homemade almond joys

i grew up making chocolates every Christmas with my mom and sometimes grandma.  i have carried on this tradition in my own home since i started my own family.  i love this holiday tradition so much.  yet occasionally it gets a little stressful.  sometimes the candy gets overcooked or undercooked and successive batches are scrapped and much time is lost....or sometimes the chocolate turns white and the resulting chocolates look less than appealing and therefore unworthy of gifting.

that's why i love this recipe so much.  it's mostly foolproof (i'll get to that later), it's delicious and you can seem really fancy when really what you did was super easy.

i got this recipe from my exceptionally talented friend, liz, who has been making absolutely beautiful chocolates and scrumptious fudge for years.

ingredients

1/4 t salt
1/2 C light corn syrup
12 large marshmallows (or 1 and 2/3 C mini marshmallows)
1/2 t vanilla
1 3/4 C unsweetened shredded coconut (available at whole foods or like stores)
1 lb dipping chocolate (i prefer dark for this so i got a 70% cacao guittard, but a good quality milk would work well, too)
whole toasted almonds

directions

heat syrup, marshmallows and salt until melted.  add vanilla and pour over coconut.  stir well.  let stand and cool until able to handle.  roll into balls (it helps to grease your hands).  push an almond into each ball and form some of the coconut mixture around the nut to hold it in place.  dip.

the "mostly" foolproof part comes in the dipping.  if you're using high-quality chocolate, it will be really sensitive to heat, so make sure you melt it slowly.  melting it on low power in a microwave at very short intervals will usually work fine, but you do have to be careful.  then if it's your first time dipping it will take some practice to get them to look nice, but they will certainly taste amazing regardless of what they look like.