Too cute to eat... Snowman Pops

    I can't believe that it's been almost 3 months since I last posted... the last couple of months have been a little crazy. There were several weeks this fall that I had 3 or more interviews, but now that I'm done travelling, it's time to get back to the kitchen! For the past couple of months, I have been teaching swim lessons to offset some of the expense of interviewing (and have some fun :-) ). 

     I wanted to do something special for the kids I've been teaching, and my sister, Melissa, gave me this idea- she made these for the students in her student teaching class this semester. She used candy corn for the noses, but I couldn't find any this time of year, so I used "Mike and Ike" candies and cut them in half. I'm not sure this actually qualifies as "baking," but I thought they were too cute not to share! It's a little tricky to make the pops, but decorating them is easy and could be a fun project for kids.

Oreo Snowmen Pops

- 1 box double-stuffed Oreos

- Popsicle sticks 

- 1 bag (14-16 oz) white chocolate chips 

- 1 box candy corn or Mike and Ikes

- Royal Icing (I bought a can of meringue powder and followed the recipe that came with it)

- food coloring (I used black for the eyes and mouth)

- Parchment or wax paper

- While this is a simple concept, it can be a little tricky to pull off, so I've added a couple of tips to make it a little easier. 

-To prepare the Oreos, pop them in the microwave for about 10 seconds to soften them up a bit. If you start with cold cookies, it will be difficult to insert the popsicle sticks and the cookies may crumble in the process. Stick one popsicle stick into the icing of each warm cookie. Chill the cookies in the fridge until they firm up, probably at least a couple of hours

- Once the cookies have been chilled, it's time to melt the chocolate and get it ready for dipping. The key to making this step a success is to heat the candy gently and to remove it from heat when it is melted. You can either do this with a microwave or a double boiler on a stove. I used the microwave in short increments (1 min to start, then 30 secs at a time) at LOW heat (50% power) and stirred in between increments. When the chocolate is mostly melted, with just a few lumps in it, you can use even smaller increments. Stop heating it as soon as all of the chocolate is melted.

-Now, you're ready to dip the Oreos! To do this, I placed each cookie top down into the melted white chocolate and spooned chocolate to cover the entire outside. Then, to remove excess, I tapped the popsicle stick attached to the cookie on the side of the bowl. This makes the surface of the "snowman" very smooth. When you are satisfied with the result, you can place them on a cookie sheet prepared with parchment or wax paper.

-Allow them to cool for ~30 min before removing them from the parchment paper. When the pops have set, you can start working on the faces...

-To make noses, cut Mike and Ike candies in 1/2 (or use candy corn, whole). You can use melted white chocolate or icing to "glue" on the noses in the middle of the pops.

-Make royal icing, and use large amounts of black food coloring to darken the icing. Draw dots for eyes and mouth. Allow the icing to set before packing with cellophane and ribbon.
-Enjoy!