Bourbon Balls

A Christmas treat from way back, this is as close as I think I'm going to get to Mom's Famous Bourbon Balls, which we kids were NOT allowed to have. Strictly grown-up stuff, we were told -- mostly for the 20-plus special baskets for business associates Mom would put together every year. While sometimes we were enlisted to help assemble, we had to be older than twelve to sample ONE. Did we really have such patience then? If you have patience now, you can make these two weeks ahead of time and store tightly covered between sheets of waxed paper in a tin, old-school-style. Prep time includes time to crush wafers and grind nuts.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 3-4 dozen

Ingredients

• 2 1⁄2 cups  finely crushed  vanilla wafers
• 1  cup ground walnuts
• 1⁄4 cup  fine aged Bourbon
• 2  tablespoons  Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 3  tablespoons corn syrup
•  confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, fluff 1 cup confectioners' sugar with the dry ingredients, and then drizzle and mix in corn syrup.
2. Sprinkle some confectioners' onto a large sheet of waxed paper.
3. With clean, sugar-dusted hands, shape mixture into 1-inch balls, and then roll in confectioners' sugar.
4. Store as above; can be individually wrapped in small squares of cello or plastic wrap. This will intensify the flavors.