Big Bad Boozy Balls (as good as they are naughty!)

So you survived the last minute school cookie exchange only to remember that you have an adults only holiday party tonight, and you just gave your last plate of cookies to the mailman!  Fear not!   I bring you more cookie salvation in yet another fast and easy, no-bake recipe but with the always helpful ingredient ALCOHOL!!!


There are plenty of boozy ball recipes flittering about in the world, but mine started out as a Rum Ball recipe from a family friend, Aunt Barb, who got it from her boss's wife.  Making rum balls was Barb's holiday tradition; she made A LOT of them, so she made sure she enlisted plenty of help.  The first year she recruited me, I was warned to show up early and with a full stomach.   I learned why very quickly.  By the time I arrived, a few batches were already on the counter, the bottle was more than halfway empty, and everyone was in a very, very good mood.  I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of day, (I recall there was a noticeable difference between the early made rum balls with a later-in-the-day ones), but I do remember laughing and having a lot of fun, and that's truly what's most important about holiday baking.

I don't know about you, but I always start my baking with a firm plan (I'm only making THIS, and THAT'S IT!).  But inevitably I'll get halfway through baking and suddenly think, "Wait, I don't have enough goodies to fill a plate...I need something else!" So now I have to make an additional trip to the grocery store, which means driving in traffic, finding a place to park, and standing in line; all of which takes up valuable baking time and leads to increased stress that I just don't need.

This recipe helps cut down on the chaos.  It's very easy and very versatile, which makes it really awesome because you can use up a lot of what you already have lying about from other recipes or from what you already have in your pantry.   Even if you don't have a box of vanilla wafers lying about, if you pulsate sandwich cookies (scrape the cream filling out first), chocolate chip cookies or even graham crackers it will still work...and then poof!  Now you have a whole new recipe to share with the group.  In fact, let me know about your different combinations.  I'd really be interested to hear what you try and what worked for you!  Just be sure that cookie/nut/syrup/liquid mixture bonds enough to stay in a ball and you're good to go.

A couple of notes:  

• Be sure you sift the sugar and cocoa!!!
• If you don't have a food processor, use the bag smash method and beat the wafers and nuts finely (sorry to any men reading that particular sentence).
• If you don't have pecans, you can use walnuts and vice versa.
• If you don't have dark rum, try vanilla rum, or coconut rum, or whatever rum you have on hand.  You can try vodka, but I recommend upping the corn syrup to 1 tsp since vodka is a grain based booze and doesn't have the natural sugars in it like rum does and you may need the added bonding component.
• You can use absolutely no nuts - just add additional vanilla wafers or even coconut bits (pulsated finely)
• For the powdered sugar dusting, you can either use just powdered sugar, or mix equal parts powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  You can also toss in a few more finely pulsated pecans, walnuts or coconut pieces.  You can even try sprinkles if you want a truly festive look!

Remember, the possibilities are limitless - so just have some fun with what's in your pantry!!  Which, apparently is now strewn about all over my countertop!

Big Bad Boozy Balls With Rum  (*base recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cup - powdered sugar (sifted), plus extra for dusting
1/2 cup - finely chopped vanilla wafers
2 tbsp - cocoa powder (sifted), plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp - light corn syrup
1 cup - finely chopped pecans
2 tbsp - Rum (dark rum, spiced rum, vanilla or a combination of all 3)
1 tbsp - water (if needed)

Directions:
Mix everything together in a bowl.

Using your hands, roll chunks of "dough" into balls about the diameter of a quarter.  The mixture will be sticky, but should pull away from your hand to form a ball.  If it's too mushy, stir in more more wafer bits.

Roll lightly through powdered sugar (shaking off extra).  Let sit.

Store in an airtight container.

Big Bad Boozy Balls with Irish Cream  (you're still relatively sober enough when you can say it 5 times quickly)

Ingredients:
1 cup - powdered sugar (sifted), plus extra for dusting
1/2 cup - finely chopped vanilla wafers
2 tbsp - cocoa powder (sifted), plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp - light corn syrup
1 cup - finely chopped walnuts
4 tbsp - Irish Cream liqueur

Directions:
Mix everything together in a bowl.

