From Patti Reynolds
Bourbon Balls
30 minutes | Yields 2-3 Dozen
This recipe came from a friend’s mother who made them for years before sharing. Now, my neighbor requests these every Christmas and again when Alabama plays for the National Championship.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 box vanilla wafers finely crushed by hand or ground in a food processor
- 1½ tablespoons cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Unsweetened)
- 1 cup powdered sugar, divided ½ in balls
- 1 cup pecans, ground (sometimes you can find Fisher Finely Chopped Toasted Pecans at the store, these are perfect)
- 3 tablespoons light karo syrup
- ½ cup bourbon (I use Woodford)
- and/or maraschino cherries for garnish
How To Make It:
- Mix all ingredients
- Roll into walnut-sized balls
- Roll in the remaining ½ cup powdered sugar. Enjoy!
Variation for Chocolate Lovers:
- Replace the cocoa powder with 1/3 cup Dutch Process Cocoa in the ball mixture
- Make into balls then roll in a mixture of ½ cup powdered sugar and ¼ cup Dutch Process Cocoa
Variation for Bourbon Lovers:
- Increase the bourbon to ¾ cup for a more pronounced bourbon flavor
Enjoy!
Nut Cookie Rolls
45 minutes | Yields 5-6 Dozen
This recipe came from a dear family friend of my Mother’s and has been used for nearly 50 years.
For the Crust:
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 and 1/3 cups 2% or whole milk
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup Fleishman’s Rapid Rise Yeast
- 1lb. Crisco
- 5-7 cups all purpose flour to consistency of pie dough. This is affected by temperature and humidity
For the Filling:
- 1½ pounds of finely ground pecans – Fisher’s Finely Ground Toasted Pecans are perfect. If grinding your own, it is worth the extra step to toast the pecans in the oven prior to grinding for the filling
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup milk – may need a little more to make “paste consistency”
How to Make It:
- Combine the crust ingredients in mixer with dough hook attachment or knead by hand
- Split dough into 3-4 hunks
- Let the dough rest in refrigerator while you prepare the filling
- Combine the filling ingredients
- Split the filling into 3-4 amounts to match the number of dough hunks
- Roll out as you do pie dough but roll on sugar (not flour) until a square the thickness of pie dough
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Cut sheet into 2 x 2 inch squares
- Place rounded teaspoon of nut mixture into the center of each square
- Fold up two opposite corners to overlap in the center. Press to seal.
- Place on greased cookie sheet or Silpat
- Sprinkle with sugar
- Bake 15 min or till golden brown
Variation:
- Use some of the dough to roll out into rectangle the thickness of pie dough
- Spread a section of the filling on the rectangle to ½” from edge of narrow sides
- Starting with the narrow side farthest from you, roll into log
- Let this chill while you make the other logs or cookies
- Slice the log into 3/8” pinwheels
- Place on greased cookie sheet or Silpat
- Sprinkle with sugar
- Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown
Enjoy!
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