Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Chocolate Coconut Snowballs


Both my mom and my grandma make a holiday goodie that they call "snowballs", but they're different kinds of snowballs. My mom's are the Russian tea cakes (or Mexican wedding cookies), while my grandma's are these chocolate oat coconut snowballs. My mom's snowballs are good, but the combination of chocolate, coconut and oats (even just coconut and oats without chocolate) always wins for me. Both my brother and I really love these. And they're super easy to make. They don't require any fancy ingredients and can easily be made vegan if you use vegan butter/margarine and nondairy milk.


If these sound good, you might also like:
Detox Blonde Macaroons
Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Cowboy Cookies
Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Chocolate Coconut Snowballs
My grandma's recipe - not sure where it originated

Makes about 40 snowballs

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (I used medium), plus extra for rolling
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

In a pot on the stove, melt the sugar, butter, vanilla, cocoa powder and milk. Bring to a boil and simmer for not more than 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can microwave the ingredients for approximately 3 minutes, until melted and cooked around the edges.

Add the coconut and oats to the mixture. If it's too warm and soft, put it in the fridge for an hour or so. Roll into balls, drop into a small bowl of coconut until covered. Lay on a tray until cool. Store in the refrigerator.

13 comments:

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Mmmmm, those sound delicious, but I know I would eat too many. So Christmassy too. Have a great Christmas Ashley xx

giz said...

This is one of our yearly standby recipes for the holidays. Absolutely delicious.

Yogi Kitchen said...

Hi Ashley

I used to make these as a teen and am glad to have found the recipe again, as we are here in India without an oven and surrounded by coconut I am going to give them a try again, a perfect combination of flavours.

Joanne said...

I adore coconut but unfortunately so few people in my life do as well, so don't get to have it as much as I'd like. I'm totally making these and saving them all for myself! Yum!

Amey said...

whoa, those look super mega good. and naughty, too!
Guess what? You won one of my holiday cookbooklettes! Send me your mailing address & I'll pop it in the mail for you! ameyfm - at - yahoo - dot - com

:)

janet @ the taste space said...

Yeah, these look delicious, Ashley! Rob is a coconut fiend, - I bet he would adore them! :) Funny how snowballs mean completely different things in your fam. :)

Hannah said...

Talk about easy, these could be literal last-minute gifts! Sounds like a fun treat for any time of year though, and not just the holidays.

Johanna GGG said...

sometimes a recipe not only looks delicious but it looks so good that it smells delicious too - that is how I feel about this photo! Odd as I am still a bit wary about oats in no bake balls but must try again as these look so good

Julie said...

My mother is always doing a recipes at christmas who looks just like that but there's some dates in it! Its so good!

grace said...

these are excellent truffles, and not just because chocolate and coconut belong together. no, they're excellent mostly because there's no dipping in chocolate--what a bonus!

Teanna said...

Love me some no bake treats! These are GREAT! I Love coconut!

XL @ 6 Bittersweets said...

What a perfect holiday treat!

Mara Brown said...

I'll try these without the chocolate and maybe dare a few drops of food colouring for my daughter's rainbow birthday party!!