Easy Bourbon Balls Recipes
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This is an authentic Kentucky Bourbon Balls recipe. They are rich, smooth, decadent, and delicious! It’s a Southern delicacy of a sweet boozy confection of sugar, pecans, and bourbon.
The smooth, earthy flavor of bourbon pairs perfectly with the luxurious chocolate, creating a decadent treat.
A bourbon ball is a Southern delicacy, invented by Ruth Hanly Booe of Rebecca Ruth Candy in 1938. Bourbon balls are bite-sized confections incorporating bourbon and dark chocolate as an ingredient.
Bourbon Balls
We recently took a trip to Kentucky and did the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. I wasn’t a fan of bourbon until this trip. After learning the process and testing all the different bourbon formulas, I quickly became a fan. Although I prefer Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark over the others, every tour offered a unique and interesting experience.
Can eating bourbon balls make you drunk?
While these boozy truffles certainly contain enough alcohol to taste that it’s there, the likelihood of getting drunk off of them is very minimal. Only 3 tablespoons of bourbon is used, which is then dispersed among other ingredients and then divided into 36 different candies.
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Bourbon truffles are the perfect way to tantalize your taste buds with a burst of sweet and indulgent flavors. With the right ingredients and a little bit of time, you can make quality truffles worthy to be served in a five-star restaurant.
If you are looking for a special way to reward yourself or your friends and family, give bourbon truffles a try. After all, what better way to kick off a night of celebration than with a mouth-watering sweet treat!
Every tour allowed you to taste test their product at the end of the tour and most offered their version of Bourbon Balls. I really became a fan of these sugary treats!!
Try my Woodford Reserve Bourbon Cake with Caramel Glaze
You may also like my Martha Washington Candy, Peppermint Bark, Oreo Cookie Balls, and Buckeye Balls.
Bourbon Balls
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Ingredients
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
- 3 Tablespoons Woodford Reserve bourbon
- ¼ cup butter softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar (aka confectioners) sift and measure carefully
- 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate Wilton candy melts work best for this
- Optional toppings – pecan halves chopped pecans, walnuts or almonds, cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, sea salt
Instructions
- Mix pecans and bourbon in a bowl and allow to soak for an hour.
- Cream (or mix) butter and sugar together in an electric mixer until smooth
- Then add pecans and bourbon to the butter and sugar mixer.
- Chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Refrigerate 2 hours.
- Melt chocolate in the microwave in 30-second intervals until melted, stirring after each interval. Using a fork to hold the bourbon ball, dip each ball in chocolate covering completely. Hold ball over chocolate a few seconds to allow excess to drip off. Place back on waxed paper to cool completely. *If you choose to top with a pecan half, nuts, or salt immediately press on top of the ball before chocolate cools and hardens.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
I would like to try one or a couple flavors. Thank you for the recipes. 💜
Question about the powdered sugar. Recipe says “3 cups powdered sugar- sift and measure carefully”. Is it 3 cups and then sifted, or is it 3 sifted cups? Thanks! Can’t wait to make this!
Sift then measure
The amounts I use are 1/2 c butter, 3 1/2 c powdered sugar, 1 c pecans and 1/4 c bourbon. The butter and powdered sugar should be more of a crumbly mixture. But once you add the bourbon soaked pecans it will become the creamy mixture you are looking for.
I read through comments and I’m thoroughly confused. Cream is mentioned for adding it to the chocolate, but it’s not listed as an ingredient. Also, multiple people state they had to add more butter. Is the 1/4 cup listed the correct amount?
1/4 cup butter is correct. #2 instruction ‘cream’ = mix Cream as in ‘cream the ingredients together’
oh my goodness, sorry about that! The cream melts in with the chocolate to
make it coat the balls better. Add cream and chocolate together and melt in microwave. Going to correct that in the recipe right now. Thanks for pointing out my error! ~ Paula
(This is what I was referring to for the cream)
That was for the chocolate coating on the out before I started using Wilton candy melts that don’t need the cream.
These sound delicious. I have a nut allergy, any suggestions for a substitute?
You can omit them. You’ll probably need more powdered sugar.
Originally used 1/4 cup butter with the 3 cups of powdered sugar and it never “creamed ” so I increased the butter to a full stick and it still did not “cream”. I finally gave up on waiting for it to cream and added the soaked pecans and then it creamed beautifully. It seems that it just needed that extra liquid from the pecans and bourbon. These are delicious and a big hit with my family.
I have made this many times, but wondering about adding orange flavor and Coloring instead of the bourbon. Have you or anyone else tried this? Appreciate any and all comments. Thanks!
Yes, you can add orange zest and orange extract, replace the bourbon with a little orange juice. They’ll be great!
How many does this make?
I got 36. You can adjust the servings in the recipe box if you need more or less.
What a yummy treat! A perfect sweet for a grown up get together.
Will definitely have a prominent place on my holiday dessert table! Absolutely addicting! So good!