Bourbon balls
Bourbon balls are a sweet dish in southern cuisine and a typical meal in Kentucky in particular . The pralines consist of a base of bourbon whiskey , sugar and other ingredients that are either dipped in chocolate or rolled in sugar.
Bourbon balls are mainly eaten on public holidays, but are also an integral part of the festivities on the edge of the track at the Kentucky Derby . Because the bourbon balls are not baked, the alcohol and its taste are fully preserved. Choosing a good bourbon is an important part of the preparations.
The chocolate variant contains butter, the sugar variant contains ground biscuits or cakes. Other common ingredients include ground pecans , honey, cocoa, graham crackers, and vanilla wafers . The variant with chocolate is made by mixing the ingredients into a homogeneous mass. This is formed into small balls the size of a teaspoon and chilled in the refrigerator for a long time. Then the mass is dipped in melted chocolate and decorated with a pecan nut.
In the variant that is rolled in sugar, the base mass does not need to be cooled as it does not contain butter. Here cocoa, honey, crackers or stale cakes are often used, which are mixed with the bourbon and sugar. This sugar variant is the older and can be found in cookbooks since around 1800. The variant with chocolate did not emerge until the Second World War , but is much more popular today. It was distributed by the Rebecca Ruth Candy Company. Legend has it that it was created in 1936 during Kentucky's bicentenary in Frankfort , when an important guest suggested to a local baker that the two best ingredients in the world - chocolate and bourbon - should be combined.
Remarks
- ^ A b c Sara Camp Arnold: Bluegrass Bites: Bourbon Balls , Southern Foodways Alliance April 30, 2014
- ↑ Kentucky Bourbon Balls Recipe ~ Kentucky Derby Museum Cookbook , Inside Derby Central
literature
- Sarah C. Baird, Chase Chauffe: Kentucky Sweets: Bourbon Balls, Spoonbread & Mile High Pie , History Press 2014, ISBN 978-1-62619-377-2 .