Rum Balls 3 Ways: Rum & Raisin, Mango & Coconut, Double Chocolate

I have said this before, but I think that the marriage of sweets and alcohol is a wonderful thing.
Any opportunity to combine two vices seems like a recipe for fun… and in the grand scheme of things, adding rum to a little dessert ball isn’t all that evil. (Eating 35 out of the 40 balls might be bad, but even still- you won’t get drunk off these with only 2 ounces of rum in the whole batch. Sorry to disappoint you, if a rum ball buzz was what you were after.)

Take your pick of the three variations below… or do what I do- make all three and then figure out what to do with them. (Won’t be a tough problem to solve.)

1 1/4 cups finely chopped & toasted pecans (or other nut of your choice)

1 1/4 cups finely crushed vanilla wafer cookies (or ladyfingers or Classic Shortbread Cookies)

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder (Dutch processed or regular unsweetened)

1/4 cup rum

2 tablespoons light corn syrup (or honey)

RUM & RAISIN VERSION:

3/4 cup raisins (dark or golden)

1/4 cup rum

MANGO & COCONUT VERSION:

3/4 cup chopped dried mango

1 cup shredded or AngelFlake coconut

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE VERSION:

4 ounces chopped chocolate (bittersweet, semi-sweet or dark)

1 teaspoon butter

1 1/2 ounces chopped white chocolate
1. Toast the nuts in a large frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. (Nuts should be lightly browned and will start to smell like they are toasting.) Allow to cool in a large bowl, and either chop on your own into very small pieces, or pulse in a food processor. Return to the bowl.
2. Process the cookies in a food processor into fine crumbs, and then add to nut mixture. Stir in sugar and cocoa powder until combined, and then stir in rum and corn syrup. Add extra rum if necessary to combine ingredients.
3. RUM & RAISIN VERSION: soak raisins in extra 1/4 cup of rum for at least 10 minutes, then stir into mixture at end of step 2. Chill mixture before scooping into balls about the size of an inch (about a tablespoon); roll in your choice of cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, or finely chopped nuts. MANGO & COCONUT VERSION: stir chopped mangos and 1/4 cup of coconut into mixture at end of step 2 (adding more rum to loosen texture of mix if necessary). Chill mixture before scooping into balls about the size of an inch (about a tablespoon); roll in remaining coconut to coat- press to adhere to balls. DOUBLE CHOCOLATE: make as above in steps 1 & 2, and chill mixture before scooping into balls about the size of an inch (about a tablespoon). Melt chocolate with butter in a microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval. Dip balls into melted chocolate (using two forks to cradle the rum balls) and allow excess chocolate to drip off before placing on a parchment or wax paper-lined baking sheet. Allow to cool, and then drizzle with melted white chocolate.
Tips:
- Want more coconut flavor in the Mango & Coconut version? You could substitute toasted coconut for the pecans in the main mixture. You might choose to skip the cocoa powder as well, if you’d like a lighter look and taste. Rum twist: try Malibu rum (with coconut flavor already seeped into the rum) instead of the regular rum in this recipe. Yowsa!
- Drizzling the white chocolate on the Double Chocolate version will be infinitely easier if you pour the slightly cooled melted chocolate into a small sandwich or ziploc bag… cut the tiniest bit of a corner off and squeeze the chocolate through the tiny tip. Smart.
- Creative toppings: by all means, make the basic version of the rum balls and simply roll them in the toppings of your choice to add more variety. Roll the chilled balls in cinnamon sugar, tiny toffee bits (Heath makes yummy chopped up bits), finely chopped pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts. You could even drizzle melted caramel over plain rum balls- I might do that one next time.
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March 17th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | 2 Comments | Tags: Booze, Chocolate, Coconut, Fruit, Nuts

2 Responses and Counting...

Jon 03.17.2012

Wow Jodi!!!! You are getting so creative! You seriously have an amazing talent and need to do something!!
Kayln Mortimer

On my own opinion, I think those rum balls 3 ways rum-raisin, mango-coconut and double chocolate are really tantalizing. I know that many people are interested to try and have a taste of it. I am also very interested to know how to make it sometime.