Okay, so I know that Christmas is over and I should have posted my recipes for Christmas cookies beforehand (trust me, I had plans to but...things got a bit busy) however, these are some of my favorites and I wanted to post the recipe. Plus, I think these could be cookies for other times of the year.
I was tempted to make them in October when I discovered nilla wafers in our co-op pantry but sadly ran out of time. They take some patience, I will say that, there's lots of rolling going on to make these, but they are really good. They even get better after a few days as the rum flavor sinks in, (ages?). I'm not sure, they're just better after sitting in a tin a few days.
As a side note, even though the rum is not baked out of these cookies, it's not possible for you to get drunk off of them, no matter how many you eat. My German friend tells me that a study was done where they tested whether or not it was possible to get drunk off of rum truffles, and they discovered it was impossible. Now that's a study I would have liked to have taken part of. I picture a man sitting there eating rum truffle after rum truffle, marking down after each one, whether or not he felt tipsy. But I digress. Christmas or not, you should make these cookies! Plus, crushing up the vanilla wafers in a gallon sized plastic bag and smashing them with a rolling pin, can be therapeutic if you need to relieve some tension. Or if you're boring, you can just crush them in a food processors like you would do with the walnuts.
Rum Balls (lightly adapted from a recipe by my mom's friend, Ileana)
Ingredients:
6 oz (1 cup) semi sweet chocolate pieces
1/2 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup Rum
3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
2 Cups finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 Cup finely ground walnuts
Extra Sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions:
1) Melt chocolate in a medium or large pot (since you'll end up adding all the ingredients to the pot) over low heat and remove.
2) Stir in sugar, rum, corn syrup
3) Fold in crushed vanilla wafers and nuts
4) Shape mixture into 1 in balls and roll in additional sugar and cocoa (If hard to shape, let set for a while in fridge)
Notes from Ileana:
1) Store in air tight container for several days, at least.
2) YUMMMMMM
6 oz (1 cup) semi sweet chocolate pieces
1/2 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup Rum
3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
2 Cups finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 Cup finely ground walnuts
Extra Sugar
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions:
1) Melt chocolate in a medium or large pot (since you'll end up adding all the ingredients to the pot) over low heat and remove.
2) Stir in sugar, rum, corn syrup
3) Fold in crushed vanilla wafers and nuts
4) Shape mixture into 1 in balls and roll in additional sugar and cocoa (If hard to shape, let set for a while in fridge)
Notes from Ileana:
1) Store in air tight container for several days, at least.
2) YUMMMMMM
