“BOOZE BALLS”

These are actually chocolate truffles but when Diane, my aesthetician, asked me for the recipe she appropriately named them booze balls – I love it!  There are a couple of great things about these – one is that they are extremely easy and two is that you can change them up with different kinds of booze and/or coatings.  Absolutely anyone can do these and look like a professional confectioner.  The chocolate ganache inner part is the same, then choose a flavor, add in the booze or choose a nut butter or coconut, and then pick a coating.  My first ventures were vanilla and kahlua coated with pistachio nuts and vanilla and coconut rum coated with toasted coconut.  I will list possible choices below, but as long as you follow the basic recipe you will be great.  Have fun trying different combinations.  I made these again for Valentine's Day and added them to a tray of dark chocolate dipped strawberries and white chocolate dipped pretzels (and finally remembered to take a picture!)  The balls in the middle are the truffles, and they were all the khalua version with some dipped in ground pistachios, some in toasted coconut, and some in ground chocolate goldfish crumbs -- Yum!

GANACHE:

12 oz. good-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli – 8 oz. semisweet and 4 oz. bittersweet)

1 c. heavy cream
1 TB butter
Pinch of salt

Chop the chocolate and put in a heatproof bowl.  Bring the cream, butter and salt to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat; pour over the chocolate and let sit until completely melted, about 10 minutes.  Stir with a rubber spatula or whisk until smooth.

FLAVORS:

Whisk in 1 t. vanilla extract or ½ t. vanilla and ½ t. of one of the following extracts:

Almond

Orange
Cinnamon
Mint
Raspberry
Cherry

MIX-INS (OPTIONAL)

Stir in up to ¼ c.  (Choose only one)

Brewed espresso

Strong brewed tea
Liquor or liqueur ( brandy, bourbon, rum, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, etc.)
Peanut, almond or hazelnut butter
Shredded coconut

Stir until smooth and shiny, then pour into a shallow baking dish and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.

COATING:

Crushed cookies (amaretti, biscotti, Oreos, chocolate wafer cookies, etc.)

Chopped toasted nuts (pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans)
Sweetened cocoa powder
Shredded or toasted coconut
Crushed nut brittle
Crushed toffee bars

Roll tablespoonfuls of the ganache into balls using a small cookie scoop like the old-timey ice cream scoop that scoops out the cookie itself (I will see if I can find out the proper name for it and update this later – this is just easier to use because it makes a ball – I have two sizes of these scoops and I use the smaller one which makes about a 1” ball.) Finish making it into a ball using your hands and roll in any of the above ingredients.  Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.  (To make these in advance, roll into balls but do not coat; cover and freeze up to 2 weeks.  Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before uncovering and then roll in coating.)