A South Australian favourite, these 4 Ingredient, no bake Candy Spuds taste just like a Bounty! Creamy condensed milk is paired with coconut and rolled in cocoa for the ultimate sweet treat.
Why We Love This
The fact these candy spuds can be thrown together in 5 minutes with no baking required is a win for us! They also make great snacks to take to work for a sweet afternoon bite, and don’t need to be kept in the fridge.
Related: Easy No Bake Rum Balls / Mini Christmas Puddings
What are Condensed Milk Coconut Balls?
Coconut balls are a quick, creamy sweet no bake bites you can whip up in minutes. With a light dusting in cocoa, they look like potatoes, and are called Candy Spuds in South Australia.
In terms of flavour, they’re quite similar to our easy coconut ice slice. In appearance they look similar to Irish Potato Candy, which is actually made with mashed potato and cream cheese, or German Potato Candy, which is made with marzipan.
Candy spuds are usually enjoyed any time of year, but are also popular around Christmas.
Where We Learned This Recipe:
We both grew up with candy spuds in Adelaide, South Australia. Now you’ll mainly find them at specialty candy stores like in the main street of Hahndorf or Semaphore. These are one of Sarah’s top choices in the lolly shop, usually alongside a bag of musk sticks and peach hearts.
What You’ll Need
Four simple ingredients stand between you and these delicious candy spuds!
- Sweetened Condensed Milk – This usually comes in a can. Sweetened works best as it’s for a sweet treat, and no need to add more sugar aside from the icing that way.
- Icing Sugar – Also known as confectioners sugar. This fine sugar is perfect for helping to sweeten and bind the coconut with the condensed milk. Can be made by processing white sugar.
- Cocoa – We used premium Dutch dark cocoa, but you can also use hot chocolate powder or even Milo!
- Desiccated Coconut – This is a very fine coconut, may also be called macaroon coconut. If you can only find shaved or flaked coconut, try popping it in a blender to make it nice and fine.
How to make Candy Spuds:
- Using a spoon, mix the desiccated coconut, icing sugar and condensed milk together, making a slightly sticky dough.
- Finish using your hands to knead into a ball, making sure everything combined.
- Form one heaped teaspoon of dough into a ball and lightly dust with cocoa powder or desired coating. Should be around 2cm / 1 inch in width. Store in the fridge to ‘set’ for at least 15 minutes, then enjoy!
Wandercook’s Tips
- Other Coatings – If coating ingredients other than cocoa, wet hands first and the outside of each ball, then coat in chocolate, coconut, sprinkles, cinnamon etc to help them stick.
- Play with shapes – You don’t have to roll them into ball shapes – get creative and roll or squish into longer, bigger, more rounded or oval shapes just like real potatoes.
- Storage – For softer bites, pop them in an airtight container and keep them on the counter. For harder bites, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
FAQs
Condensed milk is what holds these balls together and gives them their unique texture, so we don’t really recommend making them without it. If you really don’t want to use condensed milk, you can swap it for 2 tbsp regular milk. Bring it to the boil (you can microwave for short bursts if you prefer) then add to the dry ingredients and continue with the rest of the recipe. We haven’t tested this method, so if you do try it please let us know how it goes!
That said, we have seen similar looking (but very different flavoured) German Christmas treats made with marzipan that you could try instead.
Yes you can freeze them for 1-2 months. Let them come back up to room temperature before serving.
Condensed milk coconut balls should be fine for around a week before they start to dry.
Variations & Substitutes
- Make it Festive – Add green and red food colouring to two batches of coconut and roll half the balls in the red coconut and half in the green. Or add the food colouring into the dough itself for a stronger colour effect.
- Add Flavour – Add a few drops of vanilla, peppermint, almond or cherry essence. Or add a splash of rum, whisky or your favourite liqueur for an extra special treat.
- Add Texture – Try adding a handful of chopped nuts (almond, walnut or pistachio) or chopped dried fruit (apricots are our favourite!) in with the desiccated coconut before mixing.
Here’s some sweet bites to whip up next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and star rating below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 200 g icing sugar / powdered sugar 2 cups
- 130 ml sweetened condensed milk 3/4 cup
- 100 g desiccated coconut 1 3/4 cup
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Using a spoon, mix the desiccated coconut, icing sugar and condensed milk together, making a slightly sticky dough.200 g icing sugar / powdered sugar, 100 g desiccated coconut, 130 ml sweetened condensed milk
- Finish using your hands to knead into a ball, making sure everything combined.
- Form one heaped teaspoon of dough into a ball and lightly dust with cocoa powder or desired coating. Should be around 2cm / 1 inch in width.2 tsp cocoa powder
- Store in the fridge to ‘set’ for at least 15 minutes, then enjoy!
Video
Recipe Notes
- Other Coatings – If coating ingredients other than cocoa, wet hands first and the outside of each ball, then coat in chocolate, coconut, sprinkles, cinnamon etc to help them stick.
- Play with Shapes – You don’t have to roll them into ball shapes – get creative and roll or squish into longer, bigger, more rounded or oval shapes just like real potatoes.
- Storage – For softer bites, pop them in an airtight container and keep them on the counter. For harder bites, keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Make it Festive – Add green and red food colouring to two batches of coconut and roll half the balls in the red coconut and half in the green. Or add the food colouring into the dough itself for a stronger colour effect.
- Add Flavour – Add a few drops of vanilla, peppermint, almond or cherry essence. Or add a splash of rum, whisky or your favourite liqueur for an extra special treat.
- Add Texture – Try adding a handful of chopped nuts (almond, walnut or pistachio) or chopped dried fruit (apricots are our favourite!) in with the desiccated coconut before mixing.
Nutrition
4 Comments
a
02/07/2022 at 5:43 amcondensed milk? or evaporated? The condensed milk I can get is “sweetened” condensed milk…is that what I should use to try this recipe?
Wandercooks
02/07/2022 at 3:50 pmSweetened condensed milk for this one. 🙂
Kimmi Smith
02/01/2022 at 2:40 pmRecently made these and wow! What a throw back to my childhood. I hadn’t had spuds in YEARS and they’re just as good as I remembered
Wandercooks
02/01/2022 at 5:42 pmRight! I love that we can make them at home now, enjoy the nostalgia! 🙂