Bourbon Balls!

We’ve started making Christmas cookies. Last night was the first run, and we made two types… Since I made the bourbon balls, we’ll start with those.

First off, you need to mash up 3 cups worth of ‘Nilla Wafers.That’s a whole lot of Nilla Wafers.

I was using a nut grinder/chopper thingie…. It worked decently well, but as I was doing it, I realized that I should have been using the food processor. For that matter, they should sell this stuff in bags, like flour, in the baking section.

You’ll see below that there’s a different box in the background… yeah… that’s right… it took one entire box, and about 3/4 of a second box in order to get 3 cups.

So, once you have smashed your Nilla Wafers, it’s officially time to get started.

Bring out the mixing bowl and you’ll be done in a few minutes.

Add 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, 2 cups of powdered sugar, and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.

Then, 1/4 cup of corn syrup (the recipe calls for light, but dark does the job equally as well)

Then, add 1/2 cup of your favorite bourbon. Here’s a note… since these don’t get cooked, choose a good bourbon. It doesn’t get cooked off, and you can taste it rather strong.

Now, you can start to mix things up… it’ll be a little dry at first… but keep on mixing, and it’ll start to form up.

Then

Then finally:

BAM. Look at that gorgeousness.

So now, you pull the dough out in little pieces, and roll it into about 1 inch balls.

After you form them up, roll them around in some leftover crushed Nilla Wafers, or powdered Sugar… this is mainly just to keep them from sticking to each other.

Now, toss them in the fridge… and they’re done…

 

That was easy right? Well… there are a couple of notes… it’s kinda difficult to get the mixture just right.. you want it dry enough that it won’t stick to your hands, but wet enough where it’ll stick to itself nicely.

Starting off, my mixture was a little dry, so when I rolled the balls, they would split in the center and fall apart.So, it went back onto the mixer and got more bourbon added… Then, the consistency was right…. for a little bit… then, as you work, they’ll dry out a little bit… so you may have to add more bourbon again… so… moral of the story.. if things get dry, just keep adding bourbon, a little at a time….

 

I’m a bag fan of these.. they’re easy to make, and pack a good little hit of booze.