These Oreo Bourbon Balls Win The Derby Day Dessert Race

I started going down the Bourbon Ball rabbit hole many years ago.

Bourbon Balls are a big deal in Kentucky. And since this weekend is the Kentucky Derby, I felt it was a good time to bring out the Bourbon Balls.

When I travel to Kentucky, and visit distilleries, I buy Bourbon Balls from the gift shops. They are generally very sweet, bourbon-soaked confections with chopped pecans covered with dark chocolate. Some of them are decorated with a pecan half, and some are unadorned.

Most people agree that the original Bourbon Ball was created by Ruth Hanley Booe. A Kentucky school teacher, she joined forces with Rebecca Gooch, another substitute teacher, to create chocolate candy and sell it forming Rebecca Ruth Candy in 1919. Nineteen years later in 1938, Ruth invented the Bourbon Ball.

The original Bourbon Ball had a creamy white center filled with Evan Williams 100 proof bourbon and was covered with dark chocolate and topped with a pecan half. You can still buy Rebecca Ruth Chocolates today from the 104 year-old family-owned Frankfort, KY, business.

Looking for my perfect Bourbon Ball, I tried making them myself using several different recipes. If you look online and in community cookbooks for a recipe to make at home, you quickly find that they differ a great deal. Most of them call for crumbled cookies; vanilla wafers, or graham crackers, even Pepperidge Farm Bordeaux cookies, and a combination of confectioners sugar, butter, bourbon and chopped pecans. Some of them include cocoa powder, and I even saw some with eggs.

Once you mix everything and roll the creamy candy centers, you can coat them in a variety of ways including milk chocolate and a sprinkling of sea salt for a modern Bourbon Ball; dark chocolate decorated with a pecan half for a traditional Bourbon Ball, chocolate sprinkled with chopped nuts; plain dark chocolate, confectioners sugar, plain, rolled in cocoa powder or granulated sugar.

Today’s craft Kentucky Bourbon Ball makers use a recipe closer to Ruth’s original. Jennifer Rolfingsmeier has won the top spot at the Kentucky State Fair for her Bourbon Balls, and she was kind enough to give me her recipe and walk me through the multi-day process.

The timeline is a minimum of four days and it goes something like this: the first night, Combine 1 cup of chopped pecans in 1/3 cup of bourbon and let steep. The second night, add one stick of room temperature butter, and one box of powdered sugar to the bourbon-nut mixture. On the third night, roll the mixture into balls and refrigerate, and on the fourth night cover the balls in chocolate.

This home recipe for Bourbon Balls is probably as close to the original Bourbon Ball recipe as you can get. It’s the process that Jennifer Rolfingsmeier explained for her award-winning blue ribbon Bourbon Balls, give or take a few days of “aging” the pecans in the bourbon.

Bourbon Balls are such a big deal in Kentucky, that there is even a Bourbon Ball flavored bourbon from Ballotin Chocolate Whiskey. And it is a great bourbon to use in any Bourbon Ball recipe.

As good as the Kentucky Bourbon Balls are, they are a little sweet for my taste. I know this may be blasphemy for native Kentuckians, and I apologize. But my quest for the perfect Bourbon Ball was much more about the bourbon than the sweet candy.

I knew that there had to be other people like me who wanted a less sweet, bourbon-forward dessert ball. When I received a copy of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s new cookbook, The Cookie Bible, I was intrigued and inspired by her take on Bourbon Balls.

In classic Rose fashion, she bakes chocolate wafers from scratch, and uses that as the base for her Bourbon Balls. I am sure that they are sublime like everything that Rose thoughtfully creates.

However, I instantly thought of a hack to get her flavors in a shorter amount of time. Why not use a cherished store-bought chocolate cookie instead of baking them first and then crushing them into crumbs?

If you love Oreos and bourbon, you will love these no- bake ‘cookies and cream’ Bourbon Balls.

Turns out, Oreo Thins are the perfect cookie base for Bourbon Balls. They are thinner and have a little bit of sweet cream filling—just enough to provide most of the sweetness of the treat.

In Rose’s recipe she also uses cocoa powder, confectioners sugar, pecans, butter and corn syrup—traditional Bourbon Ball ingredients. I processed the pecans, a small amount of confectioners sugar, and cocoa powder first. Then I added the butter and corn syrup. Finally, I added the Oreo Thins and the all-important bourbon. I mixed everything in a food processor and they only took only a few minutes to make.

The mixture came together perfectly with the texture of wet sticky sand. After a short chill in the refrigerator, they were ready to roll and coat generously in granulated sugar. Rose recommends rolling the balls in granulated sugar three times to get a nice coating. Some of the initial sugar is absorbed by the balls as they sit which makes the re-rolling necessary.

When you are done, the Bourbon Balls glisten like jewels. The white granulated sugar coating also contributes another layer of sweetness since the dense truffle-like interior is not overly sweet and has a sharp bite of bourbon.

No-Bake ‘Cookies and Cream’ Bourbon Balls

These chocolate cookies and cream Bourbon Balls are like bourbon truffles and every bite is rich and satisfying—so much so that one per person is a perfect serving.

Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cookie Bible

Makes about 20 Bourbon Balls

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

10 ounce package Oreo Thins (192g)

¾ cup untoasted pecan halves

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

⅓ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

2 tablespoons corn syrup

3 tablespoons favorite bourbon or Ballotin Bourbon Ball Bourbon

¼ cup granulated sugar

Method:

1. Place the Oreo Thins in a re-closeable plastic bag and roughly crush using your fists, and set aside.

2. Using a food processor fitted with an s-blade, process the pecans with the powdered sugar and cocoa until coarsely ground. Add the butter and corn syrup; process until combined.

3. Add the crushed Oreo Thins. Pulse until evenly incorporated.

4. Add bourbon, 1 tablespoon at a time and pulse to mix in with the cookie crumb mixture. Process until the mixture is uniform in consistency and begins to come away from the sides of the bowl. Three tablespoons should be enough to make sure the mixture will hold together.

5. Let the mixture chill, covered, for 30-60 minutes to absorb the bourbon evenly.

6. Scoop out level tablespoons of the mixture and press and roll between the palms of your hands to shape into balls.

7. Place the granulated sugar in a small bowl. Add one ball at a time and roll it around in the sugar. The coating is most attractive when the balls are dipped three times. Re-dip after the sugar starts to disappear. Let sit uncovered for at least an hour to make sure all the sugar that is going to be absorbed by the balls is absorbed. Re-roll in the sugar a final time if necessary.

8. To store, place the balls in a parchment–lined airtight container.

The bourbon balls can be made up to six weeks ahead and stored at room temperature. Do not freeze.