Grinch Christmas Truffles: Easy No Bake Holiday Treats

Grinch Christmas Truffles are festive, fun, and SO easy to make with just Golden Oreos, cream cheese, and bright green candy melts! These adorable no-bake treats capture all the whimsy of everyone’s favorite holiday dessert. Perfect for cookie exchanges, holiday parties, or just because you need something cheerful and delicious on your dessert table!

Love More Christmas Desserts? Try My Pineapple Christmas Balls or this Italian Christmas Cookies next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These little green beauties are irresistible for so many reasons! First, they require NO baking whatsoever—just mix, roll, dip, and chill. The Golden Oreo and cream cheese base creates the creamiest, dreamiest truffle center that melts in your mouth. That bright Grinch-green coating topped with a tiny red heart sprinkle? It’s like edible Christmas magic.

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Ingredient List

For the Truffle Base:

• 1 package Golden Oreo cookies (14.3 oz standard package—not Thins or Double Stuffed)
• 8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

For the Coating:

• 3 cups light green candy melts (about 18 oz)
• 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening

For Decoration:

• Red heart sprinkles

Substitutions & Friendly Notes:

• Golden Oreos: Regular ones technically work but give you this depressing gray color. Not cute. Golden keeps it light and pretty under that green coating.
• Cream cheese: Gotta be soft or you’re screwed. Cold cream cheese won’t mix and you’ll have lumpy disasters everywhere. Let it sit out while you watch an episode of something.
• Candy melts: I buy whatever Target has—usually Wilton brand. Could you dye white chocolate green? Sure. Do I want that headache? Nope.
• Vegetable shortening: Makes the coating actually workable. Skip it and you’ll be fighting with thick gloppy chocolate that won’t cooperate.

Why These Ingredients Work

Golden Oreos don’t mess up the color. That’s literally it. Regular Oreos turn everything brown-gray and then your green coating looks swampy. Nobody wants swamp truffles.

Cream cheese glues everything together and makes these crazy rich. It’s got just enough tang to cut through all the sugar. I tried using less once to save calories—terrible idea, they fell apart.

Light green candy melts are idiot-proof which is exactly what I need. They melt easy, harden at room temp, look shiny. Real chocolate’s fussier and can get streaky if you breathe on it wrong.

Vegetable shortening thins out candy melts from “thick paste” to “smooth dippable coating.” Two teaspoons completely changes how easy this is. First time I made these I didn’t use any and wanted to throw the whole batch in the trash.

Red heart sprinkles are just adorable and everyone gets the Grinch reference immediately. Plus they’re the only red thing on these so they really pop.

Essential Tools and Equipment

You need:

• Food processor – Because crushing Oreos by hand is miserable
• Electric mixer – Hand mixer’s fine, stand mixer’s fine, whatever
• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper – Seriously don’t skip this unless you like scraping stuff
• Cookie scoop – The tablespoon-sized one keeps everything even
• Microwave-safe bowl – Big enough to dip truffles in
• Regular fork – From your drawer, nothing fancy
• Spoon – Any spoon for drizzling

How To Make Grinch Christmas Truffles

Step 1: Set Up Your Workspace

Tear off parchment paper, line your pan. Do it now before your hands get all sticky and gross.

Step 2: Crush Those Oreos

Throw all the Oreos in your food processor. Pulse until they’re fine like sand—no big chunks. Takes me about 40 seconds of pulsing. Dump it all in a bowl.

Step 3: Mix in the Cream Cheese

Drop that soft cream cheese right on the crumbs. Mix with your electric mixer for like two minutes until you can’t see white anymore. Should look like thick tan dough. If it’s not mixing smooth, your cream cheese wasn’t soft enough.

Step 4: Roll and Freeze

Scoop about a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball with your hands. Keep going until it’s all rolled. Line them up on your parchment. Stick the whole thing in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. I usually forget about them for an hour which actually works better.

Step 5: Melt the Candy Coating

Five minutes before your balls are done freezing, dump green candy melts and shortening in a bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 20 seconds, stir, repeat. Do this until it’s totally smooth like melted ice cream. Full power will wreck it, don’t do that.

Step 6: Dip and Decorate

Pull out maybe five balls at a time—rest stay frozen. Drop one on a fork, dunk it, spoon more green over the top till it’s covered. Tap your fork on the bowl a bunch of times so extra drips off. Slide it back on the parchment. Repeat till they’re all done.

Step 7: Add the Finishing Touches

Take a spoon and drizzle more green coating over each one—doesn’t have to be perfect, just zigzag it. Immediately stick a red heart on top before it dries. This part’s fast because candy melts set in like 20 seconds.

Step 8: Set and Store

Put the pan back in the fridge for 30 minutes. When they’re hard, move them to a container. Keep them in the fridge.

You Must Know

Soft cream cheese is not negotiable. I’m being serious. Cold cream cheese will not blend with those crumbs and you’ll get gross white lumps everywhere and want to cry. Leave it on your counter for an hour before starting. Forgot? Microwave it for 10-15 seconds but watch it—soft not melted.

