Rum, Baileys and Kahlua Truffles...boozy balls!

Somehow I am now entering my last week at the house we made home in Nottingham, time goes stupidly fast! In fact I actually have 3 days left until I have to move out, prepared? Not in the slightest.

To say farewell to the house we had a little end of year party with a select few nearest and dearest. It was decided that we were going to host a cocktail party with a black tie dress code, any excuse to dress up a bit snazzy! I thought it might be nice to make a few sweet treats for people to snack on during the night, would feel like a bit of a let down if I didn't make anything! In the end I opted for the quick, easy and ever popular Oreo Cheesecake along with something new that I have always wanted to make, boozy truffles! 

My better half, Pete, went to Amsterdam with the guys in the house a few months back and brought back the most potent, yet amazing, rum I have ever set my tastebuds upon. Stroh is its name, 80% alcohol content is its game, knock your block off kinda stuff! I couldn't wait to bake with it :) I first adapted this recipe late one night by request from Pete for a chocolate rum cake, dividing the ingredients by half to make a 6inch cake and replacing whiskey with the rum. When I first cut into it I was a bit worried as it looked very dense and moist, perhaps underdone...but after the first bite I was elated! It was the most incredible texture, its dense appearance was utterly misleading as it was so light and melt in the mouth, absolutely gorgeous! And the Stroh left this delightful warm aftertaste that made the cake dangerously moorish and the recipe a keeper for sure

On to the truffles! I thought some alcoholic truffles would be amazing for a cocktail party, easy to pop in the mouth and very fitting for the occasion. I have seen a number of recipes for rum balls, mostly involving biscuit or cake crumbs as the base, but when I came upon this recipe which used ground oats I knew it was the one for me! Mainly because I had all the ingredients on hand...and oats instead of cake or cookies = healthy truffles right!
I made a number of trial runs before the real thing with a range of alcohols to see which worked best. The Stroh, wow..potent! As they are no-bake treats, the strength of the rum remained and made them rather impressionable little things thats for sure! I actually really loved them and they made it onto the party baking list if not just for shock factor for the other guests :) Next was Malibu, my favourite spirit, where I used desiccated coconut to decorate the truffles and also bring the raw mixture to the right consistency. I loved the coconuty taste and texture, but the Malibu did not come through enough sadly to make the shortlist for the party. The last 2 flavours I tried were good old Baileys and the coffee liqueur Kahlua which both made it to the final party list. Baileys was the overall favourite of the night, with the Kahlua having a fainter flavour but still scrummy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here is the recipe! I made a double batch of the rum truffles and a single batch of both Baileys and Kahlua balls. I can thoroughly recommend them, they went down a storm! Crisp chocolatey shell and a smooth rich (but not too rich!) centre...and far easier than I expected them to be! I made the balls 2 days before the party and kept them in the freezer until I dipped them in melted chocolate on the morning of the get together, storing them in the fridge until people started to arrive. In fact I think there may be a few left over...please excuse me whilst I go and dispose of the evidence

Boozy Truffles

Adapted from Delishhh

One batch makes around 22 1-inch truffles

1 1/4 cups oatmeal (N.1)

6 Tbsp icing/confection sugar

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

3 1/2 Tbsp (50 g) butter, melted

3 Tbsp alcohol (N.2)

75 g chocolate (N.3)

Sprinkles/desiccated coconut to decorate (optional)

If using rolled oats, firstly grind in a food processor until fine. Add the sugar and cocoa powder to the ground oats, mix well. Add the butter and the alcohol, mix well (N.4). If mixture is too wet/sticky add more ground oats until the correct consistency is achieved
Roll into 1-inch balls using your hands and place on a parchment lined baking sheet/tin. Freeze for at least 1 hour, or until needed

Prepare a baking sheet/plate with parchment paper and melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave, until completely smooth. Remove around 6 frozen truffles from the freezer at a time. Dip each truffle in the melted chocolate, cover completely and remove using the technique described here, or just drop them in and use a spoon to fish them out! The chocolate should set pretty quickly so place the dipped balls on the parchment paper straight away and if decorating do it now

Store in the refrigerator if using soon, or they will keep well stored well covered in the freezer

Notes

(1) I used 1 1/4 cups rolled oats, whizzed in the food processor until fine. This made I think a bit less than 1 1/4 cups oatmeal which meant I often had to add a bit more ground oats to make the mixture dry enough to roll in my hands. I didn't really mind this as it meant I had more control over how sticky/dry my final truffles were

(2) Most alcohols would work, but I think use your gut instinct on if they would actually taste any good! For example dark/coconut rum, Baileys and a coffee liqueur worked for me

(3) I used a mixture of half dark and half milk chocolate chips

(4) As I have a mini food processor I transferred the dry mix to a bowl before adding the butter and alcohol and mixing using a spoon, but feel free to combine all ingredients (except the chocolate) in the food processor 

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