Coconut Balls With Cherry

So it is 8th of September: it is my Name Day. I know many of you are raising your eyebrows...but in Hungary we celebrate  Name Days as well as  Birthdays. To explain what it's all about I included a description from Wikipedia, but the main thing is: I was baking for my colleagues, but being a weekday I was looking for quick recipes. I baked Mini Vanilla "Croissant" With Nuts, Chocolate Beetroot Cake (I was given a big veg box  by my friend who is ordering from a farm....but they can't eat it all, and I had 8 beetroots to deal with) and Coconut  Balls. These are all quick and simple recipes: mix it, bake it (you don't even have to bake the Coconut Balls) and done:)

Coconut Balls With Cherry

Ingredients (makes about 48)

500g household biscuit - powdered or digestive biscuit

100g butter, room temperature, slightly melted

3 tbsp cocoa powder

200g icing sugar

3-6 tbsp rum

dessicated coconut

*milk or cherry syrup

*optional:cherry compote, Kirsch liqueur

So there are two options: you can choose to make them with a cherry inside or just simply roll the dough into balls.

If you using the first option you need to drain the cherries in a sieve...leave it to rest to get rid of all  liquid. 

Mix the biscuit powder, butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar (you can even add some dessicated coconut to the dough), rum-according to the audience (obviously if I prepare it for adults I add more, or even add some Kirsch liqueur:)) and as much liquid from the cherry syrup as much you need, to form a nice slightly sticky dough.

Sorry, but the amount of liquid you need depends on the type of biscuit you use, but approx 200ml. Take a piece of dough and roll it around the cherry and cover it with dessicated coconut.

If you only want to make small balls without the cherry: mix the powdered biscuit, butter, cocoa powder, icing sugar, some dessicated coconut, rum and add milk to the mix instead of cherry syrup.

It is easy to make, but I have to warn you, if you make the sherry option, it takes longer: I spent 1hour rolling them (although I was watching my favourite series in the meantime:))

Keep it in the fridge.

So about the name day:

"A name day is a tradition in many countries in Europe and Latin America that consists of celebrating the day of the year associated with one's given name.

The custom originated with the Greek Orthodox calendar of saints and Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where believers, named after a particular saint, would celebrate that saint's feast day. In many countries, however, there is no longer any explicit connection to Christianity. It remains more popular in Southern and Eastern (Catholic and Orthodox) rather than in Northern (predominantly Protestant) Europe.

Hungary

Name days (in Hungarian: névnap) in Hungary are very popular, often as much as a person's actual birthdate. A woman is typically given flowers on her name day by acquaintances, including in the workplace, and the price of flowers often rises around the dates of popular names because of demand. A bottle of alcohol is a common gift for men on their name day. Children frequently bring sweets to school to celebrate their name days. Name days are more often celebrated than birthdays in workplaces, presumably because it is simpler to know the date since most calendars contain a list of name days. You can also find the name day on daily newspapers by the date and on Hungarian websites. Some highly popular names have several name days; in that case, the person chooses on which day he or she wishes to celebrate. The list of the name days is, as usual in name day celebrating cultures, based on the traditional Catholic saints' feasts, but the link of the secular name days calendar to the Catholic calendar is not maintained any more. For example, even religious Catholic people named Gergely (Gregory) after Pope Gregory the Great still celebrate their name days on 12 March, although the Church moved the feast of that saint to 3 September in 1969."