Updated: December 2016
These intensely boozy, fudgy, chocolate rum balls (or rum truffles) are the perfect indulgent treat for the holidays! They are easy, no-bake, vegan-friendly and dairy free-friendly, and perfect for gift giving too!
(PIN IT FOR LATER)
December has always been about the holidays for me – Christmas lights, decorations, New Year traditions, the presents, the food, the sense of family and love. December is also about a new beginning for me. I married my best friend in December, and started a whole new life with him, so the celebration of that is also a consistent reminder that new and amazing things are just around the corner!
Since I was raised a Buddhist, we didn’t celebrate Christmas, but we sure enjoyed the holiday spirit! We grew up with Christmas trees and Christmas celebrations all around us. Plus it was the only time of the year, we were allowed to drink a little wine as kids. Ha!
The whole notion of a cold Christmas is weird to me too! Having grown up in Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia, December has always been warm and hot. The sun on your back and the festivities always went hand in hand.
Christmas in Sydney!
One of my favorite indulgent treats during the holidays was Chocolate Rum Truffles (Chocolate Rum Balls) – not too sweet but insanely fudgy, intensely flavored with rum, chocolate truffles from this particular supermarket. They were so boozy they made me lightheaded after eating just one! And now that I’m an adult, I need no invitation to make my own! 🙂 And boy, do I make ’em.
The best thing about these is that they are vegan-friendly and dairy-free friendly and of course no-bake too! My sister made these truffles following this recipe, but used vegan products to make it dairy free and vegan. And they came out perfectly!
When I made these for the first time, I had a very good idea of what I wanted these chocolate rum truffles (rum balls) to taste like,
Super chocolatey
Super boozy
With a very fudgy texture
And super easy to make.
And that’s exactly what you get with these deliciously and intensely flavored Dark Chocolate Rum Balls!
These chocolate rum balls are made with digestive cookies (or digestive biscuits) but you can easily substitute them with graham crackers if you like. Remember to process the dry ingredients together. The desiccated coconut needs to be chopped up along with the cookies.
Then process it with cocoa powder and sugar (if you like to add a touch of sweetness), and then pour in the melted chocolate, rum, butter (or coconut oil) and mix to form a soft “dough”.
The texture of the truffle “dough” is quite sticky, soft and fudgy. When it cools down it becomes less sticky and soft, and it’ll actually harden slightly too, but will still be quite fudgy.
Knead the dough slightly to make it malleable and then roll portions of it into bite sized balls.
Now you can be a little creative at this point.
Roll it in tempered chocolate (or melted vegan chocolate) to form chocolate coated rum truffles.
Then top these with a white chocolate drizzle or nuts or coconut.
OR just roll the rum balls in cocoa powder, chocolate sprinkles or desiccated coconut (easy and quicker option) and serve ’em just like that.
I used milk chocolate because that sweetness was a nice contrast against the bitter-sweet, boozy dark chocolate rum balls.
TEMPERING CHOCOLATE
Tempering chocolate isn’t technically difficult, just a little more involved. For these rum balls, I chose the easiest way to temper by using “seeding chocolate”, where I first melt about 2/3 of the chocolate in the microwave in bursts until its just melted. This will bring the temperature of the chocolate up to 105°F (for me this is usually 95-105°F)
Next, the chocolate needs to be tempered and cooled down, to avoid blooming. To do this, I add “seeding chocolate” – the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate and mix it well, vigorously, to bring down the temperature of the chocolate to 84 – 86°F. Then leave this melted chocolate in a water bath (that’s around 88-90°F) to keep it at a constant optimum temperature.
Then these rum truffles were dipped in the tempered milk chocolate with a truffle dipping fork, and kept on parchment paper to set.
If you are adding any chopped nuts or desiccated coconut, you should add them at this point, while the chocolate is still wet.
Another way you can coat the truffle is by pouring the chocolate onto a marble slab, and then rolling the rum balls in the chocolate until completely coated. As the finishing touch, you can drizzle white chocolate over the dark chocolate rum balls and let it set completely.
These dark chocolate rum truffles are not for the faint of heart! They have an intense chocolate flavor from the bitter-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder. And as soon as you get past that, you’re hit with the warm, intense, boozy flavor of rum! 🙂
Each time we make a batch, we tell ourselves that we’ll share it with others. But we never do. Seriously it hurts to part with these chocolate rum balls, they are just so addictive!
