Circus Animal Cookie Balls
These Circus Animal Cookie Balls are one of my favorites and they taste amazing. They are a little more dense than cake balls, sweet, and taste just like a soft circus animal cookie. It holds the same great flavor. Super simple to make using Mother’s Circus Animals Cookies, cream cheese, candy melts, and sprinkles. No baking required.
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Servings: 22 balls
EQUIPMENT
- Medium mixing bowl
- Hand mixer
- Baking tray
INGREDIENTS
- 15 ounce Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies fine crumbs
- 8 ounce block cream cheese softened at room temperature
- 10 ounce bag Ghirardelli vanilla melting wafers
- 12 ounce bag Wilton bright pink candy melts
- Rainbow nonpareils
INSTRUCTIONS
- Use a blender or food processor to pulse the circus animal cookies into fine crumbs. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
- Add the circus animal cookie crumbs and fold into the cream cheese. Then mix on medium-high speed using a hand mixer until it forms a cookie dough consistency.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a 1 ½ cookie dough scoop to scoop even sized balls and then roll each one in the palms of your hands until smooth and round.
- Melt the vanilla melting wafers using a double boiler or melt in a bowl in the microwave. Make sure to heat it on low and stir occasionally so the melts do not seize and thicken.
- Dip each cookie ball fully and tap the fork on the side of the to remove any excess coating. Place back on the baking sheet.
- Add sprinkles immediately on each one before it hardens. Repeat with half of the cookie dough balls.
- Now for the next set, melt the pink candy melts and dip each cookie ball fully with a fork. Tap the fork to remove the excess coating. Add sprinkles immediately on each one before it hardens.
- Allow to set fully before serving, about 10 minutes. Enjoy!
NOTES
Chilling the dough helps to make it easier to roll into balls and helps make it less likely to fall apart when dipping into the melts.
I used a food processor to get the cookies into fine crumbs but you can also use a blender or just place the cookies in a ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Remember to heat the melts on low and to stir occasionally to avoid it seizing. If you overheat it, it will have the opposite effect and thicken instead of melt. This will result in a thick and uneven coating. If using a microwave, use a low or defrost setting and heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each time.