My former boss Mary likes bourbon balls, so I volunteered to make some for her going-away party. I decided to try a recipe from Rhonda Ruckman in Garden & Gun. I made one big change to the recipe. It calls for shortbread cookie crumbs and I was making so many other things for the party that I didn't have time to make my own shortbread. I really don't like packaged shortbread (it's often not even made with real butter!), but I did have a few packs of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers in my freezer, so I decided to use chocolate cookie crumbs instead.
The recipe comes together quickly. I used a food processor to grind the chocolate wafers to crumbs and chop pecans, and then combined the crumbs and nuts with bourbon and a ganache-like mixture of heavy cream, honey, corn syrup, and bittersweet chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Extra-Bitter Guayaquil 64%). You chill the mixture before scooping it out into balls. I used a #60 scoop and got 63 bourbon balls, which I rolled in a mixture of sugar, vanilla paste, and finely chopped pecans.
The recipe says that you can store the bourbon balls for up to five days, so I made them a few days in advance of the party. I stored them in a plastic container in the fridge and made my husband taste test them for me (since I don't drink alcohol). Oddly enough, they seemed to become more potent over time. When freshly made, there was no particular boozy odor emitted from the bourbon balls. But when I opened the plastic container a few days later to plate the bourbon balls at the party, I was startled by the intensity of the bourbon aroma that hit me in the face. Tom confirmed that they were more boozy a few days after they were made. But he gave them a big thumbs up, as did tasters at the party.
The bourbon balls were rich and chocolate-y and boozy -- very truffle-like. And I'm glad that I used the chocolate cookies instead of shortbread. The flavor of the cookies fit right in, and when I measured out the two cups of cookie crumbs required for the recipe, it came to 250 grams, which only a few grams shy of the weight of an entire pack of Nabisco Famous Wafers. These are an easy and crowd-pleasing dessert that I would happily make again.
Recipe: "Bourbon Balls" by Rhonda Ruckman, from Garden & Gun.
Previous Posts:
The recipe comes together quickly. I used a food processor to grind the chocolate wafers to crumbs and chop pecans, and then combined the crumbs and nuts with bourbon and a ganache-like mixture of heavy cream, honey, corn syrup, and bittersweet chocolate (I used Cacao Barry Extra-Bitter Guayaquil 64%). You chill the mixture before scooping it out into balls. I used a #60 scoop and got 63 bourbon balls, which I rolled in a mixture of sugar, vanilla paste, and finely chopped pecans.
The bourbon balls were rich and chocolate-y and boozy -- very truffle-like. And I'm glad that I used the chocolate cookies instead of shortbread. The flavor of the cookies fit right in, and when I measured out the two cups of cookie crumbs required for the recipe, it came to 250 grams, which only a few grams shy of the weight of an entire pack of Nabisco Famous Wafers. These are an easy and crowd-pleasing dessert that I would happily make again.
Recipe: "Bourbon Balls" by Rhonda Ruckman, from Garden & Gun.
Previous Posts:
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Truffles Redux [Pecan Pie Truffles]," January 14, 2018.
- "A Birthday Surprise: Bourbon Balls and Hazelnut Brownies," January 12, 2011.
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