If you don’t have rum, you can even make these with bourbon for bourbon truffles too.
These would be the perfect after-dinner treat for adults during holiday gatherings. Little bite-sized morsels of rich indulgence. These rum balls are like a digestif, a dessert and a coffee accompaniment all in one. They make excellent gifts during the holiday season too. These truly are “amaze-balls”!
- 14.2oz / 400g cookies (I prefer using Digestive cookies but vanilla wafers or even graham crackers will work too)
- ⅓ cup of unsweetened desiccated coconut
- 3 tbsp natural cocoa (Dutch processed will work too)
- 2 tbsp melted butter or coconut oil
- 6 oz / 170g bittersweet chocolate (chips or chopped from a block - Vegan for DF version)
- ¾ cup plus 1 tbsp rum
- 1-2 tbsp white sugar
- 1lb / 450g melted and tempered chocolate (optional)
- plus extra chocolate if needed
- Desiccated coconut
- Chocolate sprinkles
- Melted White chocolate - to drizzle
- Melt the bittersweet chocolate and butter and ¼ cup rum in a heatproof bowl in the microwave (in 30 sec bursts) till nice and smooth. Let it cool slightly.
- In a food processor, process the cookies, coconut and cocoa powder and sugar till it's completely crushed and is in fine crumbs
- Add the melted chocolate and butter mix, to the cookie base while running the food processor until it's mixed through. Scrape the sides in between to ensure that it mixes evenly.
- Add the remaining rum and mix it through until you get a slightly sticky ball of "dough".
- Place the truffle "dough" in a bowl and knead for a few seconds until completely mixed through, and smooth.
- Let the dough rest and cool down. It should become less sticky and less soft but still fudgy.
- Make 1 - 1½ inch balls from the dough and place them on a parchment paper.
- You can roll these in coconut or chocolate sprinkles and serve them just like that if you prefer.
- If you're coating the rum ball truffles in chocolate - you can melt candy coating wafers or temper the chocolate according to the following directions.
- Pour half of the chocolate on a cool marble slate or kitchen counter top and roll each of the rum balls in the melted chocolate OR dip the truffles in the melted chocolate.
- Shake off the excess gently and place them back on the parchment paper.
- Before the chocolate coating sets - sprinkle some nuts, coconut or sprinkles. Or drizzle some white chocolate once it sets.
- Serve at room temperature or cold. Enjoy!
- You can store these in the fridge for at least a week in an airtight container.
MORE RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
If you love cookie truffles, then you will LOVE these Bourbon Gingerbread Truffles too. Deliciously spiced gingerbread truffles, spiked with bourbon and coated in chocolate! Plus there are Vegan and GF options too.
Here’s ANOTHER yummy truffle recipe. It’s got Chocolate, Beer, Pretzels AND Caramel – Chocolate Beer Truffles with Beer infused Pretzel Praline. Need I say more?
Or how about some gingerbread cupcakes with Santa Claus Frosting?
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Hello there, just to let you know I made these delightful rum balls, oh my I had such a disaster, lol, nothign to do with the recipe, just my lack of skill. i could blame it on the kids but won’t be so mean LOL. I am featuring this on a post tomorrow (Monday) and linking back to you as the obvious expert on how they in fact ‘should’ look once finished hehe.
Also I am having a Tea Time blog hop party this Tuesday, it can be anything tea time related, does not have to even be a recipe, can be poetry, music, photography anything that might be brought to a tea party.
Would love to see you there.
Justine xxx
Hi Jusine! Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that! I hope it isn’t the recipe. please let me know if it is 🙂
I can’t wait to read the article too!
Can’t wait to stop by the tea party, thank you so much for inviting me! I hope there is something I can contribute to it too 🙂 Wishing you and your family a lovely 2015!
Hello cute lady! I bet these little gems made a lot of people happy! Pinned and tweeted. Thank you for being a part of our party. I hope to see you tonight at 7 pm. We love to party with you! Lou Lou Girls
I can’t believe how easy and delicious these are!!! 🙂 thank you so much for the recipe
Your very welcome!! Im so glad they come out well! 🙂
I made these, oh my I am so not skilled, these though taste good lol, look awful haha, oh my, but me and the kids had great fun. Do you mind me using your pic in a post at some stage when I post my own experience today, of how they ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ look lol? xx
Hi Justine! I am so glad you made them and you and your kids liked them!! The beauty of truffles is that they CAN look messy! 😀 But I would love to see your post 🙂 you can definitely use a picture that you like, would it be ok to have a link back to this post? or my blog? if that’s ok with you? Can’t wait to see it!
