Happy and Delicious New Year

What better way to welcome in the new year than with chocolate?



Actually there is no occasion to which chocolate is not suited - festivities are just excuses to indulge. I had planned this for christmas but the blackbuck beckoned and we had to go.

My quest for the ultimate ( ultimately easy and yummy ) dessert lead me to chocolate balls. I used the recipe from this site: BestRecipes.com

I modified it quite a bit to suit my taste and to use ingredients that were available at hand.

Ingredients:

2 Pkts of Britannia ArrowRoot biscuits ( you can also use marie )
[ Note : any crisp biscuit which isn't very sweet - and I don't mean sugar free ]
1 tin Milkmaid ( sweetened condensed milk )
1 to 2 cups of grated coconut ( I have lots at home so I used 2 cups )

Method:
Crush the biscuits fine ( use a mixer if needed ). Add the grated coconut and condensed milk. Mix well. Roll into little balls ( ladoo sized ). And Yay, You're done.




But this did not satisfy me......

So I made my mixture into 2 parts and created two variations ( before adding the condensed milk )

Variation 1 ( Chocolate Rum Flavor)
2 to 3 Tbl Spoons Cocoa Powder ( not drinking chocolate )
Cashews Whole ( 1 inside each ball )
2 Tbl spoons - Barcadi Razz

Variation 2 ( Coffee Orange Flavour )

2 - 3 tsp Instant Coffee Powder
2 Tbl spoons - Orange Smirnoff
Handful Cashews coarsely crushed

Here it helps to dissolve the coffee in the alcohol so that it mixes well.
Place the balls in fridge overnight.




I was still not satisfied.........

So out came the cooking chocolate slabs. I melted it over a water bath, dipped each ball in with a spoon and placed it on parchment paper to set. Keep refrigerated. I made 59 balls this way.

The orange coffee combo was surprisingly fabulous. The raspberry was mildly over powering... so I think I could have added more cocoa powder.



Wishing you all a safe and happy new year!!

Don't drink and drive.

Eat chocolate!