Rum Balls!

You can use rum or bourbon for these. I feel like I should honor my Puerto Rican heritage by loading these with rum. I love them. Make them a few days before you use them because I think they taste better after the alcohol soaks in and mellows a bit.



Its a well loved recipe. I can barely decipher what it says. In fact, once I read vanilla and thought it was vanilla cake mix and ended up with some funky balls.

Funky rum balls. This is a family friendly site people. Its supposed to be vanilla wafers not vanilla cake mix. Now I'm just rambling.

This is another super simple recipe. Mix 1 cup of ground walnuts, 1 cup of ground vanilla wafers, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 2 tbs cocoa, 1 1/2 tbs corn syrup, 1/4 cup of rum, roll into balls, roll in whatever you are using to coat them.

Grind up some walnuts! You need 1 cup.



It'll look like this!



Do the same for the vanilla wafers. I like to pick out the big chunks and eat them. It takes longer to get the 1 cup but I believe its worth the time.

I love Nilla wafers.



Dump that in the bowl too. Add in 2 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 cup of powdered sugar.

If you happen to forget the powdered sugar ~ahem~ until you taste the mix, like some people, go ahead and add it when you remember. Otherwise now is the time to add it.



1 1/2 tablespoons of corn syrup go in there. (Sorry LMM, not that you make a habit of feeding your kids rum balls)



1/4 cup of rum!



Mix, mix, mix and it will look like this.

I may or may not have added more than 1/4 cup of alcohol in the past. Just make sure you give your mix (the crushed nilla wafers) a moment to soak in the liquid.

See, they need to be able to come together into little balls.

I apologize in advance for the next picture.



I wasn't going to show you this.... but this is what I do with the mix in order to make it easier to separate into the balls.

I press all the crumbles into a roll, a log, a tube of sorts. ~giggle~ Then I just brake off the end piece and roll it in my palms.

I know, I know.



Drop a ball into the powdered sugar and roll to coat.

I stacked them in a tin lined with saran wrap and threw them in the freezer. They'll be good for a couple of months. Take them out a few days before you want to eat them and let them defrost.

Variation: Roll these in nonpareils, sanding sugar or other festive sprinkles to add a nice color to your trays or display. I prefer to do this if I remember to get the nonpareils. Just make sure to press them in when you roll the rum balls around.

Enjoy!