Intense Dark Chocolate Rum Balls {Rum Truffles}

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! 

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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.

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 rum balls 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 rum balls 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”!

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5 from 6 votes

Intense Dark Chocolate Rum Balls {Rum Truffles}

Serves 30 -35 Rum Balls/Truffles

Print Rate

Ingredients:

Rum Truffles

• 14.2 oz / 400g cookies I prefer using Digestive cookies but vanilla wafers or even graham crackers will work too
• 1/3 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
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp rum
• 1-2 tbsp white sugar

To Coat

• 1 lb / 450g melted and tempered chocolate optional
• plus extra chocolate if needed
• Desiccated coconut
• Chocolate sprinkles
• Melted White chocolate - to drizzle

Instructions:

• Melt the bittersweet chocolate and butter and 1/4 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 - 1 1/2 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.

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Or how about some gingerbread cupcakes with Santa Claus Frosting?

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