20 Days of Christmas Cookies - Day 11

Recipe for Rum Balls

Viola, the marvelous rum ball recipe was born!  Do you ever wonder where a cookie comes from? Research led me to an original recipe for Rum Balls that was unexpected. These no-bake liquor balls that are SO popular at Christmas originated in Denmark as Romkugler*. You see the bakers always had leftover baked goods at the end of the day. Rather than throwing them away, they would take the leftovers they had, cake, cookies, bread, or pastry, and would grind them up, add to it some jam, cocoa powder, and rum. They would form the cookie into a ball and roll it in coconut or chocolate sprinkles. This new confection could be sold at a low price and was extremely popular. Waste not, want not! One word of caution, because these no-bake rum balls are made with alcohol, and are not baked, the alcohol content remains in the cookie.  Typically adding heat to a recipe with alcohol in it will bake off the alcohol but keep the flavor of the spirits.

This No-Bake Chocolate Liquor Ball recipe has been handed down in my husband’s family and is treasured by all the kids. I am going to give you the recipe as is, but as with most recipes I have, there are changes that I make to make it my own. You could change the corn syrup for any jam you have on hand. Rather than using vanilla wafer cookies, you could use cake scraps, or other cookie crumbs, like the danish did. I also HIGHLY recommend using good quality cacao powder especially since the flavor of the cacao will be highlighted, and against my husband’s better judgment, use a good quality liquor like rum, bourbon, or brandy. 

Oh my goodness, imagine using almonds, Amaretto, and raspberry preserves instead of walnuts, rum, and corn syrup !!! Sorry Sturgy, I just had to!

*https://nordicfoodliving.com/danish-rum-balls-romkugler/ 

Ingredients

2 cups of finely crushed vanilla cookie wafers (1- 12 oz box)

1 ½ cups chopped nuts (they use chopped walnuts, you can use your favorite)

2 cups of powdered sugar

4 TBSP good quality cacao powder

3 TBSP light corn syrup

½ cup of rum, or your favorite liquor

 Directions

1. In a large bowl mix by hand, the crushed cookie wafers, nuts, powdered sugar, and cacao until well blended.

2. Add the corn syrup and liquor and mix well.

3. The mixture will be thick and sticky, refrigerate for an hour or more until it stiffens. If the dough is still too sticky, you lush, you added too much liquor and will need to add cacao powder and crushed cookies.

4. Using your greased medium-sized cookie scoop, scoop the cookies onto an 11x15 inch cookie/jelly roll pan.

5. Roll each cookie to smooth the out.

6. Roll each ball in powdered sugar so the cookies don’t stick together.

7. Traditionally they rolled them in coconut or chocolate jimmies, you could too.

8. Let the cookies set and enjoy.