Rum / Bourbon Holiday Balls?

Question

I have a very old recipe for Bourbon Balls. Any one know if Rum or Bacardi's Coconut infused rum is a good substitute? Also, how fine do you make the Vanilla Wafers into crumbs?

Answer 1

Mmmm. Good idea!

Rum is fine. Many recipes call for Rum. Regarding turning the wafers into crumbs there are lots of ways to do this. One is to seal them in a zip lock bag with all of the air pushed out of the bag. Use a rolling pin or heavy spoon to crush them...or even your hands.

Here is a recipe I like for Rum Balls that was published in Bon Apetit in 1997. I saw it on http://www.epicurious.com this week.

Ingredients:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup dark rum
2 1/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafer cookies (about 10 ounces)
1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions:

Stir chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Whisk in 1/2 cup sugar and corn syrup, then the rum. Mix vanilla wafers and walnuts in medium bowl to blend; add chocolate mixture and stir to blend well.
Place remaining 1/2 cup sugar in shallow bowl. For each rum ball, roll 1 scant tablespoon chocolate mixture into generous 1-inch ball. Roll balls in sugar to coat evenly. Cover and refrigerate at leas overnight and up to 5 days.

Makes about 45.

Good luck and if you get a chance, post your recipe for us!

Answer 2

I make Bourbon balls every year for Christmas and my recipe also calls for vanilla wafers. I put mine in a food processor to make them very fine. If you leave them too coarse, you will have some uneven chunks in the balls...and I prefer them to be uniform in texture (but that's just me).

To me...I don't think the coconut rum sounds too appealing for this type of recipe. You want something that tastes kind of "warm" and bourbon has a deep flavor that adds to the ball. If you do decide to use rum, I would use a gold or dark rum, since they have a better flavor.

I'm not sure what your recipe says, but for my bourbon balls, I make them a few days in advance to let them mellow out...otherwise you get a pretty potent ball!

Answer 3

You want the crumbs to be very very fine. To make crumbs you can use a food processor or put them in a plastic food bag and use a rolling pin and roll over them. And as for the substitute rum and Barcardi's CoCo will do just fine. Where I'm from you can pick up a box of bourbon balls with rum, cognac, scotch, Kentucky irish cream and mint julep.

Take a wild guess as to where bourbon balls originated...The same place bourbon comes from..... Kentucky!!!