Rum Ball Recipes

I was just thinking how tasty rum balls are! And how they kind of relate to the 'giving booze as gifts' thread.

Seeing as we, as a group, probably have the best and most varied collection of rums, there must be some fabulous recipes out there for rum balls! Or is that a horrible waste of a good thing?

Anyone?

Rebecca makes great rum balls with the El Paso Tiki Cookbook recipe. We like to make 'em with Sailor Jerry. (And a little splash of 151 Lemon Hart)

My husband is craaaaazy about rum balls! Please post your recipes, that would be great!

Ah HA!
Tiki Chris has been holding out!

I just found this recipe he posted in the 'Chum' thread. Not really rum balls, but they sure sound tasty!

Cherry Rum Balls (aka "Chum" Balls):

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup rum
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup confectioners' sugar
24 red candied cherries, halved

Melt the chocolate chips and stir in the rum and corn syrup.

Stir together the vanilla wafer crumbs, pecans and 1/2 cup of the
confectioners' sugar. Drizzle the chocolate mixture over the crumb mixture and stir until blended.

Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in the remaining confectioners' sugar. Place cherry half in center of each cookie, pressing down lightly. Store in an airtight container for several days to develop flavor.

Makes 48 cookies

Yummy Chummy!

Moderators can't moderate what I take out.

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2009-06-05 15:58 ]

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2009-06-05 15:58 ]

'tis the season for Rum Balls!!!
I always make a batch and take to work... makes the day "buzz" right on by.

I use the same recipe as Chip and Andy but instead of walnuts, I use a cup or two of toasted coconut. And like Martiki, Salior Jerry's rum is a nice addition. Mmmmm...
I better get to the kitchen!
Aloha,
:tiki:

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2009-06-05 15:58 ]

BOURBON BALLS

1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate bits
1/2 c. sugar
3 tbsp. light corn syrup (Karo white)
1/3 c. bourbon
2 1/2 c. (about 5 dozen) finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 c. finely chopped pecan nuts
Powdered sugar to roll balls in

Melt chocolate over hot water. Remove from hot water and stir in sugar and syrup. Blend in bourbon. Combine wafers and nuts and add to chocolate mixture; mix well.

Form 1-inch balls and roll in confectioners sugar. Let ripen in covered container at least several days. Makes about 4 1/2 dozen. Will keep 3-4 weeks in tightly covered container!

I like the idea of substituting the bourbon with other tastey liquors.  I remember making these as a kid with my Mon...they were always a big favorite with eveyone.  Thanks for posting this thread, I may make some for New Years.  :)

I made VampiressRN's Bourbon Balls recipe except that I substituted 1/4 cup each of Appleton Estates Rum and Saint James Hors D'Age rum for the Bourbon and used finely chopped walnuts instead of pecans. Holy cow!
I wonder if one could substitute part of the corn syrup with a dash of Orange Curacao and a dash of Orgeat(and omit the finely chopped walnuts nuts - or, better still, use finely chopped almonds?) to convert these to "Mai Tai" balls? Could one spritz the near-finished balls with fresh lime juice before rolling in the powdered sugar? Hmmmmm, I wonder . . .a light mint glaze . . . ?

Okole maluna!
I bet you feel more like you do now now than you did when you came in.
GH

[ Edited by: GentleHangman 2006-12-19 14:12 ]

On 2006-12-19 14:09, GentleHangman wrote:
I made VampiressRN's Bourbon Balls recipe except that I substituted 1/4 cup each of Appleton Estates Rum and Saint James Hors D'Age rum for the Bourbon and used finely chopped walnuts instead of pecans. Holy cow!
I wonder if one could substitute part of the corn syrup with a dash of Orange Curacao and a dash of Orgeat(and omit the finely chopped walnuts nuts - or, better still, use finely chopped almonds?) to convert these to "Mai Tai" balls? Could one spritz the near-finished balls with fresh lime juice before rolling in the powdered sugar? Hmmmmm, I wonder . . .

Having made a few batches of rum balls in the past week, I believe the corn syrup is necessary for texture and body, that I don't think you'll get if you substitute more fluid liquors. Also, I would think mixing very finely grated lime zest with the powdered sugar might be a better choice than spritzing the balls. If the balls are too wet when you roll them, the sugar will simply soak into the ball and not do a great job of keeping them separate from each other in the container.

If I were looking to make Mai Tai balls, I think I would simply replace a bit of the rum with the orange curacao and add about a 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract for the almond flavor. You can definitely switch out the walnuts for almonds.

I used ginger snaps (instead of Nilla Wafers) and almonds for my latest batch to make Ginger Almond Rum Balls. I'm still waiting for those to "ripen" to taste the final outcome, but so far so good.

{edited to add:} One other tip: I've found that if you let the rum ball batter sit in the fridge overnight covered, it is much easier to make into balls the next day using a melon baller. Sometimes the fresh batter is just too loose and gooey making it not only difficult, but very messy, to roll into balls.

[ Edited by: JenTiki 2006-12-19 14:33 ]

Thank you JenTiki! That was exactly the type of information/suggestion I was fishing for! I'm not a professional cook by any stretch of the imagination and I appreciate all the help I can get. I will be making a batch following your suggestions tonight (including refrigerating the batter) and I'll assemble them on Thursday. They should be just right by Sunday night/ Monday Morning!

Okole maluna!
I bet you feel more like you do now now than you did when you came in.
GH

[ Edited by: GentleHangman 2006-12-20 07:49 ]

Hey....great ideas. I will make some XXX balls this weekend, and may give a couple of those ideas a try. I agree about the corn syrup...it is for adhesion and consistency, and yes...keeping in the fridge overnight does help. :)

BUMP

'Tis the Season!

These rum ball recipes reminded me of something. I recently saw Trader Vic's macadamia nut liquer at the liquor store (Luke's Liquors Hynannis Mass), it comes in a nice glass decanter and it is around $20. Has anyone tried it? What cocktails can be made with this? I didnt buy it because I had no idea what I'd do with it. Apologies if this question is in the wrong forum.

Make mine a mai tai!

[ Edited by: TikiGoddess 2008-08-05 06:23 ]

I've seen that decanter, and it is nice lookin'! There are a few drink recipes that use macadamia nut liqueur. And you can always drizzle it over ice cream.

When I worked in the hotels, we would save any and all day old cakes and muffins in a big plastic bin (Lexan) in the freezer almost year round. Every week or so the pastry chef would "Hooch 'em" with all the little left over swallows of rum, brandy, and whatever else we had collected in a gallon jug from the banquet department. After a while the crumbs wouldn't freeze any more and maintained an odd squishy consistency. When the holidays rolled around he would make a big batch of syrup, nuts and chocolate and then dump in the accumulated crumbs and scraps. this was done in a 50 Quart mixer with a paddle attachment. We used lunch lady scoops to shape them and let them sit overnight in the cooler. This often produced over 1,000 quarter sized balls. The next day we rolled them in sugar and served them at the employee holiday party.

This same process could be scaled down at done at home.

I know the idea of randomly mixing whatever liquor is on hand sounds like it wouldn't work, but we never, ever had any of these left over. In fact these were usually the first thing to be run out.