These easy-to-make No-Bake Chocolate Almond Snowballs can be made ahead and frozen. Make them with regular granulated sugar, or with 0-calorie sweetener. Both ways are delicious!
½cupdried cherries or dried cranberries, chopped, (optional)
Instructions
In a large bowl, combine 3 cups rolled oats and 1 cup of the coconut.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, almond butter, sweetener, milk, cocoa and salt. Whisk until smooth, then bring to a boil. Allow it to boil for 1 minute without stirring, then remove from heat and stir in almond extract.
Pour over the rolled oats-coconut mixture and stir to combine. Stir in ½ cup chopped dried cherries or cranberries, if desired. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid and refrigerate for 45 minutes. At this point, you can leave it for up to 3 days if you want to make it in advance.
Line 2 cookie sheets with silpat baking sheets or parchment paper.
Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, form the mixture into balls 1 inch in diameter. Roll in coconut and place on the baking sheets. Refrigerate.
These will stay fresh in a covered container at room temperature for 3 days, or in the refrigerator for a week. They also freeze beautifully.
Notes
These coconut snowballs are just sweet enough. If you want them sweeter, you can increase the sweetener to 1 ¼ cups.Using long-shred coconut? I'd suggest pulsing it in a food processor so that it will adhere to the snowballs.If the mixture does not hold together when you press it together firmly in a ball, it may be too dry. If it is too dry at this stage, the snowballs will taste too dry. You can easily fix this by adding a little more melted butter and/or milk and stirring to combine thoroughly.