Rainbow Bolitas De Coco! Pura Vida!

This is a Costa Rican coconut-y dessert with a rainbow twist!

Here's the quick overview:

Prep/cook time: 5 min
Set time: 1-2 hours
Decoration time: 5 min

SMALL RECIPE
Ingredients:

• 1 + 1/4 cup (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 TBSP butter
• 8 Maria biscuits (or similar biscuits - like gram crackers)
• 2.10 oz grated coconut

LARGE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (2 - 3 cans) sweetened condensed milk
• 8 TBSP butter
• 18 Maria biscuits (or similar biscuits - like gram crackers)
• 8 oz grated coconut
  
  Directions: Melt together the sweetened condensed milk and butter in a sauce-pan on medium heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the coconut. Blend the biscuits in a food processor and stir into the milk-butter-coconut mixture. Cover and set in fridge for 2 hours. Shape into balls and roll into food colored-dyed grated coconut. Keep in the fridge.
  
  Keep reading for detailed instructions and pictures...

Gather your ingredients and equipment...

Open up the can of sweetened condensed milk - my can measured out to 1 and 1/4 cups of sweetened condensed milk - and pour it into your sauce-pan. Make sure you get every last drop of this glorious substance - and it's okay to lick your fingers. ;)

Measure out 38 grams of butter (about 2 tablespoons) - I melted mine just 20 seconds in the microwave first because it was rock-hard frozen - and add it into the sweetened condensed milk. Turn the burner on medium and stir until the butter melts into it.

Let's take a moment to appreciate that yellow --

Measure out 2.10 oz (about 3/4 cup) of grated coconut - I used 3 packets sized in the photo - and add it into the milk & butter. You can turn the stove off now and remove the pan from the heat.

NOTE: Some recipes for Bolitas de Coco only use coconut, and not biscuits. If you want to do this just make your proportions of liquid (sweetened condensed milk + butter) equal to your proportion of coconut.

Now get out your food processor - or some type of blender - and 8 Maria biscuits. (I used digestive biscuits - you can use anything similar - gram crackers work too.) Now they await their fate...

PULSE. Until it becomes powdery. Then take out the blade and dump it all into the milk-butter-coconut mix and stir it all together.

Cover it with saran wrap (or cling film) and stick it in the fridge (Lo and behold... the contents of the fridge...) - I put a hot pad down first (or you can put the mixture into a different bowl to cool faster) - and leave it for an hour or two.

Set up 6 bowls and pour a bit of coconut into each one. Get out your food coloring dyes... here comes the fun...

COLORS.

Add in a few drops of color to each bowl - RED, ORANGE (red + yellow), YELLOW, GREEN (blue + yellow), BLUE, PURPLE (red + blue).

I also added a dash of powdered food coloring, but the liquid version
colored the coconut better. Mix it in with a fork or with your fingers... as you can see my fingers got a bit dyed (which came out by the next day), so you might not want to use your fingers.

NOTE: The yellow dye wasn't working for me - so I added a dash of turmeric, which colored it perfectly.

Get out the dough from the fridge and roll it into balls. Then roll the balls in the different colored coconuts.

Whallah! RAiNBOWS

These are super fun and super easy! Great for doing with kids or for a party and they're a nice cool sweet.