Using your hands, roll chunks of "dough" into balls about the diameter of a quarter
Roll lightly through powdered sugar (shaking off extra).  Let sit.
Store in an airtight container.


Adapted from Aunt Barb's recipe, originally from Harriet Cirzan.  

As always, take care imbibing any food or drink made with alcohol - get a ride, don't drink and drive.  Remember...someone is counting on you to be around next year to make these again!!  :)

Peanut Butter Haystacks Cookie (or...what do you mean you have to bring cookies to school TOMORROW??)

I'm going to preface this post by stating that I am not a parent; so I don't know first hand the panic that a parent feels when their child casually mentions at 8pm on a random Thursday evening that there's a huge cookie-share at school the next day and that they totally need to bring something awesome.  But I can imagine the feeling is something similar to dropping your keys right at the edge of the elevator door gap or watching your phone take a tumble out of your hands and fall in slow motion face-down towards the pavement.

If you have actually suffered through this conversation with your child, or have a young one and predict you will one day, then this recipe is (hopefully) for you, because it is simple, fast and only uses 4 ingredients.  YAY!!!

It is also a no-bake recipe.  DOUBLE YAY!!!  (but you do need to have room in your refrigerator for all these little guys....)

By the way, I said hopefully, because I know there is a lot of focus on food allergies these days, and since this has peanut butter in it, it may or may not be the salvation you're hoping for.  But it was either this or Aunt Barb's Rum Ball Recipe, but somehow I think the local school board would not enjoy the humor in that selection.

Anyway.  I can keep this post short and simple because the recipe is short and simple!  So here we go!

Peanut Butter Haystacks

Ingredients:
2 - 11 oz package of butterscotch flavored morsels
1 1/2- cup creamy peanut butter (approx 380g)
1 - 12oz bag chow mein noodles
1 - 10oz bag miniature marshmallows

Directions:
Clear out the top shelf of your refrigerator.
Line the bottom side of a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicon sheet and set aside.
Measure out your peanut butter.  SUPER COOL TIP:  if you have a food scale, place a piece of parchment paper on it and plop the peanut butter on it until you get to 380g.

I learned this trick at the South Bay School of Cooking when I learned how to make fondant and believe me, this is a much easier way to measure out messy peanut butter than using measuring cups.  😊

Fire up your double boiler - or, if you don't have an actual double boiler, fill a small saucepot with about an inch of water and let come to a simmer.

Place the butterscotch morsels in the top part of your double boiler - or, if using the sauce pot method, place the morsels in a large bowl that doesn't sink too far into the opening of the saucepot and place over top of the simmering water.

By the way, I just noticed the cute little note on the bag the last time I made these.  I love Nestle's.  So sweet and happy.

When the morsels start to melt, stir until creamy (do not let water come into the bowl).

I don't have a double-boiler, so I use the bowl and pot method

Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter.

Next, stir in the chow mein noodles and marshmallows.

Carefully stir everything until well blended.  Try to not destroy the chow mein noodles.  You want them to keep their shape to give these dudes their "haystack" look.

Using a couple of spoons, drop a well rounded tablespoon onto your prepared sheets.  These don't bake or spread, so you can put them as closely together as you'd like.

Continue making piles of "haystacks" until you run out of dough.

Refrigerate until firm.

By the way, the reason I have you put the parchment paper on the flip side of the cookie sheet - you can line it up with your refrigerator shelf and easily slide the paper onto the shelf at the same level and then keep using the same pan.  If you put the parchment paper inside the cookie sheet, you have to maneuver around the lip of the pan and it can be a bit more difficult.  But it's truly a matter of preference

Peel off parchment paper and store in airtight container in 'fridge.

And that's it!  Assuming a grocery run takes 30 minutes, and since it should only take you about 30-45 minutes to crank these out, you could still be in bed just in time for the 11 o'clock newscast.  Kids have cookies... and you still get 3-5 hours of sleep.

Oh...and stay tuned.  Aunt Barb's Rum Ball Recipe is coming up next.

You didn't think I'd let you suffer through the holidays without a little hooch, now did you? 😉

Enjoy and happy non-baking!!


Adapted from a recipe by Nestle; you can find the original HERE