Snowballs: The Edible Kind

Being the holiday season, I partook in a common seasonal activity: cookie baking! The funny thing is that I'm, admittedly, not the biggest cookie fan. But I needed to give cookies to a coworker so I had to get over my cookie apathy. So we have Coconut Orange Snowballs.

Coconut-Orange Snowballs

recipe from epicurious.com

1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablepoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake coconut on rimmed baking sheet until light golden, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes.

Using electric mixer, beat butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and both extracts in bowl to blend well. Beat in flour, orange peel, and salt. Stir in coconut. Cover and chill at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Soften dough slightly before shaping.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using 1 level tablespoon dough for each cookie, roll dough between palms of hands into balls. Place on prepared sheets, placing 1 inch apart. Bake until golden on bottum but pale on top, about 18 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool 5 minutes. Place remaining 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar in bowl. Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar, covering completely. Cool cookies on rack.


Notes: Be careful when toasting the coconut! It goes from barely golden to dark brown very quickly! Mine did at first and I had to do a second batch that was usable!
The original recipe calls for a second coating in powdered sugar. I found they were sweet enough after one rolling, so taste yours first before double coating.

The picture on Epicurious is better than mine as my cookies were slightly bumpy and not smooth snowballs! Sadly I don't have an electric mixer so all of the mixing must be done by hand. Next time I may try to melt the butter first so as to better incorporate it into the dough. Or maybe Santa will soon bring me a mixer!!