Our Christmas Treats: Recipe Three: Coconut Balls

One year at Christmastime we were visiting at Joseph's mom's house and his cousin, Shelly, lived across the street.  We went over there to visit and she had THE BEST treats!!  I never did get the recipe for Coconut Balls from her but she said she got it from her grandmother's cookbook.  I love that.  I love anything that has been passed down from generation to generation.  It always makes me wonder about the people who used the recipes, who ate the food.  What was their life like?  Were they happy or was sorrow touching their life?  It's for this same reason that I love antiques.  I want to ask each piece, where have you been and what have you seen?  So this recipe to me, although I made it up myself, has deep roots in the past which is always comforting to me when I make them.

Coconut Balls

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1 14 ounce package of shredded coconut (5 1/3 cups)

Combine the two ingredients in a bowl (you can add a little almond extract to this if you like it).  Carefully form the mixture into balls.  This is really messy but would probably be made easier with a melon baller.  Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper or parchment paper and put them in the freezer for one hour.  Melt almond bark as you do for Chocolate-Peanut Butter Balls.  I always add about a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to this and melt it with the almond bark.
Bring the coconut balls out of the freezer and dip them in the melted chocolate.  Put them back on the cookie sheet because they'll probably need a little help setting up because of the addition of the chocolate chips.  I sprinkle some melted white almond bark on top to distinguish them from the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Balls.  Depending on the size of the treats, this recipe will make from 2-3 dozen.