Email to Cat      

Christmas: Hot-Spiced Bourbon Balls

Source of Recipe


From "The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook"



List of Ingredients



• 1¼ cups sifted confectioners' sugar
  
• 2 Tbsp natural or Dutch-process cocoa powder
  
• ½ tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
  
• ¼ tsp ground mace
  
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  
• ½ tsp salt
  
• ¼ cup bourbon
  
• 2 Tbsp sorghum syrup, cane syrup, molasses or honey
  
• 10 ounces vanilla wafers (about 60)
  
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
  






Instructions



1. In a large bowl, sift 1 cup confectioners' sugar and the cocoa, cayenne, mace, cinnamon and salt together. In a small bowl, whisk the bourbon and sorghum syrup until well blended. Stir the bourbon syrup into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the mixture is a dark, glossy paste.
   
   
2. In a food processor, pulse the vanilla wafers to fine crumbs, about 10 five-second pulses. Mix the crumbs with the pecans. Stir the cookie-and-pecan mixture into the cocoa mixture until it becomes consistently doughy and workable, about 2 minutes.
   
   
3. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls between your palms. Roll each ball in the remaining ¼ cup of confectioners' sugar, and place on a sheet of waxed paper. Refrigerate in a container with a tight fitting lid, with a sheet of waxed paper between each layer of bourbon balls, not more than 4 days.
   
   Makes about 30 (1-inch) balls,
   enough for 12 to 16 people.