Easy, Festive (and Boozy!) Rum Balls Recipe
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Rum balls are one of the easiest and most festive cookies to make and gift during the holiday season — they take no time to whip together, require no baking, and are incredibly delicious. Everyone loves them. What’s more? They can be made ahead and frozen, too.
Easy, festive, boozy rum balls — what’s not to love?
The virtues of rum balls include:
- short prep time: the batter takes all of about 5 minutes to whip up
- no-bake, which means short total time: start to finish these will take about 30 minutes to complete
- high-yield: this recipe will make at least 40
- taste: they are delicious, boozy bites of goodness
- easy: can’t have too many easy recipes around the holidays
- festive: perfect for holiday entertaining
- pretty: a perfect gift
- they can be made ahead of time (and even frozen!) — score!
I can’t think of a more perfect treat to have on hand for the holiday season. And if you’re looking for another low-effort, high-yield cookie recipe to gift all season long, try these melt-in-your-mouth Lemon-Almond Snowball Cookies.
PS: Chewy Chocolate Sugar Cookies
PPS: Simple Classic Shortbread
How to Make Rum Balls, Step by Step
Gather your ingredients: Vanilla wafers, rum, cocoa powder, corn syrup, and confectioners’ sugar.
Note: If you can’t find vanilla wafers, many people have had success with graham crackers, ginger snaps, shortbread cookies, and even creme-filled cookies.
First: pulse the vanilla wafers in a food processor until they are finely ground:
Next: add the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, and corn syrup:
Pulse until finely ground:
Finely: Add the rum, and pulse until the ingredients form a cohesive mass:
Transfer the “dough” to a separate vessel. Pour some confectioners sugar into a small, rimmed sheet pan:
Portion the dough into balls using a #100 scoop or a teaspoon or by simply pinching off small pieces and rolling them in your hands. Roll the balls in confectioners’ sugar.
Transfer the confectioners’ sugar-coated balls to a clean tray or storage vessel:
Can You Freeze Rum Balls?
Yes! Simply transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. I find these delicious straight from the freezer in fact, but if I am going to serve them, I let them thaw at room temperature overnight. Before serving, re-roll them in powdered sugar to freshen them up 🙂
How to Gift Rum Balls
To gift rum balls, simply find a festive gift box, load with small, paper liners, and load with your delicious, boozy, rum balls. I like these:
- Mini Foil Wrappers — perfect rum balls or truffles or anything similarly sized.
- Punch Studio book boxes — I can’t find a source for these. My mother found them at Marshall’s a million years ago and passed them along to me. Marshall’s or craft stores such as Michael’s and Hobby Lobby and JoAnn Fabrics are all good spots to find decorative gift boxes.
Stationery boxes work well, too. I ordered a set of 50 many years ago, and I’m still using them around the holidays to gift rum balls, boozy chocolate truffles, and chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls.
Easy, Festive (and Boozy!) Rum Balls Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 40 rum balls
Description
These rum balls are the easiest, best, and most festive cookie to make and gift during the holiday season — they take no time to whip together, require no baking, and are incredibly delicious. What’s more? They can be made ahead and frozen, too.
Notes:
- If you can’t find vanilla wafers, many people have had success with graham crackers, ginger snaps, shortbread cookies, and even creme-filled cookies.
- If you’d like to gift rum balls, you may want to pick up a set of Mini Foil Wrappers, which are perfect for rum balls or truffles or chocolate-dipped peanut butter balls or anything else similarly sized.
- A #100 scoop is also particularly helpful for shaping, though you absolutely can use a teaspoon or simply your hands to pinch of portions of the dough and roll into balls.
Ingredients
- 3+ cups (311 g) vanilla wafers (a whole box of Nilla wafers), see notes above
- 1 cup (120 g) confectioners’ sugar (plus more for rolling)
- 2 tablespoons (10 g) cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons (44 g) white corn syrup
- 1/3 cup (74 g) rum, plus more as needed
Instructions
- Place vanilla wafers in a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. There might be a few large pieces that don’t catch the blade at this step, but they’ll eventually end up getting pulverized, so don’t worry. (Alternatively, place vanilla wafers into a Ziploc bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they are fine pieces).
- Add confectioners’ sugar, cocoa and corn syrup and pulse till combined. Add the 1/3 cup rum and pulse to combine. If necessary, slowly add more rum to the food processor until the mixture comes together and forms a mass around the blade or holds together when you pinch it.
- Using a teaspoon or a #100 scoop, scoop out balls from the processor, roll them gently with your hands to form balls, then drop them onto a plate (or shallow tupperware) filled with a thin layer of powdered sugar. Shake the vessel to coat the balls, then transfer the balls to an airtight storage container until you are ready to serve them. Store at room temperature for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature briefly before serving.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: No-Bake
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
221 Comments on “Easy, Festive (and Boozy!) Rum Balls Recipe”
Can’t find Nilla wafers in BC, so substituted Peak Freens “Social Tea” cookies. Perfect!
Great tip Colleen! Thanks for writing and sharing 🙂
Canada does not have Nilla wafers anymore. I’m going to try them with graham cracker crumbs.
I made this with Kirkland animal crackers, and they turned out delicious. I also added a dollop of molasses. Very tasty.
Yum! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
My go-to recipe every Christmas! I use gluten-free vanilla wafers since I’m gluten intolerant, and you need almost 2 boxes. I measure in grams. These are the BEST!!!! My favorite holiday treat.
I’m so happy to hear this, Denise! Thanks so much for writing and sharing this… so helpful for others looking to make them gluten-free 🙂
I forgot to add 5 stars!
Super YUMMY! I made these for an adult birthday party, used maple syrup (well I am in Vermont) instead of the corn syrup, they are so delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
Great to hear, Brenda! Thanks for sharing your maple syrup tip. So helpful for others 🙂
If I want to make these more “boozy” do I need to change the amount of other ingredients? Let’s say for 1/2 cup of rum.
Hi! You’ll definitely need to add more vanilla wafers because other wise the mixture will be too wet. Adding more vanilla wafers will change the ratio of sugar/cocoa powder/etc. so I’m not really sure how to advise. You could just go it and add more vanilla wafers until the mixture holds together when pinched. You can taste it from the food processor and add a splash more corn syrup if necessary for both sweetness and cohesion purposes.
I made these last night, and they made about 36 small cookies.
I like to use sprinkles instead of powdered sugar, and the cookies weren’t quite sticky enough to hold them on, so I added some extra corn syrup at the end, just to make that easier.
These can be made with all kinds of alcohol for different flavors.
Very tasty.
Great to hear, Elle! Thanks for writing and sharing your notes 🙂
Excellent, easy, only made 36. Make it again anytime.
Great to hear, Larry! Thanks for writing 🙂
This was a easy recipe to follow.
I added a cup of pecans, doubled the rum and added about a quarter cup of graham cracker crumbs. I like the extra rum, it’s a lovely note at the end., not offensive.
DELICIOUS! In fact, I need to double this recipe. Everyone loves them! They went so fast!!
I need to amend my recipe alteration The state that the pecans that I added were pulverized.
Great to read all of this! Thanks so much for writing and sharing all of your notes. Love the idea of doubling the rum 🙂
Very Boozy just like the name suggests. I added about a cup of rice crispys, a cup of raisins, a half cup of chopped pecans and a quarter cup of Nutella and a tsp of vanilla to tame this beast of a recipe. You still can taste the rum just now it’s not like taking a shot.