Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles

Halloween, you were fun, but now you're merely a thing of the past. For the record, I didn't dress up. I sat at home taking the practice LSAT for the second time. Spooky, right? Oh well. One can't do everything, namely, ingest Slippery Nipples in a sexy pediatrician's costume and get hit on by poorly made up Jokers. I did, however, leave Halloween in the past and focus on the latest and greatest upcoming holiday, Guy Fawkes Day. Because it's strictly against my zoning laws to blow stuff up, I made gunpowder-inspired cookie truffles instead- smoky, spicy, snappy.

Cookie-based truffles and cake truffles are nothing new. Everybody and their mother has done something with them, and in eight katrillion flavors. But however hard I looked, and believe me, I looked hard, I couldn't find truffles that utilized my absolute favorite cookie, Newman's Own Organics Ginger-O. God, how I love it. It's one of the only cookies that passed our scrutiny enough to buy it time and time again. To celebrate November and a three point raise from my first test, here are some Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles.

These are easy to make and even easier to doll up with interesting flavors if you're so inclined. I used cinnamon and ground ginger in my white chocolate dip, and a cracked black pepper garnish on top. I only made 1/3 of the recipe, which yielded 16 truffles, but if you're making these for a crowd, use the entire package. The reduced and full recipes are both below.

To start, take your Ginger-O's out of the package and put them in a food processor.

Grind them up until they're completely crumbled. I sprinkled some ground ginger in there, too. Make sure there aren't any whole pieces left that have escaped the wrath of the blade.

Take your cream cheese- 1/3rd of the package or the entire block if you're making all the truffles, and blob it into the food processor. Pulse that together until you have a blended dough.

Shape the dough into relatively round balls and place on a cookie sheet. Chill for no less than an hour and as long as overnight. While your truffles are chilling, prepare the chocolate bark.

The grocery store was out of Wilton's candy melts, so I tried these Dolci Frutta melts. While I figured them out, they made too thick of a shell and were absolutely infuriating to mold. Stick to chocolate bark or candy melts.

I mixed in my cinnamon and ground ginger and melted the chocolate. It didn't get any more fluid than a thick paste, so I had to improvise and mold it around the balls, like a fondant. After that, quickly dust the truffles with cracked black pepper- while they are still wet so it is able to adhere. Chill for four hours to overnight, and eat!

These were delicious- a cross between a snickerdoodle and a spicy ginger snap. Hopefully these will kick off a new trend in cookie ballery. I know what I'm making for holiday cookies this year.

Ginger and Black Pepper Truffles (makes approximately 50)

Ingredients

1 pkg. Newman's Own Organics Ginger-O's

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pkg. white chocolate baking bark

Cracked black pepper to garnish

1. Dump the cookies into a food processor and blend until finely ground.

2. Blob in cream cheese and blend until soft, smooth dough forms

3. Roll dough into small balls (2 tsp.) and chill for one to twelve hours.

4. Melt chocolate baking bark in double boiler and add spices.

5. Dip chilled truffles into melted bark and garnish with cracked black pepper.

6. Chill for three to twelve hours and eat!

Adjusted ratios for 1/3 of a batch

1/3 pkg. (approximately 12) Newman O's

1/3 pkg (2.6 oz) cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 package white chocolate baking bark

Cracked black pepper to garnish