4th of July Fun!

So, last week was my absolutely favorite holiday--Independence Day!  I've been patriotic, true blue all the way through since I was just a little girl and being a military wife has deepened that patriotism to the very core of my being.  I've always been so proud that my husband has dedicated his entire adult life to serving our great country!!  And, I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to serve right alongside him---it's not just military members who serve!  Military families make tremendous sacrifices also--just ask any kid who's had to go to 2 or 3 high schools or 7 elementary schools....they'll tell you :)

Since I love the 4th so much, I wanted to do something special for all the men and women who serve with my husband in his squadron.  Carlie and I were doing some searching on Pinterest and found a really cute idea that I thought we be just perfect!  I had to make 140 of them and they had to be portable and not too gooey since I was taking them out into the South Carolina heat and humidity!  So, I decided on making Oreo lollipops.  Since I had to make SOOOO many of them, I chose not to use GF Oreos because---as you know if you buy GF products--they are super expensive!! 

A word to all you celiacs out there who may be considering a project like this:  Remember that gluten can be absorbed through the skin, so wash your hands frequently.  Also, DON'T LICK!!  It's easy to get wrapped up in the project and forget that there are gluten-filled cookie crumbs in that chocolate! 

The first step to make these cookie pops is to stick a popsicle stick in the middle of the filling.  I purposely bought Double-stuff Oreos so I'd have plenty of room for the stick.  I used 6" sticks, but you could easily use a shorter one, if you want.

Now it's time to put your white chocolate into a double boiler (or if you don't have an actual double boiler, just use a metal bowl on top of a pan of boiling water).  I used Wilton candy melts because they melt so nicely and don't leave any lumps.  It's a good idea to not melt more than 2 bags at a time--I learned this lesson the hard way!!

In order to get the proper consistency, you need to stir the chocolate constantly until it's completely melted.  The instructions say to remove it from the heat, but I like to leave it on very low so it stays the proper consistency. 

So, now you're ready to dip!  You need to do this carefully, and even when you do, you'll still probably lose some of the cookies off the sticks--I did!  Another note here---buy enough extra cookies to allow for breakage.  Another lesson I had to learn the hard way!  I had 1 pack of cookies that was almost all broken in some way.  I was able to use about half of them because the breaks weren't so bad that I couldn't "glue" them back together with the chocolate but I had a lot that were totally unusable (except for my husband to clean up later :)  Dip each side separately--don't just shove the cookie into the chocolate.  Let it drip a bit before dipping it into the sprinkles.

A word here about the sprinkles:  I used Wilton's pearlized sprinkles because I really liked the colors.  You can use anything you want!  And the great thing about this project is that you can customize it for any holiday or occasion you can imagine---red and green for Christmas, orange and black for Halloween...you get the idea.  I only dipped 1 side of the cookie pop into the sprinkles, but you can go crazy and cover the whole thing!

(Sorry about the fuzzy pictures--my camera has issues sometimes.  A new camera is definitely on the list of must-buys!)
Anyhoo, after you've dipped the pop into the sprinkles, place it on parchment paper to cool and harden.  I left mine for about an hour, but they probably would have been ready faster.  If you're doing this in the summer time, they're not going to harden up if you don't have air conditioning :)  and you don't want to put a chocolate-dipped product into the refrigerator to harden because it will cause the chocolate to bloom and change color and consistency.

After they cooled, I put them into clear plastic treat bags that I found at Michael's, attached a little quote on cardstock that said, "Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." THANK YOU for your dedication and vigilance in keeping our nation free."  Tying the ribbon through the quote and around the cookie pop took WAY longer than I had anticipated!  Next time I think I'll use double-sided tape...

I know this seems long.  It's taken me longer to describe it to you than it did to make the cookie pops, that's for sure!  But, it was such a fun project--I just had to share!  Of course, it would have been more fun if I'd had my daughters or some good friends helping me....but isn't that true about everything in life?