From Oops! to Oh!

Knowing that the way to win friends and influence people is by feeding them, I decided to whip up something sweet for tomorrow's lunch meeting with the rest of the Junior English teachers. Also knowing that my grandmother was a master of sweets, I went back to her hand-written notes in the women's auxiliary cookbook. This time I found something called "orange balls" which apparently came from my great aunt Dot on Christmas 1980. Here's what the recipe says:

1 box powdered sugar

1 small can frozen orange juice
1 box vanilla wafers - crushed
1 stick butter
Mix together and roll into balls.

Now, this seems pretty straightforward, so I picked up some vanilla wafers and orange juice at the grocery this evening and hopped home to make my treat, which looks innocent enough in script, but actually gave me a few problems, mostly due to misconstruing the actual size of a "small" can of juice. As I contemplated the frozen juices, only two can sizes presented themselves - one that was a standard 10 to 12 ounce size and one that was quite a bit larger in the 18 to 24 ounce range. Believing these were the only two sizes available, I opted for the smaller, just as the recipe suggests. In retrospect, an even smaller size - say about 6 ounces - must be available, just not where I shop. Thus, the consistency of my orange balls was not really conducive to holding any particular shape.

My first thought was to stiffen it up a little by adding more vanilla wafers, which I would have done if I had any more. After a mere moment's hesitation, I opted to use the graham crackers from the pantry. It actually took both sleeves to make the "dough" hold its shape even though it was still pretty sticky. Next, I decided to put the bowl in the fridge while we ate dinner to thicken it even more. This seemed to do the trick, because Jeff and I didn't have any trouble rolling spoonfuls into pretty little balls later in the evening. However, the candy again became sticky fairly quickly, and I was concerned with how to take it to school and serve it without too much of a mess. I commented to Jeff that rolling the balls in powdered sugar would help, but that they were already sweet. Next I contemplated dousing them with coconut, which I certainly would have done if I had some. Finally, Jeff (ever the chocoholic) suggested rolling them in cocoa powder. So, after I managed to snag the cocoa from the shelf I can just barely reach, I sprinkled some on a plate and rolled our little orange confections in the powder. This was the best of idea of night! The unsweetened chocolate flavor toned down the heavy orangeness and added a layer of complexity to the candy. In addition, the coating allowed pieces to be handled without sticky fingers and rest prettily on a tray full little candy cups. I think these little gems will wow the department tomorrow and make all our newbies glad they came to Skyline.