Deck Your Halls With Bourbon Balls (or Rum Balls) (GAPS, paleo, Primal, dairy free, gluten free)

By Kristen

There is something about food in ball form that pleases everyone, from your lumberjack cousin to your blue-blooded grandmother, everyone will be smiling when they lay eyes on this slightly sinful treat.

Part 1: Coconut Vanilla Cookies (don't worry, you can't taste the coconut once the balls are complete)

Have you ever noticed that honey cookies are always soft? That's because honey is a humectant, which means it both attracts and retains water. However, this dessert desires a dry cookie to start, which is why you have to throw these into the inferno of your oven until they are seconds away from burning.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sifted coconut flour

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 cup honey

1 pinch Celtic sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a largish bowl combine the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients. Slowly mix the coconut flour into the liquid ingredients using an electric mixer. The dough will be dryish but will still stick together. These cookies do not need to be pretty my friends, they will soon be decimated into tiny little crumbs, so grab an inch-sized ball and smash it down flat on a well greased cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until they are so dry and brown they are almost burned.

Part 2: The Balls

1 batch coconut vanilla cookies

1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons honey 

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons small batch bourbon or dark rum (rum is not GAPS legal)

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate 

1/8 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

11/2 cup lightly toasted pecans (or walnuts for rum balls) pulsed in your food processor until they are fine little pieces.

Pulse the coconut vanilla cookies in the food processor until they are small crumbs. Melt the chocolate over a double broiler or one you make by putting a metal bowl into water that has just been boiled. stir the honey into the chocolate. Stir the bourbon into the chocolate, one tablespoon at a time. Mix 1/2 the nuts into the cookie crumbs along with the salt. Stir the chocolate into the cookie crumb mixture. Form into balls and roll in the remaining nuts. Let sit in your fridge for a day to allow the flavors to mingle. They really are better with age, but who am I kidding? You are totally eating one right now :) One more thing: you can freeze these and they will keep in the fridge for at least a week.