Lemon Truffles (With Golden Oreos)

Sweet, creamy lemon truffles made with fresh lemon and lemon zest are wrapped in white chocolate for the most delicious no bake lemon dessert. These easy lemon truffles made with cream cheese and Golden Oreos are the perfect sweet treats for spring parties, summer BBQ’s, Easter, a baby shower or as gifts!

 

Why We Love Lemon Truffles

• Sweet Creamy Truffle Treat Packed With Fresh Lemon Flavor– No imitation lemon here, the creamy center of these truffles are full of bright sweet lemon flavor. The perfect dessert for lemon lovers!
• No Bake Recipe– This fun treat doesn’t require any baking, this lemony treat feels fancy when you’re done!
• Great For Spring And Summer Parties– This is a delicious dessert recipe I reach of to use for spring parties, Easter, a baby shower, summer BBQs and end of the school year gifts!

Ingredients For Lemon Truffles

• Golden Oreos or other crunchy vanilla cream cookies
• cream cheese softened to room temperature
• fresh lemon zest plus more for optional garnish, can be from the same lemons used for juice, just zest the lemons before juicing them
• lemon juice – or juice from 1 1/2 lemons large lemons, fresh lemon juice will taste best
• white chocolate chips 3 1/4 cups
• coconut oil optional – see notes in the full recipe at the bottom

How To Make Lemon Oreo Truffles

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place cookies in food processor and mix until cookies turn into fine crumbs. See notes in the recipe card at the bottom of the page of how to make this recipe by hand if you don’t have a food processor.
3. Zest then juice the lemons.

4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and cream cheese to the cookie crumbs. This step is be done by hand in a bowl with a silicone spatula.

5. Roll the lemon truffle dough balls, about one tablespoon of dough per truffle. I have a few cookie scoops, but I like to use this cookie scoop set. A cookie scoop makes all of your truffles equal in size. For this recipe you’ll need the smaller cookie scoop which is a #60.
6. Place each truffle on the parchment paper lined baking sheet so they are not touching. Freeze the truffles for at least 15 minutes.

7. Add the white chocolate and coconut oil (optional) to a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for a minute at half power, then stir. Continue heating the white chocolate in thirty-second increments until it forms a smooth white chocolate sauce.
8. Remove truffles from the freezer. Place truffle balls into the creamy white chocolate one at a time to coat, using a fork so excess chocolate can drip off. Place each white chocolate-coated ball on parchment paper so they are not touching each other.

9. Drizzle the top of each truffle with a little more white chocolate then top with lemon zest immediately. Place the pan in the freezer for 15 minutes to help the chocolate to fully harden, then enjoy!

What Can I Use In Place Of Golden Oreo Cookies?

You can use any hard vanilla or lemon cookie in this recipe. Shortbread, vanilla sandwich cookies, lemon sandwich cookies or butter cookies can all be substituted for the golden oreos.

The Golden Oreos make about 2 1/2 cups of crumbs when you process them. Depending on the size of the cookies you swap into the recipe, you may need to add a few extra cookies to the food processor to make sure you have enough cookie crumbs.

What Can I Use In Place Of White Chocolate?

White chocolate comes in a couple of different varieties at the grocery store. Try a couple of these options

Candy melts– These come in white with a vanilla flavor, but you can also find them in yellow. I’ve also seen lemon-flavored candy melts.

Almond Bark– Almond bark is a type of white melting chocolate you often find at the grocery stores near the holidays but can be seen year-round. You can use almond bark in place of white chocolate in this recipe. Almond bark tastes best when you use it to give a sweet a chocolate coating, like in this dessert.

Dark Chocolate– Dark chocolate and lemon go together so deliciously well! For a super chocolatey taste, skip the milk chocolate and go for the dark chocolate. You can use milk chocolate also, but dark chocolate really shines with lemon.

Can I Add Lemon Juice To The Chocolate?

You can’t add lemon juice directly to the chocolate and the liquid will cause the chocolate to seize. This means the chocolate will become hard and grainy.

Lemon juice can be added to ganache though which is chocolate melted into warm cream, which you may have seen in other lemon and chocolate dessert recipes.

Can I Substitute Lemon Extract For Lemon Juice?

You can use lemon extract as a substitute for lemon juice, but I find that it is tougher to get a good sweet lemon taste. Lemon extract will taste slightly more artificial than fresh lemon does.

For the three tablespoons of lemon juice, substitute a full tablespoon of lemon extract.

The lemon zest gets trickier because it provides a lot of flavor. I recommend starting with an extract teaspoon of lemon extract in place of the zest, then taste the mixture. Add more lemon extract as needed.

Lemon extract and lemon oil are not the same product, and lemon oil should not be substituted.

Do Truffles Need To Be Refrigerated?

Yes, these simple lemon truffles do need to be refrigerated because of the cream cheese in the center. Lemon truffles will easily last a week in the refrigerator. Store truffles in an airtight container with layers of freezer paper, wax paper or parchment between the truffles.

Can Lemon Truffles Be Frozen?

Most of my truffles don’t make it to the freezer but yes you can freeze these nobake truffles. Freeze between layers of freezer paper in a freezer-safe zip-top bag. I like to freeze desserts on a cookie sheet first so they don’t stick together, and then place them in a bag.

Lemon truffles can be stored in the freezer for up to a month for the best freshness.

To eat the truffles, let them defrost on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator before serving and they are ready for any special occasion.