Rum Balls With Chocolate and Pecans
Rum balls: those sweet, spicy, boozy little balls of holiday happiness, packing all the punch of spiced rum and mix it with a nutty, chocolate, and vanilla treat. By our powers combined, these rum balls are a cocktail and a dessert rolled into one!
Every year, the Beard and I make an absolute mess of our kitchen in an attempt to bake a whole load of sweets to give to family and coworkers. Neither of us can afford to go crazy with gift-giving, so we end up making a lot of different things to give away. Over the years we’ve baked loaves of bread, made doughnuts and waffles of every imaginable flavor and glaze, and countless pumpkin chocolate chip cakes. This year we decided to skip most of the baking and make an enormous batch of rum balls.
Oh, there was still plenty of baking. Maybe a cake or two less baking.
To the window, to the wall, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BALLS
Rum balls are one of those old school treats that everyone’s grandmother seems to have a recipe for. Your grandmother’s recipe would probably be different than mine’s, and mine’s would be just a little bit different than her neighbor’s recipe. It seems like every family has a story about a cousin eating way too many, or the time someone made them unexpectedly strong. The recipe is pretty simple, and it’s easy enough to change the flavor by changing the booze.
The biggest problem with rum balls is that they take a bit of time to make, the dough needs to be chilled for a while before you can roll it into balls, and then the balls need to be chilled for a few days before coating them to allow their flavor to reach full potential. No one is ever going to say “you know, it’s nasty weather, and I want to make something sweet, so let’s make rum balls!”
The other problem with rum balls is the amount of jokes about balls that will be made while making them.
So many rum balls.
The Beard and I split this recipe into two batches, each using a different alcohol. To do this, do not immediately add the rum in step 3. Instead, add the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and combine everything until a stiff dough forms. Then, divide the dough into two parts, and add 3/4 cup of whatever booze you’re choosing for each batch. In our case, we did one batch with Captain Morgan spiced rum and a second batch using Rum Chata. Due to the different consistencies of the rums we added, the dough turned out slightly different in each batch, with the Captain Morgan being a lot softer and more “meltier” than the creamier Rum Chata balls.
When they were ready to be coated, the Captain Morgan rum balls were coated with a mixture of powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa, and the Rum Chata balls were rolled in powdered sugar with a pinch of cinnamon. Don’t coat the balls until a day or two before you plan on serving them, as they may soak up the powdered sugar or cocoa.
Your rum balls, if kept chilled and in an airtight container, will last at least a month, and probably indefinitely if kept frozen. They taste better as they age!
Have you given this recipe a try, or do you have an idea of what could be improved? Leave us a comment below! We’d love to hear from you!
– Tart & Beard
Rum Balls
Ingredients
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips melted
- 1/2 cup almond paste
- 1 cup sour cream
- pinch salt
- 3 boxes vanilla wafers finely crushed
- 3 cup powdered sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 1/2 cups melted butter
- 2/3 cup cocoa unsweetened
- 1 1/2 cups rum or alcohol of your choice
- 2 cups pecans finely chopped
Coating
- powdered sugar
- cocoa
- cinnamon
Instructions
Rum Balls
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In small bowl, combine melted chocolate, sour cream, and salt. Mix until smooth.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine wafers and almond paste with all remaining dry ingredients. You want everything to be as evenly mixed as possible before moving on to the next step.
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Add chocolate mixture and your rum. Mix until everything is combined and your “dough” is smooth and soft. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, but preferably overnight.
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Roll the mixture into balls. We measured ours out to be around 20 grams each, which is approximately 2 tbsps, or roughly the size of a ping-pong ball. Place the balls on waxed paper and chill again until it’s time to coat them.
Tip: Depending on what sort of alcohol you’ve used (see note), your dough will get soft rather quickly while you’re rolling it into the balls. Feel free to roll it in smaller batches if needed.
Coating Them
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Mix up your coating(s). We did some with powdered sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, and some with a blend of cocoa and powdered sugar. Put your coating in a small bowl, add a ball, and roll it around in the powdered coating.
Recipe Notes
Depending on what sort of alcohol you’re using, your dough’s consistency can be thinner and more prone to softening if left at room temperature. Something creamy, like Rum Chata, will yield a firmer dough to roll.
This recipe will make about 5 lbs of rum balls. It’s insane. When stored in an airtight container and kept chilled, these little balls will last a long time. The Beard and I made these a week before Christmas, and we still have some in our fridge in the middle of January. I expect that their shelf-life, if frozen, could rival that of a Twinkie.
The flavor of these will get better as they mellow in your fridge or freezer. For best results, roll them into balls, chill them for a week, then roll them in the coating.
The Tart likes to eat, cook, and bake things. She eats to work out, and she works out to be able to eat.
