Easy Bourbon Balls - chocolate gifts from the kitchen

Here I am...still working on making all my Christmas gifts. Chocolates are something you don't want to make toooo far in advance as they have a fridge life of about two weeks. So if you are beginning to attend parties and need those hostess gifts...this is the time to start. Here is one of the recipes I am making this afternoon. I'll share the other recipe on a future post.

These are old recipes half-written down and made and remade over the years so much so that I can't remember where I exactly got them. I do remember getting together with a couple of girlfriends years gone by though, and making these in mega amounts before Christmas....over good conversation and laughter. You might just want to have such a party...it was fun!

First..... Eat a HUGE salad of healthy stuff so that you will be tooooo stuffed to sample more than you should...sigh.

Bourbon Balls
(makes about 3 1/2 doz.)
(As I remember this 'out of my head' I thot I would consult a similar recipe to make sure the amounts were right to put down for you to try. This one is from 'The Best of Fine Cooking'-Vol. 23. The ingredients were basically the same as I use so I followed this one for this posting to make sure it turned out as I good as the one I usually make. Yep...spoon licking good!)

• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1/4 cup bourbon (I don't know a substitute if you want to go non-alcholic but I would welcome any suggestions so post your comments.)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2- 170 gram boxes of bittersweet (not semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped(about 2 1/2 cups)
• 2 cups toasted pecans
• 2 1/2 cups of pound cake in cubes (homemade or bought)
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup icing sugar

In a heavy saucepan bring the cream to a boil over medium heat. Remove and stir in the bourbon and the vanilla. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate all over the cream but do not stir. Let sit for 5 minutes or so. Meanwhile pulse the pecans in a food processor until they are coarsely chopped. Add the pound cake and pulse til finely ground. Stir the chocolate in the cream until smooth and creamy. Pour in food processor with crumbs and combine thoroughly. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate about an hour or until you can scoop into balls.

Sift the cocoa and icing sugar together into a medium to large bowl. Line a jelly pan baking sheet with wax paper. Scoop out a heaping tbsp (or if you prefer a one-bite truffle, use only a heaping tsp.) of the chocolate mixture and roll in hands to form a ball. Place the ball in the coating and roll around til all coated. Transfer to the wax paper lined sheet. Repeat until done. Sift the remaking coating over the balls to dust them. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Put in wax lined tins or tupperware containers in wax paper layers for up to two weeks. Give as gifts in beautiful foil mini cups or Christmas paper cups. Pack in pretty boxes or tins for hostess gifts or a gift to someone special.

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