It must have been sometime when I was in middle school that a family acquaintance gifted us with a basket of homemade goodies during the holidays.
Most of the items were run-of-the-mill, well-done treats, but there was one none of us could identify initially. Upon further inspection, we discovered a sweet that none of us liked: the rum ball.
In our fabulous, pre-teen humor, my sister and I deemed these as “baby poop balls.” Of course, as an adult, I realize we (A) probably shouldn’t have been eating mildly alcoholic candies and (B) there has to be a better way to make this classic treat that doesn’t induce gagging.
So, with a gathering coming up, I decided it was time to find a recipe and redeem the “baby poop balls” once and for all.
The recipe I settled on comes from the website “Food.com.” You can find the original post at https://www.food.com/recipe/christmas-rum-balls-or-bourbon-balls-13214. I added vanilla to my version.
Rum or Bourbon Balls
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon cocoa
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar divided
- 11 ounces vanilla wafer cookies finely crushed
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts chopped
- 1/2 cup spiced rum or bourbon
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Process the wafers in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Pulse in the chopped nuts.
- In a small bowl, stir the rum or bourbon with the corn syrup until the corn syrup is totally incorporated.
- Add the alcohol mixture, along with the vanilla, to the processor and process until the mixture looks like wet sand.
- Finally, sift the cocoa and one cup of the powdered sugar into the processor and process until the mixture is well combined.
- (All of these steps can, alternatively, be done in a mixing bowl.)
- Once the mixture is done, place the rest of the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
- Roll the mixture into about one-inch balls, and then roll them in the sugar. Store the finished rum balls in an airtight container.
I liked these. I’m sure part of that is that I don’t mind the taste of a little spiced rum, and the texture in this particular recipe was very nice.
Rolling them into one-inch balls instead of the approximately three-inch behemoths I tried long, long ago also allowed the added vanilla, along with the powdered sugar on the outside, to help mellow the rum flavor a bit, which I appreciated. I’m interested to see what the bourbon version would taste like, too.
And, since these do contain some booze, I will caution that they should probably be for adult-only enjoyment, despite the fact that I think you’d have to eat quite a few of these before the rum had any effect on you.
With this recipe in the books, I feel like I have redeemed rum balls in my culinary memory, which also feels nice. Now I’ll just have to make another batch to convince the rest of the family that we can lay the “baby poop balls” to rest.
This piece first appeared in print Jan. 16, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
