The holiday season is officially upon us when we make bourbon balls. Of course, we should have made them immediately after Thanksgiving, because they’re better the longer they sit, but this is still plenty of tie.

These are one of Michael’s favorite Christmas cookies, and we make a double (or even triple) back every year.

This recipe calls for Nilla wafers, but other recipes have called for stale cake. But I never have stale cake lying around, so this works perfectly well. The recipe calls for corn syrup to hold everything together. I suppose honey might work, but I think it might change the flavor, so I’ve never fussed with the recipe.

Bourbon Balls

1 box vanilla wafers, crushed
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
3 tbsp corn syrup
1/4 to 1/2 cup bourbon
3 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp espresso powder or instant coffee *

Place dry ingredients in the mixer, and combine.

Add corn syrup and bourbon. After a minute or two the mixture will form into a giant ball and the mixer will slow down noticeably.

You’ll have a giant brown lump that isn’t particularly attractive.

Roll mixture into balls.

Michael is using a cookie scoop here, otherwise he gets carried away and creates some cookies the size of tennis balls.

Coat individual balls in powdered sugar.

Line a tin with waxed paper, then place bourbon balls in the tin, separating layers with waxed paper.

Close the tin(s) and then place it (them) in a cool dry place where you can easily ignore it for several weeks.

You may want to reroll the balls in powdered sugar before you eat them, but Michael doesn’t care how they look.

* One year I sent Michael to the store to get instant coffee, and he came back with Sanka, and then spent weeks arguing that Sanka was the same thing as coffee.

Mind you, Michael is the coffee drinker in the house.