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”
That’s interesting – in Australia rum balls are always made with leftover Christmas pudding and cake, so I was wondering how it was done in fruitcake-averse America. Vanilla wafers! That must taste quite different to the ones I’ve had. They look good!
Oh, that sounds great. I’ll have some leftover Christmas cake this year!
OMG you have done it again ! And they only took four minutes to make – absolutely wonderful. I used Black and Greens cocoa and Lyles Golden Syrup. I measured the rum in 1/3 cups and you are right – I only used half of the second 1/3 and they were perfect.
Genius ! Thanks so again.
I made the Christmas pudding truffles this year a la NIgella. More practical for the U.K. and Australia Christmas I think.
Lizzie — you so speedy! I’m impressed. Next time I’ll add the rum more slowly too. 🙂 Love the sound of those truffles. So festive. Merry Christmas!
Worth a shot! I don’t associate gin with boozy desserts, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Do you have anything else? brandy? grand marnier?
I remember eating a co-worker’s rum balls. Didn’t know how easy they were. Look so good. Merry Christmas to you. Hope you get some time out of the kitchen.
These look beautiful!!!
i just made them, they’re wonderful, and as simple as they are,I still managed to make a total wreck of my kitchen!
Can’t find vanilla wafers or corn syrup where I live, so I substituted ladyfingers and palm syrup, and they worked wonderfully. Amazing how so little cocoa goes so far in flavoring them.
I don’t have a food processor either, so I used my trusty old blender, and made the recipe by halves since the ol’ blender won’t handle so much volume. For the second half, I dumped the syrup in too fast and had to pour everything out into a bowl to mix it properly. Then I tried mixing in the rum while still in the bowl, and it seemed like all went well, but then they wouldn’t form balls because the dough was too loose. So I dumped the whole thing back into the blender container and gave it a few whirls, and that altered the texture so it formed balls perfectly. (Maybe you can see why my kitchen was a mess when I finished…)
Now they’re cooling in the fridge while I get ready for the dinner party. They’ll make a beautiful hostess gift. Thanks and Merry Christmas all!
I have made these for years as did my mom (who once took them to a southern baptist womens bible study 😉 they all left happy ). A family tradition in my home.
Jill — so happy to hear this! I love them, too. Can’t wait to make them this season.
Wonder what it would taste like using real maple syrup instead of the “not good for you” corn syrup?? Ever tried it?
Anna — I know, corn syrup, it’s never an ingredient I’m proud of using. Definitely worth a shot, but I have no experience trying thus far. Report back if you make any discoveries.
Honey can be used.
Hi I saw the last post about corn syrup… in stead of maple syrup , because I think it may change the taste try honey.. im wondering also if I wanted to try them with out the chocolate or cocoa, can I use a vanilla flavoring? I cant wait to make these too late tonight im too tired but it will be the first thing I make tomorrow!!
Thanks!!!
Connie, hi! I think vanilla will be delicious. You might just have to add a few more vanilla wafers (or confectioners’ sugar or something like almond flour) to make up for the two tablespoons of cocoa powder. Just remember to add the rum or bourbon slowly! You probably won’t need it all to get the right consistency.
I added 1 cup walnuts that I pulsed on the food processor and a few less wafers.
Yum!
I tried a tblsp. of honey & maple syrup and it worked GREAT!
Nice! So happy to hear this!
I just made a batch … They seem a bit soft and sticky. I put them in the fridge … Hopefully they will firm up
Oh, I hope they did! Did you end up adding all of the rum at once? This usually causes the dough to be a bit too sticky. When this happens, I just correct with more confectioners’ sugar and wafers. Hope they turned out OK!
My Mom made these when I was a little girl back in the ’60s, she would also roll them in crushed pecans as well as the powdered sugar. I love them!
Yes, my mom did that too!
This recipe needs some work. I have made these for years and grabbed this recipe from Pinterest thinking they are all the same. I ended up with a loose mess with too much rum. I then googled and found several other recipes and they were all the same. The others used 1/2 cup rum and they all had nuts in them which changed the consistency greatly. I ended up doubling the recipe to make the rum alright and added the processed nuts. They turned out good but were impossible to work with and impossible to eat if made with this recipe. I used Emeril Legasse’s recipe
I just made these suckers and they turned out great! Does any one have any experience with how long they last in the refrigerator versus at room temperature? Thanks!
Instead of corn syrup, would agave syrup work? I already have that on hand.
Anyone tried coconut rum?
I am sure it will be delicious! Nigella uses coconut rum in one of her cakes, and I have been dying to try it.
So I used the Voortman Bakery Vanilla Wafers and they turned out great. I am new to baking and was told by my coworker that she believes the recipe actually called for the Nabisco Nilla Wafers. That got me wondering, what kind of vanilla wafers did everyone else use?
I always use Nilla … the only brand I know … but I think so many cookies could be used in its place. The voortman brand sounds yummy!
Try making these with Ginger snaps. It’s an even exchange for wafers. I’ve also made these using Kahlua or Irish Cream instead of Rum or Bourbon.
Or do like I do, and make them all!!!
That all sounds amazing 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’ve added instant expresso coffee to the rum to enhance the taste of the cocoa. They’ve been a family favorite for years
Easy and excellent! ☆☆☆☆☆
Yay 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank goodness I have found this recipe! My Gran would make these for halloween, and they were my favorite! She never used real rum, tho. A happy memory of Halloween past, revisited!
Yay 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 Love these old-fashioned recipes.
Love it! First time making rum balls and easy easy easy! Can’t wait to share them at the holidays! I don’t have a food processor but used my bullet for the wafers and my hands to mix it altogether. Thank you!
Wonderful to hear this, Rawl! This is one of my favorites 🙂
Appears that dark rum is used. Will clear rum work? Same measure?
Yes! And yes!
Do you have any idea how long these last at room temperature? I’m considering shipping them overseas.
Thank you
I think in an airtight container they will be great for at least a week.
Great recipe! Delicious and easy to prepare.
Wonderful to hear this, Marcia!
Hello all! Has anyone tried using RumChata in this recipe? Thought that might be a nice touch. Thanks so much!
Hi Jennifer! Sorry for the delay here! I have not tried Rumchata, but I imagine it would work well.
Ok. I just made these with the RumChata. I didn’t have enough Nillas (someone got into the box), so I added some pecans to make up the difference. OMG!!!! These are the bomb!!! So addictive. I will be adding them to a cookie box for my co-workers! Thank you for a wonderful recipe!!!
Forgot my Stars!
Awwww thanks, Jennifer!
Oh yay! So great to hear this, Jennifer! I love these rum balls sooooo much 💕💕💕💕
If I don’t have vanilla wafers could I substitute graham crackers instead? If so, would there be a measurement difference?
Hi Paula! I think you could! The flavor will be a little different, but it should work. Use the same amount (by weight if possible).
Rum balls were a hit at the dirty santa party last year…making them once again to pass out to friends and family this year.
Great to hear, Mary! These are one of my absolute favorites this time of year 🙂
Do I have to use dark rum and also may I add some crushed nuts to this recipe?
No! Regular rum is fine. And yes, crushed nuts would be great.
Thank you for your help.
I’m looking forward to making these. Has anyone made these using malibu rum (coconut flavor)? I’m thinking of trying that.
I have not, but I’m sure it would be delicious 🙂
Yes I have made them with Malibu Coconut Rum and they were great! I rolled the balls in shredded coconut afterwards so they looked beautiful as well.
So great to hear this, Susan! Love this idea.