Snowballs

Now THIS is a cookie you'll want to make this Christmas (or Valentine's Day, or Easter, or any random Tuesday)!

These snowballs, also sometimes called 'golf balls' were a staple growing up on the East coast of Canada. I can remember that every family had their own variation of these - some were to die for, while others were dry and too crumbly. Of course, if they were good and chewy, you always went back for seconds (or thirds, or fifths). (I'm actually sitting at my desk eating one with my green tea now - I figure the green tea should kill off the sugar, right?)

Shamefully, in all the years that I have been making cookies, I have never tried these before now. I think it's because, for the longest time, I didn't think they'd come out any good (I lacked kitchen-confidence back in the day)... and then after a while, you just forget about them.

Until now!! I happened to be poking around Pinterest (what else would I be doing in bed at 4:30 in the morning before getting up?!) and these little babies popped up from aroundthebaywithdd.com. Well, let me tell you - this gal's got it right!

I gave these a try, and they are PERFECT! Now, if only I can not eat them all before Christmas company starts frequenting! lol

Here we go...

Start by blending together in a bowl your oats, coconut and cocoa. Set it aside until later.

Next, in a medium saucepan over low-medium heat, melt your butter and add in the sugar and milk. Since I use organic sugar cane, which comes in larger coarse pieces, I like to stir mine well at the start until the sugar dissolves and the mix is nice and golden.

You are going to bring this to a very slow boil on low-medium heat. Once it starts to boil DO NOT STIR. Just let it do its thing for 5 minutes. You'll end up with a nice bubbly texture.

Gently pour this over top of your dry ingredients and gently stir it all together. You'll end up with a very loose, soupy mixture. That's perfect!

Go ahead and put that into the fridge and let it set. Some people leave it over night, but I just left mine for 2-3 hours, until it was completely cooled through. The end result will be a fudge-y mixture.

STOP! Don't eat it all right from the bowl! I know you... you'll test and test and test until you have a tummy ache! (No? Just me? Oh... ok... sigh...)

Now, put a separate bowl of warm water for dipping your fingers if they get too sticky as you are rolling, and a bowl of coconut for rolling.

Then proceed to roll bite-sized balls of fudge-y goodness, and coat them in coconut, placing them onto a cookie sheet.

You can put these into the freezer to set for a few hours, and then store in the fridge or freeze until later. I'm trying to freeze mine. Check in with me in a couple of weeks to check on my failure ;o)

When you make your own, don't forget to take a photo and share it online at Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #recipesbyjenn and by tagging @recipesbyjenn. That way, I can see your photos and share them with all my friends! Plus, I get to feature them on this site along with all my other photos!