When we told the mechanic who helped us today what we brought for them, we saw his eyes light up and that made us feel great. 
My friend, Vesna, gave me this recipe a few months ago, and I’ve been looking forward to making it. It takes very little time to make them, but best of all, they’re absolutely scrumptious!! I did make a few changes to Vesna’s recipe. Her recipe calls for one egg, but I used an egg replacer instead. Now I personally have no problem eating raw eggs (I buy organic, free-range eggs) despite the risk of salmonella poisoning. I’ve eaten a lot of raw cookie dough and cake batter my whole life and never had a problem, and if I was making this just for me and Kemal, I would have just used an egg. However, since I was making this for others who might not wish to consume raw egg, I wanted to use an egg substitute. The other change I made to Vesna’s recipe was that I used more walnuts because the dough seemed a little too thin. That might have been because I used an egg substitute instead of a real egg.
We purchased the egg replacer at Whole Foods. I believe I’ve also seen it at Kroger. It wasn’t expensive, and it’s nice to have an egg substitute on-hand for those times that you need eggs and find that you’re out.
I absolutely love these rum balls! They don’t take long to prepare, they make a great gift, and they also freeze well. Sometimes it’s nice to have something sweet already prepared in and in the freezer so if you have unexpected guests you have something homemade you can serve. They take no time to thaw out. Also, if you’re doing a lot of cooking for the holidays, this is something you can make ahead and freeze so you have less to cook at one time.
Anyway here’s the recipe. Keep in mind that you can feel and taste the rum, but it’s mild. If you prefer a stronger rum taste, you can always add more. I think I will next time.
Chocolate Walnut Rum Balls (Kuglice od Oraha)
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups ground walnuts
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
- 1 shot rum (I used Bacardi Gold)
- 1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
- 2 tbsp. water
Instructions:
- Grind the walnuts in your blender about 1/2 cup at a time. I use the puree setting, and when every 1/2 cup of walnuts is ground, transfer it to a bowl and then grind some more.
- After all the walnuts have been ground up, set aside 1 cup of walnuts in a small bowl. You will use those walnuts to roll the balls in.
- In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips on medium heat, stirring frequently.
- In a coffee cup, mix together the Ener-G Egg Replacer and water.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together 1 1/4 cups ground walnuts, the powdered sugar, the melted chocolate chips, the rum, and the egg replacer that you mixed with water.
- Stir until blended.
- Make a small ball with the dough.
- Roll the ball in the cup of walnuts that you set aside.
- Continue making balls and rolling them in walnuts, placing them on a plate.
- Refrigerate when they’re done.
- After they’ve chilled about 20 minutes, they’re ready to be served. How you serve them is up to you. You can present them on a serving dish if you like, or if you’re giving them as gifts, you can put them in a holiday tin. I put my little walnut rum balls in mini paper cupcake liners. Here’s a picture of the ones we kept for ourselves:
Kemal mentioned they would also be good rolled in coconut, and that sounds totally awesome! We will definitely try that, but when we do, I will use Parrot Bay Coconut Rum to enhance the coconut flavor even more. I’m looking forward to trying it like that!
