Oreo Cheese Ball Pot Of Gold

What better dessert to have to celebrate on St. Patrick's Day than this Oreo Cheese Ball Pot of Gold! Have some fun in the kitchen and make this adorable treat with your kids!

In Irish legend, Leprechauns bury pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, but since a rainbow can only be seen at a distance, the gold is forever elusive.

I may never find an actual pot of gold sitting beside a wee little leprechaun in a grassy meadow on a rainy day, but I did dream up a way to create my own little treasure in my kitchen.

Not having magical powers like a leprechaun, I had to use my own hands, and a food processor, to create my pot of gold out of Oreo Cookies, cream cheese, and modeling chocolate.  Just a few ingredients and a bit of gold luster dust are all you will need to make magic of your own.

Making this chocolate pot of gold is so easy and the finished product will make a great centerpiece for any St. Patrick's Day celebration.

When I first created my pot of gold, I used foil-wrapped chocolate gold coins to fill my pot. I found that they were just too big and I wasn't happy with how they looked, so I made my own coins by rolling white modeling chocolate and cutting it using a small round cookie cutter. 

I then brushed gold luster dust over each little round.  (For information about luster dust see my Mardi Gras Bead post.)

If you don't want to make white modeling chocolate you can alternately use: white fondant, white taffy, Vanilla Tootsie Rolls, or White Mystery Airheads Taffy. Flatten and cut any of these items into small rounds.  Or melt white chocolate and pipe it into small discs. For the finishing touch brush with gold luster dust.

Oreo Truffle Pot of Gold

Ingredients:

Chocolate Pot:

1 package (16.5 ounces) Nabisco Oreo Cookies (vanilla cream filled chocolate sandwich cookie)
1 - 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened

Coins:

¼ recipe white modeling chocolate (click here for recipe)
Powdered sugar for dusting work surface
gold luster dust

Optional Green Grass and Green Shamrock:

1-2 bags of shredded coconut
green food coloring
green luster dust

Special Equipment Needed:

food processor (or a gallon size zip top bag and a rolling pin)
rolling pin
1" round cookie cutter
parchment paper or wax paper
pastry brush (or food-only paintbrush)
Optional: shamrock cookie cutter

Instructions

Place cookies in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to fine crumbs.  Remove ⅓ cup crumbs and set in a shallow bowl.

Add the cream cheese to the crumbs in a food processor and pulse to combine.  (You can also put cookies in a gallon-size zip-top bag and crush them using a rolling pin or a meat mallet.

Remove ⅓ cup of crumbs before stirring in cream cheese.)

Pinch off about 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into a long rope.  Roll the remaining dough into a large ball.  Roll the bottom ⅔ of the large ball in the reserved crumbs, leaving room for the pot's brim to be added.

Place dough rope around the top part of the dough ball forming the brim.   Sprinkle crumbs over the entire surface of the dough ball and brim, pressing crumbs into the dough as needed. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 days.

Note: If your brim will not stay attached, remove it and brush off crumbs around the top of the ball.  You can even add a bit of water if needed to make the rope of dough stick to the ball of dough.

Make Gold Coins:  Knead white modeling chocolate until pliable. Dust your work surface lightly with powdered sugar and dust the top of the modeling chocolate before rolling to keep it from sticking.

Roll out to ⅛" thickness. Use a 1" round cookie cutter to cut out 30-50 coins. Set coins on a parchment paper or wax paper lined surface. 

Brush gold luster dust over both sides of each coin.  For a list of alternative food items that can be used to create these coins, see the post above.

Remove your chocolate pot from the refrigerator at least one hour before serving. Arrange coins on top inside the brim. Optional Decoration: Roll out some white modeling chocolate and cut out a shamrock.  Brush it with green luster dust for a shimmery effect, or you can color the white modeling chocolate green using food coloring. (Click here to learn how to color modeling chocolate.)

To create green coconut grass, place the coconut in a large zip-top bag.  Squeeze in about 10 drops of green food coloring.  Shake to coat the coconut in the coloring.  Add more coloring until you reach a nice vibrant shade of green.  Pour colored coconut onto a serving platter.

Place a chocolate pot of gold on top of the grass.  Garnish with a shamrock, if using.

To serve, slice the pot into 6-10 wedges. You can also just allow your guests to dig into the pot using a small knife and spread the soft chocolate dough onto a graham cracker. Or as will probably happen around here, we'll just dig in with a big spoon and enjoy!

If you're looking for more St. Patrick's Day food, use the link and check out these awesome recipes.

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Beth Klosterboer

Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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