Personal Secret: I freeze mine for way longer than 30 minutes. Like a full hour minimum, sometimes two if I get distracted. Makes dipping SO much easier. One time I only froze them 20 minutes because I was rushed and three of them literally slid off the fork and drowned in the green coating. Learned my lesson.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Cold water trick: Every few balls, rinse your hands with cold water. Keeps dough from sticking to your palms like glue.
• Cookie scoop changed my life: All the truffles end up the same size which looks professional instead of like a 5-year-old made them.
• Don’t get ambitious: Only take five balls out of the freezer at once. I tried doing them all at once and by the time I got to the last ones they were soft and kept falling apart.
• Tap like you mean it: After dipping, really tap that fork against the bowl edge. Gets rid of the thick coating puddle on the bottom that screams “homemade but not in a good way.”
• Coating gets thick: Halfway through mine always gets too thick. Just microwave it for 10 seconds, stir, back in business.
• Protect your counter: I cover everything in paper towels because I’m messy and green candy coating stains.

Flavor Variations & Suggestions

Peppermint version: Add half a teaspoon peppermint extract when mixing the cream cheese. Tastes like Christmas. Top with crushed candy canes instead of hearts.

Extra chocolate: After the green’s dry, melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it on. Looks expensive, takes two seconds.

Different sprinkles: Red stars, white snowflakes, silver balls, whatever’s in your pantry works.

Christmas variety pack: Make some red for Santa, white for snowmen, leave some green for Grinch. Three colors on one platter looks amazing.

Crunchy coating: Roll wet truffles in crushed pretzels or toasted coconut right after dipping before it sets.

Make-Ahead Options

This is where these really win:

Just the dough balls: Roll them three days early. Keep in the fridge in a container, freeze solid right before dipping.

Already done: Make the whole thing two weeks ahead. Put parchment between layers in a container, fridge them. Done.

Freezer life: These freeze for three months no problem. Same parchment-between-layers situation. Pull them to the fridge two hours before serving.

Party timing: I make mine three days before any party. They taste better after sitting a couple days anyway—flavors marry or whatever they say.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

• Vegetable shortening’s not optional. It’s what makes the coating smooth instead of thick and goopy.
• Don’t buy Double Stuffed Oreos. Too much filling makes the dough too wet and it won’t roll right.
• No food processor? Put Oreos in a ziplock and beat them with a rolling pin until they’re fine. More work but doable.
• Can’t find hearts? Literally any red sprinkles work. I’ve used circles, stars, jimmies, whatever.
• Keep these cold always. Room temp makes the coating soft and the inside gets too squishy.

Serving Suggestions

I take these everywhere:

• Cookie swaps – Everyone asks for the recipe, guaranteed
• Christmas parties – White plate makes them look incredible
• Teacher gifts – Six in a cellophane bag with ribbon, teachers love me
• Movie marathon – Make these, watch all three Grinch movies, eat them all
• School stuff – Kids lose their actual minds over these

Pretty presentation: Use white dishes so the green pops. Sometimes I put them in a clear bowl with fake snow underneath for extra drama. Keep them cold till the last second and watch people freak out over how cute they are.

How to Store Your Grinch Christmas Truffles

Fridge: Airtight container, lasts two weeks. Parchment between layers or they’ll stick. Always cold.

Freezer: Same deal, three months max. Parchment between layers. Move to fridge two hours before eating.

Counter: Don’t. Cream cheese goes bad. Coating gets melty. Just don’t.

Reheating: You don’t. These are cold treats. Serve them straight from the fridge.

Allergy Information

Contains:

• Dairy (cream cheese, Oreos have milk, candy melts have milk)
• Soy (Oreos and candy melts both)
• Wheat/Gluten (Oreo cookies)

Swaps:

• Dairy-free: Kite Hill cream cheese works. Check your candy melts and cookies—some brands are dairy-free.
• Gluten-free: They make GF Golden Oreos now at most stores. Rest stays the same.
• Vegan: Need vegan cream cheese, vegan cookies, vegan coating. Harder to find but exists.

Warning: Read every label because companies change stuff. Cross-contamination happens in factories too.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

My candy melts are thick and won’t work. Help?

Add more shortening—another teaspoon. Microwave 10 seconds at half power, stir hard. Should thin out.

They fall off the fork when I dip them. What’s wrong?

Not frozen enough. Put them back in for 20 more minutes. Also only take out a few at a time—rest stay frozen solid.

I don’t have a food processor. Can I still make these?

Yep. Oreos in a ziplock bag, smash with a rolling pin till they’re crumbs. Takes longer but totally works.

How early can I make these?

Two weeks in the fridge, three months frozen. Make a giant batch in November if you want. They honestly taste better after a day or two anyway.

Why do my truffles have a thick bottom?

Not tapping enough. After you dip, really bang that fork on the bowl edge so the extra coating falls off. Use a toothpick to scrape the bottom if you need to.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Did you make these? Tell me how it went! Did you change anything? Drop a comment or tag me—I wanna see your green truffles!