Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Holiday Baking: Bourbon Balls
Michael made bourbon balls this weekend (I helped). The thing about bourbon balls is you need to make them ahead of time and let them sit. We usually make them around Thanksgiving, but that didn’t work out this year.
Bourbon Balls
1 box Vanilla wafers
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped nuts
3 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup bourbon
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp espresso powder
Confectioners powder and/or cocoa powder
Crush the vanilla wafers.
Dump all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Mix until you have a dark brown gooey mass.
Allow mixture to stand for several minutes. This is a good time to make the second batch of “dough”.
Form dough into small balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar. Place bourbon balls into waxed paper lined tin, placing a layer of waxed paper between each layer.
Place tins aside for several weeks.
In theory, you can use stale/toasted cake instead of vanilla wafers, but I never have stale cake on hand.
I’m serious about setting them aside for several weeks. They’ll be much much better if you wait.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Stale cake? I don’t understand. “Stale cake” indicates that there was leftover cake somewhere that nobody wanted. That is like the term “extra money” another concept I am not familiar with.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Crush the vanilla wafers.
Crush! Crush! Crush!
That explains a lot.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Those look good, I think I may try them. I am not sure how long they will last without eating though. I am assuming they need to be refrigerated, with all the sugar/syrup I can picture opening them and finding a living mass of mold
December 8th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Gina, as I don’t like cake, stale cake would be very easy for me to achieve. Slate brownies on the other hand…
Mark, there is half a cup of alcohol there. Not that you couldn’t refrigerate or freeze them, but it’s not necessary.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I see you had your minion…I mean assistant…hard at work there.
And thanks! My mother used to make these every year, haven’t had any in a while. Only thing I don’t have on hand at the moment is Nilla Wafers AND Kroger had them on sale this week.
Think I’ll try a batch of Jack Daniels Balls as well! mmmmm…bourbon balls…
December 8th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Must. Not. Give. In. To. Entendre.
See, I can behave. It’s just not very easy for me to do so.
December 9th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Vince…think SNL…everyone’s favoite Alec Baldwin Christmas sketch, which he manages to pull off straigt-faced and tongue firmly in cheek! I started to go there and behaved instead.
What WAS I thinking??
December 12th, 2009 at 3:06 am
How many calories would you burn if you bake non-stop for 4 hours while incorporating cleaning too? thanks…