Coconut Balls

It's Friday, last day of the workweek. A good day to wrap up on my installment of "From My New Year's Eve Table." I never mentioned this before, have I? Oh well, no biggie. This specific installment won't be happening again until 2012.

Like I said in my cheesecake post, the reason I opted for a raspberry filling was because I already had a coconut dessert ready to go. Coconut balls. Two dozens of them. Easy to make, fun to eat. One bite. Two bite. Done.

I guess telling you that this is yet another AB recipe would be redundant. When the epic blizzard of 2010 happened, I got stuck at my boyfriend's for two nights. In that time, I introduced him to the magic of Alton Brown. We were watching his special on tropical dishes, where we found this recipe. It was decided that they had to make an appearance on New Year's Eve.

Original recipe here. It calls for macadamia nut, which I couldn't find, and used almonds instead.

Yields: 2 dozen of balls. Prep time: 10 minutes.

1 cup sliced almonds
2 cups of sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp of almond extract
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chip

1. Combine coconut flakes with almonds in a big bowl.
2. Pour in condensed milk and almond extract and mix well.
3. Using your fingers, form balls with the mixture, and place on sheets lined with wax or parchment paper. You can let them sit at room temperature for up to 4 hours, but if you have space in your fridge, stick them in there for an hour. The cold air will keep condensed milk intact. I lost some of by keeping it on my table.

4. When your balls have set, prepare your dipping chocolate by meting chocolate chips in a double-boiler.  Use two teaspoons to roll the balls in chocolate.

5. Place them back onto the baking sheets and let them dry, preferably in the fridge, for at least 30 minutes.