Recipes / Family Christmas Recipes
Mother’s Christmas tradition · Printable
Family Bourbon Balls
Ingredients
- 2 cups vanilla wafers, crushed
- 2 cups pecans, chopped
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa
- ½ cup bourbon
- ¼ cup corn syrup
- Additional sugar for rolling (amount not specified)
Notebook directions
- Mix crushed wafers, pecans, sugar and cocoa.
- Stir in bourbon and corn syrup.
- Shape into balls and roll in sugar.
- Refrigerate for one week, then serve.
Family tradition and variations
The author’s mother made these every Christmas, often with the entire family helping. Although the notebook calls them bourbon balls, the family substituted whatever alcohol was available, including wine, whiskey, bourbon and Scotch. The other ingredients stayed the same.
One year the author and her mother were making a batch with wine while grandchildren, including Felicia and possibly Crystal, Chrissy and Billy, helped around the table. Felicia, about four years old, repeatedly tasted the mixture despite being told not to. By the end she was rocking back and forth and soon fell asleep after being put down to rest. The family remembers the incident as a striking story from holiday baking.
Important: These are uncooked alcoholic confections; refrigeration does not remove the alcohol. The mixture should be kept away from children, and any child showing signs of alcohol intoxication needs immediate medical advice.