Food From a Hungry Ghost

For the Liz’s birthday she asked for Bourbon Balls. I used this recipe from Garden and Gun as a base:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups crushed vanilla wafers (about 8 ounces)
• 1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate*, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup bourbon

*I used the chocolate I had on hand: 4 oz 60%, 2 oz 99%, and 2 oz Semi-sweet chocolate chips.

The scooper I used was probably a 1 oz scoop and it yielded almost 30 truffles. I chilled the mix for about 30 min in the fridge before scooping, then I froze them overnight before decorating.

To decorate, first: I rolled the truffles into more refined spheres. Then I made 4 toppings: 60% cacao chocolate shell with a pinch of maldon salt, gingersnap w/ crystallized ginger, toasted pecans, and turbinado with salt. Once decorated, I chilled the truffles/bourbon balls until the next morning when they were served as a gift.

I didn’t do the “traditional” coatings of either vanilla wafers or cocoa for simple reasons:

1) I was out of Nilla wafers. I barely had enough to make the recipe, and actually subbed in a few ginger snaps just to get the crumb mix up to weight. (I regret nothing).

2) I think these would be too bitter rolled in cocoa. At least, with the chocolate I used to make the balls already being so dark.