December has always been about the holidays for me – Christmas lights, decorations, New Year traditions, the presents, the sense of family and love, and then the food. Especially the Christmas food. A gingerbread house and pavlova are usually tradition. But so are all the classic holiday candy recipes like chocolate truffles, marshmallows, chocolate caramels, peanut brittle, honeycomb candy etc.!
Since I was raised a Buddhist, we didn’t celebrate Christmas, but we sure enjoyed the holiday spirit! We grew up with Christmas trees and Christmas celebrations all around us. Plus it was the only time of the year that we were allowed to drink a little wine as kids. Ha!
Chocolate rum balls
One of my favorite indulgent treats during the holidays was Chocolate Rum Truffles (Chocolate Rum Balls) – not too sweet but insanely fudgy, intensely flavored with rum, chocolate truffles from this particular supermarket. They were so boozy they made me lightheaded after eating just one! And now that I’m an adult, I need no invitation to make my own! 🙂 And boy, do I make ’em. The best thing about these rum balls is that they are vegan-friendly and dairy-free friendly and of course no-bake too! My sister made these truffles following this recipe, but used vegan products to make it dairy free and vegan. And they came out perfectly!
What I love about these rum balls
They are super chocolatey. Super boozy. They have a very fudgy texture. And are super easy to make.
And that’s exactly what you get with these deliciously and intensely flavored Dark Chocolate Rum Balls!
How to make chocolate rum balls
These chocolate rum balls are made with digestive cookies (or digestive biscuits) but you can easily substitute them with graham crackers if you like. Remember to process the dry ingredients together. The desiccated coconut needs to be chopped up along with the cookies. Then process it with cocoa powder and sugar (if you like to add a touch of sweetness), and then pour in the melted chocolate, rum, butter (or coconut oil) and mix to form a soft “dough”. The texture of the truffle “dough” is quite sticky, soft and fudgy. When it cools down it becomes less sticky and soft, and it’ll actually harden slightly too, but will still be quite fudgy. Knead the dough slightly to make it malleable and then roll portions of it into bite sized balls.
Coating the rum balls
Now you can be a little creative at this point. Roll it in tempered chocolate (or melted vegan chocolate) to form chocolate coated rum truffles. Then top these with a white chocolate drizzle or nuts or coconut. OR just roll the rum balls in cocoa powder, chocolate sprinkles or desiccated coconut (easy and quicker option) and serve ’em just like that. I used milk chocolate because that sweetness was a nice contrast against the bitter-sweet, boozy dark chocolate rum balls.
Tempering chocolate
Tempering chocolate isn’t technically difficult, just a little more involved. For these rum balls, I chose the easiest way to temper by using “seeding chocolate”, where I first melt about 2/3 of the chocolate in the microwave in bursts until its just melted. This will bring the temperature of the chocolate up to 105°F (for me this is usually 95-105°F) Next, the chocolate needs to be tempered and cooled down, to avoid blooming. To do this, I add “seeding chocolate” – the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate and mix it well, vigorously, to bring down the temperature of the chocolate to 84 – 86°F. Then leave this melted chocolate in a water bath (that’s around 88-90°F) to keep it at a constant optimum temperature. Then these rum truffles were dipped in the tempered milk chocolate with a truffle dipping fork, and kept on parchment paper to set. If you are adding any chopped nuts or desiccated coconut, you should add them at this point, while the chocolate is still wet. Another way you can coat the truffle is by pouring the chocolate onto a marble slab, and then rolling the rum balls in the chocolate until completely coated. As the finishing touch, you can drizzle white chocolate over the dark chocolate rum balls and let it set completely.
Final chocolate rum ball recipe notes
These dark chocolate rum balls are not for the faint of heart! They have an intense chocolate flavor from the bitter-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder. And as soon as you get past that, you’re hit with the warm, intense, boozy flavor of rum! 🙂 If you don’t have rum, you can even make these with bourbon for bourbon truffles too. These would be the perfect after-dinner treat for adults during holiday gatherings. Little bite-sized morsels of rich indulgence. These rum balls are like a digestif, a dessert and a coffee accompaniment all in one. They make excellent gifts during the holiday season too. These truly are “amaze-balls”!
More Christmas recipes you’ll love
Easy homemade chocolate truffles Peppermint chocolate truffles Bourbon gingerbread truffles Chocolate beer truffles Santa Claus cupcakes Cheesecake stuffed gingerbread cake Gingerbread cupcakes with eggnog filling Homemade eggnog Eggnog pound cake with eggnog glaze
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