Bourbon Balls

Bourbon Balls are my first “no-bake” cookie! I love no-bake cookies, always asking for the recipe from friends, but I never actually made them. There always seems to be a no-bake cookie at a cookie exchange or for a dessert at a neighborhood get together. Now I know why…not only are they a crowd pleaser, they are easy to make!

Of course the Bourbon Balls recipe calls for bourbon.  After checking my pantry, I realized I had whiskey in my liquor stash, but no bourbon. I decided to run to the liquor store to pick up a bottle. For those that don’t know, there is a difference between whisky and bourbon. Simply where it’s made. It’s not true bourbon unless it’s made in Kentucky. At the liquor store, there were many Kentucky Bourbon’s on the shelf to choose from. It’s not cheap that’s for sure, but I was able to find a bottle under $20.

Bess’ Bourbon Balls recipe is pretty standard. I didn’t have to make any adjustments, but I did have to figure out how finely to chop up with vanilla wafers. I’ve never had a Bourbon Ball before, so I wasn’t exactly sure of the details, like how finely to chop the wafers.

I realized after I mixed the wafer crumbs with the nuts, that the recipe should say to “finely chop” the wafers. Not a huge deal, but the crumbs act as the flour and the finer the crumbs the better the dough came together and the easier the balls were to roll.

After rolling all the Bourbon Balls, I ended up with exactly 4 dozen balls, as the recipe says. Perfect! I’m rating this recipe 2-stars for the multiple steps. It’s not a hard recipe at all but chopping the wafers and nuts and rolling out the balls and then in powdered sugar add a bit more time.

After getting home from the liquor store, I pulled the rest of the ingredients together and got started chopping and mixing.

In this picture, you can see that I left the wafer crumbs are not finely chopped up.

The recipe doesn’t specify the type of nuts to use. I decided on pecans because I thought they would go best with the bourbon. Now that I’ve tried these cookies, I’m ready to make them again with walnuts. Just curious about the different flavors!

I mixed all the dry ingredients together. The cocoa and sugar coated the crumbs and nuts. This is when I realized the wafer crumbs were going to be too big to roll into 1-inch balls. From here I started crumbing the wafers more with my wooden spoon. When I was done, there were still a few bigger chunks, but there were enough finely chopped wafers to make these cookies work.

Next the bourbon, mixed with the light corn syrup!

Mixing the dry and wet ingredients together was easy! The dough came together nicely. You can still see some of the larger crumbs and nuts, but they didn’t affect rolling the balls.

I used about a teaspoon of the mixture to roll the 1-inch balls.

The balls were just moist enough that the powdered sugar attached to the balls easily.

Rolling the Bourbon Balls in the powdered sugar went fast!  It was great when I realized that once I was done with the rolling, I was done with the cookies! No baking!

I just put the Bourbon balls in a cookie tin and stuck them in the refrigerator. Easy peasy!  Of course, I have to try a couple first! ?

Cookies by Bess Bourbon Balls are a traditional cookie/candy that packs a powerful kick! What a perfect addition to any dessert table or tray! They are small and potent, perfect for after dinner with coffee or another glass of wine!

I hope you enjoy them!

XXOO,

Janet

 

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