There’s No Crying in Bourbon Balls

Unless you’re crying tears of joy of course (because I must admit that I did get a bit misty eyed with pride when I finished making these and set them free to go forth and make their way in the world).

Is anyone else as huge a fan of House of Cards as I am? If so, then you’ve likely also been glued to your television set all weekend binge watching the start of season 3 (sorry cousin Myrtle (*not her real name…actually this story is just a total lie), unless your name is Frances and your ambition knows no legal or ethical bounds, then I don’t have time for you. Guess you should’ve thought of that before getting married on the season premiere of HofC day 😉 ).

In honour of that, I wanted to go a little Southern and a little “for some reason everyone has alcohol in their offices at the White House” with this weekly sugar fest that I’ve started. I suspect that if I were to crack open a bottle of Kentucky bourbon at my desk at work, it would likely be frowned upon (I don’t think they’d accept a defence of “…but I have political ambitions!”). However, these innocuous looking chocolatey balls of goodness might be just the loophole your looking for when you need a boozy afternoon hit. Because let me tell you, the bourbon really shines through in these. I’m not normally even the biggest whiskey fan, but these hit just the right note of not being overly sweet, but just enough to cover the harshness that you would normally find if you were drinking some straight up bourbon.

You know what else is super southern though? Peaches! Now bourbon poached peaches are a classically delicious combination, but not necessarily the easiest/cleanest thing to carry around and eat. Plus it’s just the kind of thing that you probably want to eat right away and then stare forlornly at your empty bowl when it’s all gone. The solution to all of these problems (that’s me – solving problems you didn’t even know you had 😉 ) is to add a bit of peachy goodness to these bite-sized beauties. Now obviously peaches aren’t even close to being in season right now and there’s just no point in adding some watery, tasteless nonsense to an otherwise irreproachable candy. I could’ve gone the sundried peaches route as well, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that I wanted these to be melt-in-your-mouth smooth, and adding super chewy dried peaches just wasn’t going to align with that vision at all. My original intention was to incorporate my new favourite thing (well, not that new, I’ve been using various flavours for the past 6 months or so) – super-concentrated flavoured oils that I found at my local candy/candy-making store. Alas, the day that I made these, I got to the store too late and was greeted by a closed sign that forced me to frantically rethink my plans. In reality, I threw a slight hissy fit inside my own head about how these were now going to be “ruined” and there was just no point in doing them at all (envision a 3 year olds pouty-face on my face, and you’ll get some idea of how ridiculous I looked). I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am that I completely ignored that crazy, childish voice inside my head.

You know what I hear goes really well with booze? More booze! With that mantra in mind, I remembered that I had some peach schnapps kicking around in my liquor cabinet that could most definitely bring in my desired peach flavour without me having to drive all over town looking for fancy flavours.

Now after I made these, I didn’t feel they were quite as peachy as I would’ve ideally liked. Since I was already planning on rolling these in sugar, I though “hey, what if I just add a little peach schnapps to the sugar and then dry it out?”. Genius thy name is Amber (Modesty however, they name is most definitely not Amber 😉 )

With this winter being as crappy as it’s been, these southern peach bourbon balls definitely brought a little summer into my day. Now if only the weather would embrace a little southern sunshine, I could stop calling these “Brrrrbon balls” 😉