All things COCO!


I love coconut. Period. I love drinking coconut water, I love eating young coconut flesh, and I love anything made out of shredded coconut. Being an Indian girl, I grew up with coconut in all my food. It's a staple at home. It's such a versatile ingredient. Perfectly blends with either savory or sweet dishes. The idea for this cocoa and coconut energy balls actually came to me while I was reading a recipe on how to make coconut laddoos. It's a traditional Indian sweet snack prepared during Indian festivals. Addition of cocoa powder is my personal twist to the recipe or let's say I modernized the recipe. A girl's gotta satisfy her cocoa cravings. While the traditional coconut balls are just sweet, my version has a bitter sweet kick to it. Also an excellent portable snack. Let's jump into the recipe, shall we?

INGREDIENTS.....

  • Desiccated coconut - 2 cups
  • Milk - 1 & 1/2 cups
  • Light brown sugar - 1 cup
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder -  3 tablespoons
  • Ghee(clarified butter)/vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon


LET'S BEGIN.....

  1. Add ghee/vegetable oil to a non-stick pan along with the desiccated coconut. Keep the flame at medium at all times. If you have freshly grated coconut in hand, feel free to use it. 
  2. Keep tossing the shredded coconut in the pan until a fragrant aroma rises. You will begin to see the coconut strings turning golden at this stage.
  3. Time to add in the milk, cocoa powder and brown sugar.
  4. If it's too runny, don't worry at all. The milk will continue to reduce and the mixture will begin to thicken. Don't forget to keep stirring.
  5. Once the whole mixture has reduced and become sticky, time to remove it from heat. Allow it to cool.
  6. When the coconut mixture has cooled completely or slightly warm to touch, you can grease your palms with a little oil or ghee and begin rolling it into balls.
  7. Once rolled, keep them in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.
**You can also coat the rolled balls with desiccated coconut or sprinkle some on top like how I did.



TIME FOR A TASTE TEST.....

First of all, I must mention that the ratios that I have given for this recipe are just a guideline. The amount of sugar and cocoa powder added can adjusted according to your taste buds. Mine has a bitter sweet taste and I like it. Some people would prefer it sweeter, so just increase the amount of sugar or simply use white sugar and reduce the amount of cocoa powder. I leave it to you. As long as the end product is a sticky paste, then you're good to go. These make really good evening snacks to be packed for work. I got about 30+ small balls and about 2 of those can subside my 6 PM hunger. I just love to stock up on snacks like these which can be made way ahead of time. The procedure is easy, minimal ingredients, the yield is quite a lot and it keeps well in the fridge for close to a month. Give it a try and let me know how yours turned out. I want to take this moment to thank some of my readers who have tried out my creations and mailed me your feed backs and questions. I truly appreciate your support and hoping to further create a healthy bond with my readers. Wishing you peace and love. Happy Weekend everybody!

~M~




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