Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Snowballs

It's recipe week here at Living Day By Day In God's Grace. Rather appropriate since I started my Christmas baking this week. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some simple recipes for sweet Christmas treats. I thought I'd start out with one that brings back memories from my childhood.


Snowballs were always fun to make as a kid because I could take a meal time staple that I wasn't particularly fond of...a potato...and turn it into a sweet, chocolaty candy treat. A little weird, I know but easy to do!


I have a vivid teenage memory of formulating a plan to snag one (or more) of these out of the cupboard while my mom was out the room. I went into stealth mode. Silently I carried the chair over to the fridge, balanced precariously on it and extended my reach with the help of a ruler. I patiently maneuvered the snowball container closer to the edge of the shelf and finally met with success as I was able to tip it over the edge and catch it with my free hand.


The taste of dark chocolate was mine. My mouth watered. I pulled off the lid and let out a shriek of alarm! Mom came running in to find me staring in dismay into the depths of the container. The entire contents was overtaken by a furry blue and black mass of mold!  Eeewwww! So much for stealth mode!


I speak from experience when I tell you to store these in the fridge!


SNOWBALLS


Potato
Vanilla
Icing sugar
Semi sweet baker's chocolate
Coconut and/or sprinkles and/or chopped nuts


Boil one medium potato and mash it - don't add milk or butter - just mash the potato
Use a mixer to beat in 1 cup icing sugar
Add 2 tsp. vanilla
Beat in enough icing sugar (1/2 cup at a time) to make a soft dough
Roll a bit of dough between your palms to shape into balls and place these on wax paper.
Let them set for two or three hours.
Melt semi sweet baker's chocolate.
Place rolled snowball on fork held over the chocolate pot.
Spoon chocolate over snowball, then use a knife to slide the snowball onto the waxed paper.
Sprinkle with the topping of your choice.


Hints and tips:
I used a potato that was about 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) long and 3 inches (7.5) cm wide
It took 5 1/4 cups of icing sugar to work up the soft dough
I used 8 squares of chocolate
I got 62 snowballs from this mixture


I hope to do further experimentation later in the week with cherry flavoured fillings and mint flavoured fillings and will post updates on how these work out.


Post your Christmas childhood memories by clicking "comments" below.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Carol,
My memory of my Mom & cookies is a clear square jar with a tin screww type lid. It held shortbread with a little green and red cherry sitting on the end of the cupboard.

Diane Henders said...

Such a tragic story! I remember the moldy snowballs, too. I'm sure we were both scarred for life.

(My snowballs are in the freezer as we speak). :-)

Carol Henders said...

Shortbread - yum, always a Christmas favourite. Thanks for sharing.

Carol Henders said...

Glad I'm not the only scarred by that little childhood memory, Diane. It's amazing how things like that stick in your mind! Enjoy your snowballs.