Bourbon Balls

These Bourbon Balls are easy to make and a perfect one-bite dessert for parties! Bourbon balls are also an easy and tasty homemade gift!

We’ve got some great ideas here for homemade holiday gift giving! Try our Bacon Bourbon Brittle and these classic Rum Balls that have become one of our holiday family traditions!

Bourbon Balls on a black platter

Bourbon Ball Recipe For Parties & Holidays

Bourbon Balls are so easy to make, and can be made even a day or two ahead of time! Therefore, these little boozy balls of chocolate are really the perfect party dessert, if you ask me.

Everyone loves these things, I’m telling you, even the older ones in your family. Because, honestly, bourbon balls or rum balls have been around since Julia Child time, we haven’t invented anything new here. Just keeping the old traditions alive!

You can customize this dessert recipe with any color sprinkles that you like, or make them a festive dessert for any holiday. Other options for coating these bourbon balls are finely chopped nuts or coconut!

Chocolate bourbon balls in powdered sugar

How to Make Bourbon Balls

This is one of the easiest dessert recipes that you’re going to make, which besides their flavor is another reason why I love them so much. All you need to do is crush a box of vanilla wafers, into a bread like consistency, and stir them into melted chocolate, bourbon and powdered sugar.

I use a scooper to portion out the balls instead of my hands to make this process a little less messy, but your hands will work just fine too. Spray your hands with non-stick cooking spray before you roll!

Bourbon Ball recipe for parties and holidays

After you get your bourbon ball shaped, dip it into sprinkles or powdered sugar and place into these mini cupcake liners. The cupcake liners are optional but they do make for a nice presentation! There’s all sorts of colors and patterns of those mini cupcake liners so you can really get festive for your party or holiday!

What Kind Of Bourbon Should I Use?

Honestly, we use what we drink. Don’t run out and get a bottom shelf bourbon to make these bourbon balls because I have to warm you, there’s 1/2 cup of bourbon in this recipe so you’re going to taste it.

If you use a low quality bourbon you’re going to end up with not so great tasting bourbon balls. Not to say you have to grab your expensive, top shelf sipping bourbon either, just something in between.

Bourbon dessert recipe for parties and holidays

Looking For More Holiday Dessert Recipes?

Whether it’s for the holidays, a birthday or just a Sunday dinner, we’ve got the perfect dessert for you! There’s so many to choose from here but I’ll here a few of our favorites!

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Bourbon dessert recipe for parties and holidays

Bourbon Balls

  • Author: Dan
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 30 1x

These Bourbon Balls are easy to make and a perfect one-bite dessert for parties. Full of chocolate and bourbon flavor, they’re pretty hard to resist!

Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semi-sweet, dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup good quality bourbon or whiskey
  • 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 box vanilla wafers (11 ounces), crushed into small crumbs
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped fine
  • Sprinkles and/or powdered sugar for decorating the balls

Instructions

  1. Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. Keep heating until the chocolate is completely smooth.
  2. Pour the corn syrup, bourbon and vanilla extract into the chocolate and stir to combine.
  3. Slowly add the powdered sugar, stirring until all the sugar is combined with the chocolate sauce. Add the crushed vanilla wafers and the chopped pecans and stir.
  4. Using a 1 1/2 tablespoon scooper (a little smaller than a golf ball), make balls and roll into either sprinkles or powdered sugar.
  5. Repeat with the remaining chocolate mixture until you have about 30 bourbon balls. Chill for at least an hour before serving.

Recipe Notes

Makes about 30 bourbon balls. To crush the vanilla wafers, add the cookies to a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush the cookies. Alternately, you can pulse them in a food processor.

These rum balls will keep in an airtight container for about a week in the refrigerator.

  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: No Bake
  • Cuisine: American

 

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