This week's request came from Rhonda, who was looking for a special holiday
recipe her mom used to make. It was an orange cookie type treat made with
Nilla wafers, coconut and orange juice concentrate. It has been a long time
since Rhonda has eaten one, but she distinctly remembers her mom buying the
frozen concentrated juice for these unique cookies.
In my opinion this is the definition of a vintage dessert and it is exactly
the type of recipe that I really look forward to making. These cookies seemed
so obscure that I had no idea what the result would be. Never had I made or
even eaten a no-bake cookie such as the one Rhonda had described. How did
someone come up with a recipe like this. I guessed this concoction was created
when the manufacturing companies, Nabisco, Bakers Co. and Tropicana all got in
on it in order to sell their products. Of course all of these odds and ends
work together....
Originally I had found the recipe in a community cookbook called Try Our
Delicacies from 1981. This came from a Ruth Callaghan of Sarasota, Florida. I
thought it was something special and really rare to find, that is until I
purchased the off brand vanilla wafers and saw that the exact recipe was on
the side of the box!
As Sullivan and I mixed together all of the crushed up ingredients I feared
these cookies were going to be mushy and not very appealing to the eye. Boy, was I wrong. These little balls of nonsense are chewy and absolutely
delightful. It is truly impossible to eat just one of them. The first one is
like a tester. Your mind doesn't really know what to think because you have never
had anything like it before. As you chew, your mouth tells you it is ok to
enjoy yourself because it is super yummy. Then you can have a second one
and really take in all of the flavor.
Now that I have tried these orange coconut balls, I would like to try other
flavors. Maybe mix up a strawberry lemonade ball or key lime. What are some
other delicious flavors that you can think of?
xoxo
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