Adapted from: Paula Deen's recipe as posted on The Food Network's website here

Paula Deen's recipe had waaaaaaaay too much sugar in it. I'm not convinced that any sweetener is needed. I used liquid Splenda in the mashed Sweet Potatoes. Next time, I will make my own sweetened coconut but the carbs counts below include store-bought sweetened coconut.

The way I made these in a mini-muffin tin, there is built-in portion control. These got rave review from my family and the guests (one person thought the nutmeg was too much but only one out of ten said that).

Sweet Potato Balls

Ingredients

* 3 large sweet potatoes
* 3T Splenda
* 4 tablespoons orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
* 2 teaspoon orange zest
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1.25 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 small marshmallow per potato ball

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake the potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them. Stir in the sweetener, orange juice, zest and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, toss the coconut with the sugar and cinnamon.

I let the mashed sweet potatoes cool then press mashed potatoes around each marshmallow, creating a (approx.) 1-inch diameter ball. Roll the balls in the coconut mixture. (These don't really "roll" so I placed a ball in the coconut mix then patted the coconut mix around the ball and reshaped it in my hands, repeat.)

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until warm and the coconut is crisp. (I baked mine in a mini-muffin tin.) Watch carefully for the last few minutes of cooking; the expanding marshmallows can cause the potato balls to burst open. (I didn't have this problem but the marshmallows disappeared; i.e., melted into the sweet potato mix.)

Makes 28 small balls.

Nutritional info (per ball):

Energy 40 kcal
Carbohydrate, by difference 6.91 g
Fiber, total dietary 0.90 g
Protein 0.56 g
Total lipid (fat) 1.34 g
Cholesterol 0 mg
Fatty acids, total trans 0.000 g
Fatty acids, total saturated 1.162 g
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated 0.059 g
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated 0.035 g