Before starting this house renovation, I baked and canned all the time. In fact, I’d dare to say we leaned more food blog than renovation and design blog before we bought this house. How times have changed! Our season of life.
When I was asked to be part of the cookie recipe swap, I practically jumped up and dawn and said yes! Around the holidays I bake about 10 types of cookies so I can make boxes and bring them to our neighbors, family and a few clients. My recipe is below, and I’ve linked all the other participants sharing their cookie recipes. If you need inspiration for holiday baking or new blogs to follow, links are below.
I always look for a variety of texture and flavors for my cookie boxes. Rum balls have become the adult favorite (maybe a little boozy). They are easy to make and look impressive with the sanding sugar finishing.
We’re essentially going to make a flat brownie, then hydrate it with booze. This is a large batch recipe, so you’ll have plenty to keep and some to share. See below for ingredient and variation notes.
3 sticks butter
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate (1 bag of chocolate chips)*
6 large eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 ¼ tsp of vanilla extract
1 tsp kosher salt (regular salt works too)
1 ½ cups flour
⅔ cup dark rum*
Vegetable spray or oil for coating pan
Sanding sugar (about 1 cup)
Store in an airtight box in the fridge for about 2 weeks. I normally make these a few days before Christmas and they hold until New Years.
• For some reason semi-sweet chocolate chips come in a 12 oz bag, but semi-sweet chocolate chunks come in a 11.5 oz bag. Who knows? Buy the 12 oz bag if you can. The chocolate gets melted so it doesn’t matter what shape you choose. You could also buy melting squares.
• If you want the brownie to cool faster, break up with a knife or use your hands to break up the brownie into smaller pieces that will cool faster.
• Order the sanding sugar on Amazon. I keep this in the house because it’s come in so handy for dressing up a cake and other desserts.
• Substitute rum for Kahula
• Non-alcoholic version: try a strong coffee or espresso in place of alcohol
If you make a full recipe, you can stack these in a pyramid, which is really festive. For gift boxes, use little cups to prevent sticking.
Here’s my digital neighbors sharing their favorite holiday cookies. Stop by their blog to see what they’ve been cooking up (pun intended). Thank you Sarah and Chole for hosting!
Boxwood Avenue
Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread
Room for Tuesday
Classic Butter Sugar Cookies
The DIY Playbook
Coconut Crispy Cookies
Life On Virginia Street
Caramel Drizzled Chocolate Peanut Clusters
Making it Lovely
Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
House of Hipsters
Peppermint Crispies
Coco Kelley
Dark Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies
Jojotastic
Salty & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Francois et Moi
Tiger Butter Bark
Renovation Husbands
Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Honey Cinnamon Filling
Sincerely, Sara D.
Lace Cookies
Yellow Brick Home
Chocolate Chip Cookies (the best of your life!)
The Gold Hive
Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Anita Yokota
Holiday Vanilla Almond Bark
[…] Butter Sugar Cookies • Rum Balls • Chocolate Peppermint […]
[…] Butter Sugar Cookies • Rum Balls • Chocolate Peppermint […]
[…] Butter Sugar Cookies • Rum Balls • Chocolate Peppermint […]
Would you please share the blue-grey wall paint color in your room pic? It is perfection!
These. Look. Amazing.
Made your rumballs yesterday at a
cookie-making gathering and I love them!! So pretty, too. I used silver sugar until I ran out and then used heath bar crumbles. Both are delicious and it was very easy. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful home, style, food and pictures. This is seriously my favorite place on the internet.
Many thanks for publishing, I really love your work,
keep it up.
Hi there,
What size of cookie sheet do I use?
Thank you,
Brenda