Last weekend I asked my husband what he thought I should bake for a dinner party we were attending:

“Bourbon butter cake or gingerbread bundt cake?”

“I’m going with gingerbread bundt cake, but only to save you from the the reputation of one-trick-pony …. or lush …”.

Okaaaaaay, so I use bourbon in a lot of my desserts. Yes, I brought a bourbon walnut pie to an Octoberfest party and yes I accented my chocolate chess pie with a boozy bourbon whipped cream. My favorite bread pudding is bourbon raisin with a bourbon butter sauce that could make you tipsy. I love bourbon! Just gotta own it.

…so let’s dress these bourbon-drenched treats up in powdered sugar and  call them snowballs so that they’re perfectly acceptable for your (adult) Christmas party.

bourbon snowballs

makes 2 dozen 1-inch cookies

These are embarrassingly easy - no baking! And they’re delicious, like nut-studded fudgy bites of bourbon goodness. Their flavor improves with time so consider making them beforehand.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (4.25 oz) powdered sugar + 1/3 cup for dusting

• 2 tbsp (.5 oz) cocoa powder

• 1/4 cup (2 oz) bourbon

• 2 tbsp light corn syrup

• 2 1/2 cups (11 oz) crushed vanilla wafer cookies (this can be done in the food processor or old-school style in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin)

• 1 cup (4 oz) pecans, chopped finer than coarse but coarser than fine :)

• generous pinch table salt

Instructions

1. Sift together the 1 cup powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

2. Whisk together the bourbon and corn syrup until combined, then mix into the sugar and cocoa mixture.

3. Mix in the cookie crumbs, chopped pecans, and salt with a spatula until thoroughly combine.

4. Form into 1-inch balls and roll in remaining 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Joy of Cooking very sweetly said not to worry too much about the balls being perfectly even, but being a little neurotic, I used the scale and formed two dozen 0.92 oz balls with extras for me to reward myself with later.

5. These keep well for at least a week in an airtight container. If you need to, separate layers with parchment or wax paper.

Adapted from Joy of Cooking