We've been seeing bourbon balls for sale all over the place since we got to Kentucky but why just buy some when there's an opportunity to make a mess on my own.
Chris kindly got a recipe from one of his co-workers. Here in Kentucky, it seems these recipes are guarded as family treasures.
We were really impressed with the results. I have some photos and at the end I'll include the whole recipe as well as my suggestions (of course). You'll want to make some of these bad boys for yourself. Because nothing makes the holidays more tolerable than sugar and booze.
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| Step one. Soak 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 cup of bourbon over night. I covered and kept in the fridge. |
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| Under that pile of powdered sugar (2 lbs which equals about 7 cups) is a stick of melted butter. |
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| Combine the pecan/bourbon combo with the butter/powdered sugar mountain. Plus a tsp of vanilla and pinch of salt. |
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| Roll into balls. This is the first batch I made and it was too wet to roll so I put these little spoonfuls in the fridge and then rolled them into balls after they hardened up a bit. On the second batch, I put the whole bowl in the fridge until it was firm enough to roll. The step you don't see is dipping in chocolate. More about that in the recipe, but it took some trial and error to get that right and taking pictures would not have added to the success of the mission. |
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| Finished product. All we have left now are photos and memories, but these were really good. A couple notes. I made two batches, one with pecans and one with pretzels instead for those who are nut-adverse. I couldn't really taste a difference, but some might.
Bourbon Balls plus my suggestions and variations
Original Recipe
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup bourbon
1 stick butter (½ cup) , melted
2 lbs powdered sugar (about 7 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Chocolate chips/chunks for melting I used a very dark chocolate because the rest is so sweet. You’ll need one bag, maybe more.
Cookie sheets, parchment or waxed paper
Yield---40+ balls depending on how large you make them
Step one:
Soak pecans in bourbon over night. I covered the bowl w/foil, not sure if that’s necessary or not.
Step two:
Make sure you have plenty of room in your refrigerator because these take up a lot of space. Or freezer.
Step three:
Melt butter and mix with powdered sugar and the bourbon/pecan combo. Add the vanilla and salt.
Line some cookie sheets with parchment/waxed paper. If the mixture is not too runny, roll into balls and put in the fridge for several hours or overnight. If it’s too runny to roll, put it in the fridge for a while until it stiffens up, make balls and put in fridge.
Step four;
Once they have firmed up you’re ready for dipping. I found that the best method was to put the chocolate into a small to medium heat proof bowl inside my crockpot. It took 30 mins or less for it to be the right consistency and stayed that way throughout.
I learned the hard way that you need to do just a few at a time and then get them back into the fridge fast after dipping in the chocolate. If they sit too long, the balls melt and you end up with things that look like chocolate covered half dollars. With Chris helping me, we did about 5 at a time, taking them from the freezer in small batches, dipping and then put them in the fridge.
If you want to be fancy, you can put a pecan half or a few chopped pecans on top before putting in the fridge. Or sprinkles or whatever.
Once the chocolate has set, store in airtight containers or zip loc bags in the fridge or freezer.
Non-nut variation
Substitute crushed pretzels for the pecans. Do NOT soak over night because that seems like it would just make paste. So just mix everything together w/the pretzels and go from there.
Note: These are very sweet. I think the next time I make them, I’ll increase the nut/pretzel combo by a cup and cut back on the powdered sugar by a cup. You could also use crushed vanilla wafers or graham crackers, but even that might be too sweet. In my opinion, you just need something as an additional binder that works well with the powdered sugar.
Enjoy! |
