These chocolate coconut balls with coconut and condensed milk filling makes these treats sweet and moist in the centre with a decadent chocolate coating.
Add coconut, sweetened condensed milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium mixing bowl.
Beat the mixture together with a hand mixer.
Place the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes to allow the mixture to firm up enough to make scooping easier.
Use a cookie scoop to scoop balls of the coconut mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Place the scoops into the freezer to harden for at least one hour (just place the whole sheet pan into the freezer.)
After the balls have chilled, place the chocolate chips and a tablespoon of shortening in a microwave safe bowl.
Heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each, until chips are mostly melted.
Discontinue heating and stir until the mixture is fully melted and smooth.
Working in small batches (1-2 balls at a time), use a fork to dip and roll each coconut ball in the melted chocolate.
Lift from the chocolate, tap to remove excess chocolate, and place on a sheet of waxed or parchment paper.
Continue dipping and setting a couple coconut balls at a time.
Place the dipped balls back into the freezer until ready to serve.
Notes
Using parchment paper during the chocolate coating process will help you to keep most of the mess at bay!
If you want to minimize holes made in your coconut balls while dipping them, try using a toothpick instead of a fork. I found the balls slipped off a toothpick more easily, so keep that in mind. You can also hold the ball on the fork and tap to let the excess chocolate drip off the bottom.
You need to work fairly quickly when dipping your coconut balls. In the event that your chocolate starts to harden while dipping your coconut balls, simply reheat the chocolate for 15 second intervals, stirring in between, until it’s at the right consistency for dipping.
The cream filling does not fully harden even after freezing. If you work too slowly, you run the risk of your balls softening into a liquid mush at room temperature.
Work with 2-3 frozen coconut balls at a time when dipping, leaving the rest in the freezer until you’re ready to move on the next 3, and so on. This will help to keep the balls as hard as possible during the chocolate coating process.
This filling can be super sticky so it will need a lot of time to chill between steps. Once the filling is chilled, we scoop it into balls and pop those in the freezer.
Since you're not tempering the chocolate, it won't form a super hard shell and these will be best if stored in the freezer. You can definitely use tempered chocolate - follow the instructions outlined in this Hot Chocolate Bombs post.