Coconut Rum Balls

Until today I'd never made rum balls, but they turned out so well that I have to share! I made this recipe from Allrecipes and all I changed was that I used coconut rum (because it's delicious) and rolled them in a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder (because I'm not wild about the flavor of powdered sugar on its own). The recipe says to let them sit for a week before serving and they're already very good so I'm quite curious about how they'll be 7 days from now! In any case, I think these will become an annual tradition. Hopefully my husband's coworkers will like them too because I plan to send them these along with Oreo truffles and peanut butter truffles, which I plan to make tomorrow.

Okay, should I do it? It's a little embarrassing, but I DID announce this when I started to prepare the recipe, so... Let's get ready to rum ballllll!


Coconut Rum Balls

12 oz box Nilla Wafers (I used the store brand)
1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C coconut rum
3 T corn syrup
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 T cocoa powder

Pulverize the Nilla Wafers in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. A 12 oz box should yield 2 1/2 cups of crumbs. Place the crumbs in a large mixing bowl. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, microwave 30 seconds more and stir, then repeatedly microwave 15 seconds and stir until chips are melted. Be careful not to cook the chocolate too long or it will seize up and be unusable!

When the chips have melted, stir in the sugar, coconut rum and corn syrup until well combined. Stir into the cookie crumbs. Let the mixture sit at room temperature until it's pretty much solidified. You can stick it in the fridge to help along the process. When it's ready, the mixture should be quite stiff but easy to roll into balls slightly smaller than golf balls.

Combine the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, then roll the balls in the mixture. Brush off the excess sugar. Store in a covered container. You can start eating them immediately but the flavors meld more over time.

Yield: about 30 balls.