Mint oreo cheesecake bites

My brother’s birthday party was Saturday so I wanted to make a bite sized dessert that his friends could enjoy. My brother LOVES Andes mints so it was great that my local grocery store started carrying Andes Baking chips which are absolutely amazing! This recipe is an adaptation of something I found on browneyedbaker (an awesome food blog!) but I prefer to do it this way because it avoids the shortening.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz (half bag) of Andes Baking chips
• 4 oz regular cream cheese
• 1 row of oreos (from the normal 3 row oreo container)
• Parchment/wax paper
• Handful of white chocolate chips (optional)
• Dash of milk (optional)

Recipe:

1. Crumble the oreo cookies in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, my favorite method is just to throw them in a heavy duty ziplock and use a rolling pin.

2. Mix together the oreo crumbs with the cream cheese. I generally just do this with a wooden spoon.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment/wax paper. Roll bite sized balls of the oreo-creamcheese mixture and lay them out with a little space in between. Put them in the fridge for 30 minutes. (makes about 20-30 bites)

4. Bring a pot of water to boil. Once boiling place a tight fit bowl on top of the pot so that it is snug but doesn’t touch the bottom. Now you have a homemade double broiler!

5. Add the 5 oz of andes mints chips to the top bowl and whisk so they melt quickly. Then drop each cheesecake ball into the mixture and coat it in the chocolate. Place each ball back on the parchment after it is thoroughly coated.

6. For a fun decorative touch, you can melt some white chocolate in a bowl and add a dash of milk to make it more-liquidey. Take the whisk and make a fun white chocolate pattern over the coated cheesecake bites by simply dipping the whisk in chocolate and then drizzling the white chocolate all over the parchment. **Note- for an extra touch you can add food coloring to the white chocolate to make different color patterns.

7. Place the cheesecake bites back in the fridge for 10 minutes and then transfer to a clean serving dish. Enjoy!!