Coconut Truffles

I found this recipe (guess where!  guess where!) and was super excited because Mounds bars are my favorite.  Almond Joys were my favorite when I was a kid, but I always wished they didn't have the almond, so I was thrilled when they came out with the Mounds bar!  Anyway, without further ado, I bring you: the Coconut Truffle - which is just a fancy way of saying "Homemade Mounds Bar".

You may remember (or not, I couldn't really blame you) over a year ago when I shared a recipe that was supposed to turn out like a Mounds bar.  This is simpler because it has fewer ingredients, but slightly more complicated in technique.  However, it is definitely less messy, more attractive looking, and just as tasty.

The original recipe, which is adapted from a Portuguese recipe, calls for (in my mind) strange amounts of sweetened condensed milk.  I can understand measuring out ounces of coconut and chocolate, but at least where I live, sweetened condensed milk only comes in 14 oz cans, and most recipes call for the whole can.  Regardless, I wanted more truffles than either of the others made, because mine was for a dinner party.  15-18 truffles wasn't going to cut it.

I did a little math (shocking!) and decided to approximately triple the recipe, approximately because 4.9 times 3 doesn't exactly equal 14.  I began by pouring the sweetened condensed milk in the bowl.

I then added 10 ounces of coconut (approximately 3 times the original amount).

I mixed it all in and thought it looked a little too sticky and moist, so I added more coconut. I ended up using the whole 14 oz bag.

That chilled in the fridge for a bit, then with wet fingers (that I had to rinse off every 4-6 truffles) I rolled little oval shapes.  Those chilled in the fridge for a while, then I wax papered another small pan and took about 10 truffles off at a time into the freezer.

I melted my chocolate with just a bit of oil to keep it looking shiny, then dipped the frozen coconut shapes into the chocolate, tapping of some of the extra chocolate.  These definitely didn't keep their shape as well as cake batter or cookie dough truffles, but they turned out kind of cute anyway.  Once I took one set from the freezer, I put another set in, so that there would always be frozen truffles for me to use.  I'm all about efficiency.  Sort of.

I was running extremely low on chocolate for the very last truffle (good timing!) so I ended up just mixing that one in with the chocolate.  Not very pretty, but still tasty.

These were fantastic.  Everyone at the dinner party loved them and raved over them!  And as tasty (and simple to make) as the messy one was, the rest of them were even better, because they carried the experience of first biting through the chocolate and then getting the delicious coconut mixture.

My recipe isn't intended to upstage the others, but it is more practical if you're making these for a dinner party where you need a lot.  It made 45-50 truffles.  It was also pretty simple because I used 1 14-oz bag of coconut and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Just dump and stir!

Enjoy!

Love and Coconut,
Leah Joy