Mini Oreo Apple Pops {a teacher appreciation idea}
We were invited by the wonderful Cindy of Skip to My Lou to participate in a Teacher Appreciation extravaganza, along with some of our favorite fellow bloggers. So many great ideas have been shared over the past few weeks! Here is the teacher gift that I guest-posted last Thursday there in honor of teacher appreciation week, which is today (May 2) through May7.
While I generally like to give teachers supplies for their classroom or other useful items, I feel like there is always room for a sweet treat! You’ve probably seen all of the cute ways to make Oreo cookie pops, but I decided to do a smaller scale and use the Mini Oreos to create adorable mini Oreo apple pops to go along with the whole teacher theme! They are bite-sized, delicious, inexpensive and easy too. 🙂
Supplies for mini Oreo pops:
* Mini Oreos: I found these canisters in the Target Dollar Spot!!!
* Red candy melts: I used Wilton brand that can be found at many craft stores in the candy making section
* Airheads: Watermelon flavored (for the green color) as the mini leaves
* Pretzel sticks: for the mini stems
* toothpicks
First off I took a toothpick and gently stuck it into the middle (cream) part of the mini Oreo. This is to help with dipping the cookie into the candy melts. You don’t need to stick it in all the way though because it might split the Oreo in half, so be a little bit careful.
You melt the candy melts according to the directions on the bag. It only takes a little bit of time in the microwave and you’re good to go. Gently dip the cookie into the melted candy until covered completely.
Carefully tap the toothpick on the side of the bowl to let the excess candy drip off of the cookie.
Then I like to stick the dipped cookies into a piece of styrofoam to let them dry completely. Don’t worry about messy toothpicks or extra drips. You’ll be removing the toothpicks later on. 🙂
**Note: If you are having trouble with the Oreos falling apart because of the toothpicks, you can still cover/dip them in the candy melt using a spoon to help cover them completely, and then dry on a piece of wax paper. If there are smudges on the coated cookie from your fingers, you can just smooth them over with a spoon while the candy coating is still wet. It’s just quite a bit messier that way but it definitely still can work.
While the candy is still wet, break the pretzel sticks into small pieces (roughly 1/2 inch pieces) and stick onto the top of the dipped Oreo.
To create the little leaves, simply use scissors to cut the Airheads into small pieces. (example: bottom 2 pieces in above photo) Then pinch and round the sides with your fingers to make them into more of a leaf shape, like the 2 top pieces in the photo. I used a dab of melted candy to stick the leaves on the tops of the “apples” right next to the pretzel stem.
Let everything dry completely. It takes less than 30 minutes to dry, or you can put them in the fridge to speed up the process.
Once dry I removed the messy toothpicks. Note: If you can keep the toothpicks clean, you could leave them in and display them in a clean piece of styrofoam inside a cute container if you want as well.
These pops don’t have to be perfect—to me when they look “rustic” and handmade it gives them character!!! I think these mini apples are almost too cute to eat! 🙂
You can arrange these mini Oreo apple pops in different ways.
Place them in pretty dishes with ribbons. . .
or little tins . . .
I may have snuck in a bite or two, just to make sure they tasted okay. 🙂
However you decide to package them up, I’m sure the teachers in your life (and the lives of your children) will appreciate this darling mini treat. An it is easy on your wallet and pretty easy on your time too. 🙂
Oh wow. How adorable is that!
Thanks Bethany! 🙂
These are so cute! What a fun idea!!
I will be featuring these Wed on my blog!
Jennifer
Thanks for the comment and for the feature, Jennifer! That is so sweet of you! 🙂
YOU AMAZE Me girl! I need to make sure to save this link for future teacher appreciation days! You’re so talented. OH, and I was thinking that a lunch is far overdue! We need to get together soon. FB me and we’ll plan it!
HUGS – Mandy
Mandy, right back atcha! 🙂 I’d love to get together soon, I’ll be in touch for sure. xoxo
I made these for my daughter’s preschool teachers. They turned out pretty well considering this was my first time using candy melts! Tomorrow I’ll be posting a link to both The Crafting Chicks and Skip to My Lou on our blog, along with some of the pics of my results. Thanks so much!
I’m so glad you tried it Allison! I checked out your blog and I think they turned out so cute. Thanks!
Brooke! You are a genius! Love love love this idea!! So cute and looks super yummy!
Amy!! Thank you so much! Miss ya and hope you are doing well! 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing such a fun idea. I loved it so much I had to share it on Shout Out Sunday-Teacher edition.
http://kimskandykreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/shout-out-sunday-teacher-edition.html
Aw, thank you so much Kim!! How nice of you! 🙂 Glad you liked the idea.
sooo making these for our end of the year party!
Thanks for the idea! I made these in the nutter-butter form for my son’s teacher. So cute!
http://shopbonnenouvelle.blogspot.com/2011/05/bittersweet-growth.html
They are super cute and a hit with kids! I will share it tonight with my readers 🙂
These are fabulous. As as teacher I would be thrilled to get some of these little darlings! In fact, I’m going to work with my student council kids to make these for our faculty and staff members to celebrate making it through the first few weeks of school!
Hi, we just tried to make these with full sized oreos. I don’t know what went wrong, but I would recommend getting double-stuffed. Also, did you just put your stems in the candy melt? As cute as these are, they were a bit too fiddly to do with our 5 year old for apple day. Go for adults, though!
Oh, I’m sorry this has turned into a pain for you! It worked okay for me….hmmmm. I used those mini oreos that come in a bag. If you were doing regular sized oreos I would definitely recommend using double stuffed. I melted my candy melts in the microwave and it has always worked for me that way so I’m not sure what to tell you. I wonder if it’s different altitudes or something? I’m sorry I don’t have better advice for you.
Love this idea! I wanted to let you know that I featured you in my Teacher’s Appreciation Gifts round up at: http://printabelle.com/?p=3096
If you would like a featured button, I have one here on my About page: http://printabelle.com/?page_id=724
made these last month for teacher appreciation week. great idea! blogged it here:
http://reallyquitelucky.blogspot.com/2012/06/teacher-appreciation-week.html