Chocolate Cherry Kid Friendly Rum Balls

LUv 2 BaKE's Note:

My family has been making these rum balls for as long as I can remember. We use light cream cheese (which MUST be block style as it is firmer than tub style) to make them lower in fat, and rum extract as that is what we prefer. My mom always let my brother and I cover the rum balls in the chocolate sprinkles which was a highlight of the holiday preparations

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 80

• 1 (250 g) package light cream cheese , block style, at room temperature
• 175 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 175 g butterscotch chips
• 15 ml rum extract or 50 ml rum
• 15 -20 ml water (omit if using real rum)
• 625 ml graham wafer crumbs
• 1 cup maraschino cherry , finely chopped & well drained
• chocolate sprinkles (also called chocolate shot)

Directions:

1. Chop up maraschino cherries, set aside.
2. Beat cream cheese with food processor or wooden spoon.
3. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in microwave on medium power for 1 minute at a time until melted; stir lots after each minute to make sure you don't burn it.
4. Beat chocolate mixture into cream cheese; Mix in rum, water, cherries and graham wafer crumbs.
5. (the amount of water depends on the type of cream cheese you use, if using light add the minimum amount of water).
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7. With your hands, roll out about one teaspoon of the mixture at a time into balls.
8. Put chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl (such as a cream cheese container), roll rum balls in the sprinkles one at a time.
9. Store in refrigerator.
10. If you are making these for a gathering/occasion, roll the rum balls the day before or day of, They do keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge, but at that time the chocolate sprinkles do soften slightly.
11. Yield: about 80 rum balls.