Booze-Laced Balls

Makes 5 dozen

Active time: 30 minutes

Start to finish: 41/2 hours, including 4 hours to chill

VARIATIONS

Use rum instead of bourbon.

Use Frangelico instead of bourbon; hazelnuts rather than pecans. These can be made with or without the cocoa.

Use Grand Marnier instead of bourbon, omit the cocoa, and add 1 tablespoon grated orange zest.

Add 1 cup finely chopped bittersweet chocolate or miniature chocolate chips.

Roll balls in additional finely chopped nuts instead of confectioners’ sugar.

Use ginger snaps or crushed chocolate cookies instead of vanilla wafers.

Omit the cocoa, use rum and add 3/4 cup toasted coconut.

Add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or apple pie spice.

Add 3/4 cup finely chopped raisins or other dried fruit.

These unbaked balls, popular at the holiday season for generations, are made from crushed cookies and have some sort of spirit or liqueur added to them.

1 cup pecan halves

11/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, divided

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup bourbon

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

21/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place pecans on a baking sheet, and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove the pan from the oven, and finely chop nuts in a food processor using on-and-off pulsing, or by hand. Set aside.

2. Sift 1 cup sugar and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl, and whisk in bourbon and corn syrup. Stir in cookie crumbs and chopped nuts, and mix well. Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes.

3. Sift remaining sugar into a low bowl. Make mixture into 1-inch balls, and roll balls in the sugar to coat evenly. Refrigerate balls for a minimum of 4 hours.

Note: The balls can be stored refrigerated up to 2 weeks. Place them in an airtight container with sheets of plastic wrap in between the layers.

Legend has it that bourbon balls were first made before World War II in Kentucky, where, of course, bourbon was used. The “inventor” of mixing candy with bourbon was Ruth Hanly Booe, who, along with other former teacher Rebecca Gooch, began a candy company in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1919.