Coconut flakes enriched with coconut oil and lightly sweetened with honey is frozen into “snowballs” and then covered with chocolate. Decorated with coconut flakes or sprinkles these delicious little festive morsels are a fun treat anytime of the year, but especially fun during the winter. And yes, “Mound” lovers will enjoy this treat!
My 6-year-old informed me that I should definitely make these for Christmas. I just might. Aria promptly ate her whole one, smearing chocolate all over herself in sublime enjoyment. I think my girls are happy.
I got the idea from an expensive box of coconut balls covered with chocolate sold at my local store for Christmas. A quick look at the ingredients showed that it was full of corn syrup and other undesirable ingredients. They are so simple to make at home with more nourishing ingredients.
This is a great recipe to use raw honey in (you may need to heat it just enough to liquefy). If you are on a strict gluten and diary-free diet make sure that you buy appropriate chocolate chips! Many contain traces of gluten and/or dairy. Buy bittersweet for less sugar and more antioxidants too!
If you are tempted to eat all ten of your snowballs at once, why not check out my post over at mnn.com about gluttony? I take a different viewpoint on this topic for the Holidays.
Chocolate Covered Coconut Snowballs– Makes ten
1 cup of fine, unsweetened coconut flakes (not de-fatted)
3-4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons gently melted coconut oil
Heaping 1 cup of bittersweet chocolate chips (use gluten and dairy-free, if needed)
Scant tablespoon of coconut oil
Extra coconut and/or sprinkles, as desired
1. In a small bowl combine the coconut flakes with the coconut oil. Stir in enough honey to make the mixture stick together when gently pressed into a ball. How much honey you need depends largely on the coconut flake brand you use and how fine the coconut flakes are. For some reason, some brands are drier and need more honey to help them stick together. I used 3 tablespoons this last time and they were “just” sticky enough to form a ball.
2. Form into ten balls, and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Freeze until hard (about an hour)
3. In a double boiler (or heat proof bowl set over a small pan) over low, simmering water, melt the chocolate chips, stirring constantly and avoiding any steam getting into the chocolate. Remove from heat as soon it is melted. For a smoother chocolate, stir the coconut oil into the melted chocolate. It will make a smoother looking chocolate, but it will also melt more easily once hardened.
4. Cover each frozen snowball with the melted chocolate (either drop into the bowl and gently roll around, or place on a fork and pour chocolate over it, allowing the extra to fall back into the bowl). Sprinkle with coconut flakes or sprinkles as desired. Refreeze until the chocolate hardens (about one hour).
5. Enjoy! You can keep in the refrigerator or freezer for at least a week.
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These sound wonderful and I will be making some soon! Also on my “to make” list is your Dried Fruit Blondies. Thank you!
Are fine coconut flakes the same thing as unsweetened shredded coconut? They look so yummy.
Fine refers to the size of the coconut flake. 🙂 (It should also be unsweetened, I added that part in to the recipe).
Wow! These sound fabulous! They would make a very decadent treat to give to friends or neighbors. :O)
How does one know that the coconut flakes are defatted? I use LetsDoOrganic and would think it is not defatted, but see nothing on the labeling indicating such.
Also, raw honey… I still need to learn about this 🙂
I assume raw honey has much more beneficials than those labeled:
[100% Natural, or pure, and always do include the warning to “not feed to those under one year old”] (and which are so common on the store shelves)
But what is missing or lacking from this version compared to the raw honey?
Patty,
It would say on the label if it was defatted. LetsDoOrganic does have one type that is defatted.
Raw honey (that is also unfiltered) has a higher nutrient level, as well as enzyme activity. There are whole books written about the benefits! 🙂
Absolutely beautiful.
I’m not a huge fan of grated coconut (tastes like paper to me – mainly because of the texture), but I’m going to try these for my gluten-free relatives. So festive!
Stella,
You might enjoy the coconut flakes from Wildernessfamilynaturals.com. They have beautiful flakes that aren’t dried out like most ones are. They are rich in flavor. They are my favorite (though the above was made with a supermarket variety).
must try making this with my kids! yum!
These look great! I can’t wait to try them!
Are these Chocolate Snowballs covered with natural colored sprinkles?
These looks so deeeeelish! I’m making a healthy variety box of candies and desserts to send out as Christmas gifts and I was wondering if these little guys would survive a trip across the US without melting *they will be carefully packed*
Just wondering if agave would hold them together or if honey is a must. I just ran out of honey!!! Thanks!!
A friend made some and gave them to me for a gift. They were DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!
Good looking recipe & pic! I am coconut’s biggest cheerleader, but I’ll be d*mn if I couldn’t get these buggers into balls. :/ Sooo, out of desperation for a work dealio tomorrow I threw in an entire 8oz of organic cultured cream cheese….this is what I needed to make them ball up (I tripled the portion, but can’t imagine that making a difference in them rolling up). Who knows why I couldn’t get them to cooperate, but perhaps the humidity in Florida even though we’re well into December…lol. Anyways, thanks much for the recipe 🙂 & if possible… could you let me know how these might keep now that I threw in the cream cheese?? 🙂
Hey Cindy,
Well, on the upside, I bet the cream cheese is amazing in this recipe! What a great idea. 🙂 Sorry you had trouble with it though! In the recipe above, I mention this could be a problem, so to add more honey if needed. Coconut flakes, depending in the brand, can be really dry, and really soak up moisture. More honey would probably fix the issue. I, with the small amount I added, had to really carefully mold them, and then once they froze, they stayed together, but more honey would have made the job a bit easier.
Hi, I made these last night- they were are so delicious. I used my coffee grinder to grind the coconut into more of a fine texture, which helped to clump together better because it got more pasty like consistency. In fact I had to use half the amount of oil because it was too oily then. I also like the finer chewing texture. Thanks for this recipe. I’ve been wanting something like this for a long time!!
Molly,
Thanks so much for letting us know! I love the idea of grinding up the coconut finer, as I bet it as a very scrumptious texture that way.