Jaffa Balls

Without intending to be overly monotonous, I wanted to share my latest rendition of the old traditional rum ball recipe, jaffa balls.

My baking of sweet things has been solely limited to chocolatey balls in recent times, as they seem to be a growing obsession with the man and son. As soon as a batch has been scoffed, I am under constant pressure to produce more (thankfully they are a cinch to throw together). If the batch runs out mid week and there is no soymilke condensed milk in the pantry, my campers are not happy at all as they have to wait until at least Saturday for their fix when I can make that next trip to the health food store.

Choc-mint balls have been a remarkable success and since they were introduced, left the standard old rum balls for dead. It led me to pondering about other types of flavours that could be used in these balls. Chocolate and peppermint has always been a favoured combination since my childhood, I would always opt for a choc-mint sweet over straight chocolate any day of the week. Not far behind would have to be chocolate and orange. Terry's chocolate orange balls and jaffas are yummy treats that immediately spring to mind from that genre.

And so with yet another single ingredient substitution, jaffa balls were born! A simple change from peppermint to orange essense gave these balls exactly the orangey touch they needed. Of course, they were declared to be the new favourites although I will be interested to see if they are still living up to their current hype a few batches down the track!

Jaffa balls

250g packet Arnott's Nice biscuits
3 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
330g can Soymilke soy condensed milk
2 teaspoons Maharajah's Choice orange essense
Extra desiccated coconut, for coating

Process biscuits in a food processor until they become a fine powder. Add the cocoa and 1/2 cup coconut to the food processor and pulse a few times. Transfer mixture to a bowl then add the soy condensed milk and orange essense. Mix together until everything is well combined.

Place mixture in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to give it a firmer texture which makes it easier to roll the balls. If the mixture is too soft, it gets very sticky and difficult to roll properly and the balls will not hold their shape.

Put the extra coconut into a bowl. Roll spoonfuls of mixture into balls with your hands, and then coat in coconut. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.