Oh my goodness those look to die for!!
Thank you Jen!! 🙂
Oh yumm! That looks great!
Thank you Sarah! 🙂
They look so good!!! It can be a lovely gift for the holidays!
Thank you Mila! 🙂 I’ve given homemade truffles as gifts before and people usually love them (even if it is messy looking!)
Those truffles look amazing – the perfect thing to fend off the cold in a North American winter. It looks to me as if you are set to do quite well in this tough climate!
Thank you Hilda! I hope so… Ive got Rum, Brandy and work stocked up especially because I think I might be getting the cold already (again)!!
Your truffles look amazing! 🙂
Thank you Indu! 🙂
These truffles look soo good. Very appealing. 🙂
Thank you Sadia! 🙂
Dini,
I cannot stop drooling looking at these truffles. I have to make these! Thank you for the recipe.
They look gorgeous too. Would be great to give as gifts but very hard to part with them:)
Thank you Sandhya! I found it very hard to part with them too… I had to hide them away so I wouldn’t eat what I wanted to give as gifts… 🙂
The flavors in your truffles sound fabulous, Dini! I am extremely impressed with your chocolate tempering! I have tried and tried, but it is just not in my skill set. I even had a chocolate making friend try to help me, but I ended up with “blooming” cookies the next day. Happily, there is a tasty and easy way for the tempering inept, like me to still enjoy your truffles. When I make your recipe, I will be covering the truffles in Chocoley compound dipping chocolate instead (unless you offer tempering lessons with a money back guarantee 🙂 ). Thank you for sharing your international experiences. I enjoyed reading about the pieces of different cultures you have incorporated into your life. 🙂
Thank you Wendy! 🙂 I love chocolate tempering but it gets so messy and it goes wrong often too! usually what goes wrong is used as ganache or chocolate sauce! 🙂 Compound chocolate is much easier I have to agree! I just wanted to get messy with chocolate (although I hate having to clean up afterwards!!) Maybe one day we can temper chocolate together! (no charge if you can bring cookies and you don’t mind if it goes horribly wrong!) 🙂
These look gorgeous oh my gosh! Tempering chocolate is one thing I can’t do though, I don’t know what it is but I always mess it up!
Thank you Michelle!! I used to hate tempering but I love it now (though it’s messy!) but you can roll it in cocoa, coconut or sprinkles too! I did a few with chocolate sprinkles and it was still yum!
I forced myself to read the tempered chocolate link and now I think I can make these! They look soooo decadent!
oooh please let me know how it goes!! I have been horrible with tempering so many times! The good thing is that even if you mess it up you can start over (provided you don’t burn or sieze the chocolate (which I’ve done!)
I’ll take half a dozen please, especially since they have a good “glug” of rum 🙂
hahaha!!! Not a problem Loretta! I am slowly but surely demolishing the rest of them! I will be happy to share them with you!!
Very gorgeous looking truffles! Just looking at them makes me happy. 🙂
Aw thank you Apsara! 🙂 They make me happy too!!
These look really delicious!
Thank you Naina!
I never really had experienced preparing for Christmas as I don’t observe the holiday. The preparations must be fun and crazy. I am happy to see people preparing for such occasion. 🙂 The year is soon to end and I am sad as well… and happy, too, for the new year coming. Thank you for sharing these at FF, Dini. They look gorgeous. Enjoy the party.
Thank you Jhuls! We don’t observe the holiday either, but we celebrate it in our own way as a family! 🙂 It’s become a day about family (sort of like our Thanksgiving!)
I am very excited about the new year too! It’s been a fantastic year, and I can’t wait to see what 2015 will bring! Thank you for hosting the pa rty!!
Sounds just perfect – deep, dark, decadent little morsels!
Thank you Jessie! They were all of that! (I’m actually having one now…)
Oh Dini, these look absolutely amazing! Beyond amazing!! Pinning and sharing…I so want to make these!
Thank you Michelle! This has quickly become my favourite! You definitely need to try it 🙂