes).  Then dip the tip of the “hat” in a little bit of the red candy melt and push a mini marshmallow into the top.  Let the tops dry before dipping the bottom into the red and then dunking each into some tiny white sprinkles.  I also think (if you can’t find the white sprinkles), use some white candy melts to dip them in and that would be fine.  Lay them on a baking sheet to set.)

I saw the cute idea on Studio 5, a local noonday news show that is always full of lots of crafty and foodie ideas.  You can see the short video here of the gal who talked about them, as well as some other cute, simple ideas for some holiday treats you can make and/or easily include kids helping with making for some fun activities.

And the Chex Mix Muddy Buddies, also known to some as Puppy Chow—there are now many flavors/recipes of that addicting stuff available.  Well, I also happened to notice at the grocery store a limited edition Chex Mix Cookies & Cream.  A small bag of it was $2.50, which I thought was a little pricy.  So I actually bought a bag of it and took it home and cloned it, which isn’t really all that difficult to do. 

I wasn’t quite exactly right on with the Chex Mix in the bag, but I actually liked mine a little better.  I made a big old batch of it and bagged it up with those little Bugles Santa Hats and gave the ladies at church a little Christmas treat last Sunday.

Cookies and Cream Chex Snack Mix, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

9 cups of Corn Chex Cereal

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 8 Oreo Cookies, ground into crumbs

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Have the cereal ready in a large bowl.  In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips and butter together until smooth.  Melt in 30 second increments, stirring each time.  Stir in the vanilla.  Pour the chocolate mixture over the cereal and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle in the cookie crumbs and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle in the powdered sugar a little at a time, coating the top cereal, then stirring, adding more, and stirring gently until it is all coated in powdered sugar.

Spread the snack mix on a baking sheet and let it cool completely.  Try not to eat too much all at once! ;)

Mango Peach Ice Cream (Fat Free) and Golden Oreos Crust Mango Peach Ice Cream Pie Recipe

I’ve got to get as many ice cream posts in as I can since July is National Ice Cream Month.  It’s starting to be peach and mango season, so I grabbed some at the store recently.  I decided some of them needed to be made into ice cream.  The Mango Peach Ice Cream is actually fat free, but I would never have guessed that if I was given some to taste and wasn’t told that and I really just made it up as I went along.  I’m glad I wrote it down because I will for sure make this again!

Mango Peach Fat Free Ice Cream, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 ripe peaches, pit removed and cut into chunks

2/3 cup fat free sweetened condensed milk**

1/3 cup skim milk

zest of half a lime

juice of 1 lime

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, discard the remaining bits of peach skin, etc.

Chill in an airtight container in the fridge for a few hours, or in a bowl in an ice bath until mixture is COLD.  Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions (about 20-25 minutes).  Store in an airtight container in the freezer.

**I used this amount because I’d used the rest of the can for something else and had some to use up.  I will probably make this with a whole can of condensed milk next time, but I always use fat free milk. 

After making the ice cream I decided to make a couple of ice cream pies for dessert when we had company over and thought this would be good in a pie.  I made a cookie crust using Golden Oreos and it was really good!  I put a layer of the mango peach ice cream on the crust, then topped it with whipped topping and let it freeze overnight.  I think it tasted great!

Mango Peach Ice Cream Pie with Golden Oreo Crust, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 quart homemade mango peach ice cream (fat free), recipe above

8 ounces whipped topping

Cookie crust:

5 ounces Golden Oreos

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grind the Oreos until finely ground crumbs.  Add the melted butter and pulse until all combined.  Dump the buttery crumbs into a pie plate and spread evenly, going up the sides of the plate as well.  Bake for 8 minutes just to set and toast the crust.  Let cool completely.

Spread the softened ice cream over the crust, then the whipped topping.  Freeze until solid.  Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

HAVE YOU MADE ANY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM YET THIS SUMMER?—THIS IS THE MONTH!

Oreo Jack-O-Lantern Pops

Last week Megan at Megan's Cookin' and I were admiring some really cute Oreo in Disguise cookie pops that are dressed up as apples over at Cookies and Cups.  They are really cute and as we chatted about them, we both thought it would be fun to try them out, but make pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns.  The apples are just Oreos on a stick, dipped in red candy melts and a pretzel in the top for the stem.  The pumpkin idea would be just as simple, but with a face frosted on.  A green ribbon is tied to the stem to look like leaves. 

 

I must tell you that while I made the Oreo Pumpkin Pops and for the most part it was fun, making yummy treats really cute looking is just not my forte.  For that same reasoning, I have never attempted cake decorating.  I actually would like to take a few classes someday.  I can’t even swirl frosting on a cupcake and make it look good.

Anyway, these are super easy to make with candy melts.  I did the faces with some fondant icing that comes in a perfect little tube with a small tip.  The boys like these more than I thought they would.  You want to be sure to use Double Stuf Oreos so the stick and pretzel stem fits inside.  I used some Oreos I hadn’t seen before called Heads and Tails.  One side of the cookie is the vanilla cookie and the other side is the traditional chocolate Oreo.

 

You could do these with all kinds of themes-Christmas ornaments, basketballs, baseballs.  What other ideas can you think of?

Check out Megan’s pumpkin Oreos.  If you check and she hasn’t posted hers yet, keep checking.  I can’t wait to see hers.  (I know they’ll look much better than mine, I’ve seen some great sugar cookie decorating she’s done!)  You can also check out the Apple Pops at Cookies and Cups (links are provided above).  Thanks for cookie poppin’ along with me, Megan! ;)

These would be really cute wrapped individually to give to someone or for a school class party.

  

Sorry about the poor quality of photos (lately that’s me, it seems).  Plus, I didn’t finish these and take pictures until it was late one night.