Cake balls & cookie balls have become my “go-to” item for pot-lucks & fund raisers... At my kid’s school I’m known as the cake ball guy ;-) With this recipe, I think I’ve got a new winner!

I started off just wanting to try making cookie balls using Nutter Butter cookies instead of Oreo’s.

Step 1: Ingredients

One package Nutter Butter cookies
2/3 cup Nutella
2 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups chocolate chips
(optional) White chocolate for decoration

Step 2: Preparation

Using a food processor, grind up the Nutter Butter cookies into crumbs -- it’s best to do this in two or three batches, depending on the size of your food processor.

Mix the cookie crumbs with â cup Nutella and 2 oz cream cheese. The mixture will still be crumbly, but should hold together when pressed -- if need be, add a little more Nutella or cream cheese.

Step 3: Shaping

To get the balls all the same size, I use a mashed potato scooper. Pack the crumb mixture firmly into the scoop, then eject onto a piece of waxed paper. Because the mixture is so crumbly, I just left them as half-balls -- if you were making cake-balls, you could roll them into balls.

Put the balls into the refrigerator for at least ½ hour to firm.

Step 4: Dipping

Melt two cups of chocolate chips in a double boiler. Depending on your chocolate chips, adding a little vegetable shortening can make it easier to coat the cookie balls. I usually use about 1 tsp of shortening per cup of chocolate chips. Warning -- adding too much shortening will make the chocolate too soft.

I use a homemade dipping tool that I formed from a piece of stainless steel wire (a bicycle spoke).

Roll each ball in the melted chocolate, and place on waxed paper.

The dipping tool makes it easier to scoop out the balls and shake off excess chocolate.

Step 5: Optional -- Decoration

Optional - decorate the cookie balls
An easy way to decorate the cookie balls is with white-chocolate piping.

Using a microwave, melt some white chocolate chips in a small plastic bag. Cut the corner off the bag and drizzle the melted chocolate in a thin stream over the top of the cookie balls.

Place the balls in the refrigerator till the chocolate hardens.