Bourbon ball

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A Bourbon ball is the name for two different forms of bite-size confections incorporating bourbon as a key ingredient.

The most common variation for home cooks is regional to the southern United States and incorporates crushed cookies, corn syrup, chopped pecans, and bourbon into a mixture that is formed into balls and coated in powdered sugar to prevent the evaporation of the alcohol. Once molded they are aged for up to a week before serving in a sealed container in a cool dark place. They will keep for up to a month before becoming too friable to pick up in one piece as the evaporation process desiccates the packed structure of the cookie.

It is an incorrect myth that they originated in the central Kentucky area before the 1900's. Bourbon Ball is the name of the commercially prepared chocolate with a bourbon creme center invented and sold by the Rebecca Ruth Candy Factory, the original Bourbon Ball was invented by Ruth Hanly Booe in 1938. Rebecca Ruth Candy was founded by Ruth Hanly Booe and Rebecca Gooch in 1919 - one year before women got the right to vote in public elections.