Ball-shaped snack recipes!

Spherically satisfying and maybe even sustainable!
By Morgan Hannah, Life & Style Editor

Round foods are seriously fun! I don’t quite know what it is, but making simple spherical snacks is supremely satisfying. Here are three recipes you can try out at home—they’re super quick, sustaining, and scrumptious!

Cake Pops

Ingredients:
4 cups cake crumbs (about 14 ounces)
1/4 cup frosting (not whipped cream frosting) at room temperature
1/2 cup fine sprinkles
8 ounces Candy Melts
vegetable oil as needed
16 (6-inch) lollipop sticks

Because someone somewhere said “Nah, cake isn’t good enough. We’ve got to make portable poppable cakes!” Thus, the cake pop was born. For this super simple and easy recipe, you’ll need to purchase a couple of key ingredients which can conveniently all be found at your local craft store (Michaels for example). For the cake itself, we won’t tell if you want to use a box mix. Start by lining a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set this aside, and move onto mixing and mashing those cake crumbs and icing into a bowl. Make sure everything is dense and moist. Then form balls out of the dough that are roughly the size of ping pong balls, line them on the baking sheet, stick them with lollipop sticks, and put ‘em all in the freezer for around a half hour.

When the cake balls are solid, microwave the Candy Melts in a medium-sized bowl, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. If the consistency isn’t smooth like whipped cream, you can add vegetable oil at half a teaspoon at a time. At this point, you’re also going to want a bowl or plate full of sprinkles. Using the lollipop sticks, dip the cake balls into the melted Candy Melt, gently tap and twirl the stick several times on the edge of the bowl to form a thin and even coating—letting the excess drip off. Then roll the dipped pop into the sprinkles and hold the pop upright until the coating starts to set. These spherical treats store at room temperature in a container for up to one week.

Marinated Bocconcini Balls

Ingredients:
16 ounces drained bocconcini
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons capers, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Who doesn’t like round cheese that’s spiced, salted, and oiled to perfection? All you gotta do is finely chop up some sprigs of herbs and a shallot, mix it all in half a cup of olive oil, and toss, dip, and turn those cheesy bocconcini bad boys ’til fully coated! And hey, if you’re in a time crunch or aren’t picky about freshness, you can even use powdered, pre-prepared spices and this recipe will still taste good!

For an added nutritional bonus, throw these flavourful cheese balls into a bed of greens with some sliced green or black olives and halved cherry tomatoes—any excess oil will serve as a light dressing.

Dark-Chocolate-Dipped Brigadeiros

Ingredients:
1 can (14 ounces) of sweetened condensed milk
4 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tbsp butter, plus more for rolling balls
a pinch of salt
sprinkles 

These bite-sized chocolate bon-bons are traditionally made of sweetened condensed milk, chocolate powder, eggs, and butter. They are then hand rolled individually and covered in melted chocolate and sprinkles. Different toppings and flavours like lime, passion fruit, pistachio, white chocolate, and Nutella can be experimented with. Get creative!  

In a sauce-pan, mix together the sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder, salt, and the butter over medium-low heat until it is thick. Make sure to give this mixture ample attention and constantly mix to prevent burning.
Let the mixture cool to room temperature then, in a plate or bowl, spread out your sprinkles. Once the brigadeiro mixture is cool, grease your hands with butter and roll the brigadeiros into little balls, then roll the balls through the sprinkles and place them in paper candy cups when serving. Why not use all this time we’ve been given to make up a couple of these sweet spherical treats, put ’em in fancy boxes, and earn some side cash at markets and in stores? OR eat them all right away.