Mirsada's Coconut Truffles

 

The credit for this recipe goes to Mirsada, my Bosnian friend who is one of the best cooks that I know. She also has an excellent chocolate truffle recipe (that uses cooked eggyolks) which I hope to post in the future. A combination of her chocolate and coconut truffles served in tiny paper cups makes for a very elegant dessert tray. I am going to write down the recipe as she gave me, but when I made the truffles I halved the ingredients and decreased butter even more. I also experimented by stuffing some with pistachio paste. The result was visually pleasing but I think that they taste better left plain. Make sure that the coconut used in the recipe is not the sticky sweetened kind, otherwise the truffles will be too sweet. I substituted very finely ground coconut for coconut flour, but I think one can simply make this at home by processing shredded coconut until it is very fine. The truffle mixture can be kept in the freezer, and easily formed into rounds when the occasion calls for a quick dessert. One last thing--as for many other homemade truffles, these are best served from the refrigerator and become softer as they stand at room temperature. I read somewhere that this can be remedied by dipping them in tempered chocolate (white chocolate, in this case); but I have never done it myself.

100 ml water
250 gm sugar
2 sticks butter, cut into chunks
120 gm coconut flour
200 gm powdered milk
Shredded unsweetened coconut to cover truffles

Mix water and sugar in a pan. Cook on medium flame, stirring until sugar melts. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 2 minutes. Add chunks of butter and stir until they melt in the hot syrup. Add coconut flour and powdered milk and stir until you obtain a smooth mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. Take teaspoons of mixture and roll into small balls. Put shredded coconut to a small plate, and roll the balls in coconut until they are coated.