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.

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 *

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