The other day, this lifelong Yankee decided to try her hand at a Southern delicacy: bourbon balls. Just hearing the name, I was intrigued. So when the invite came to attend my friend Ranald’s birthday party, I knew I had found the occasion. Ranald revels in all sorts of cuisine, especially that of his Southern roots. I found this recipe at About.com and it seemed so easy, it was practically sinful. Basically you mix crushed vanilla wafer cookies with pecans, cocoa, confectioner’s sugar, a touch of bourbon and some corn syrup. Chill for a couple hours then roll into balls, and roll in more sugar. The dough reminded me of cookie dough pie crust — very dense and sweet. The bourbon gives it a hint of playfulness. My only complaint with the recipe is that it says it yields three dozen — and I barely eeked out 24. Perhaps my balls were too big? Nonetheless, they were a big hit with Ranald and a few other Southern foodies. Click here for the recipe. — Angela M.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 6:17 am and is filed under cooking, holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.