Canadian Living's Really Good Rum Balls

I considered not blogging about this recipe because I'm not crazy about this photo and I'm a big perfectionist. But, I'm also a realist and these rum balls were such a hit they're all gone, and I can't bear not to share the recipe with you. I'm not making them again just for the photo, sorry.

I never used to like rum balls, but over the last couple of years I've developed a soft spot for those gigantic tennis ball-sized rum balls I can get at mom-and-pop run Italian bakeries.

Those are cake-based, though, and these are not. But here's a fun factoid. My colleague, who has chef's training, told me you should stay away from rum balls in bakeries because they're made of the cake scraps the pastry chefs don't want to toss out. Maybe that's not such a bad thing? You be the judge. Either way, these rum balls were the homeliest of sweets I displayed on my three-tier stand at work and they were also the ones that elicited the most praise and finished the fastest.

They're smaller than I thought they'd be, but they fit right inside the mini-cupcake liners so they're convenient for parties.

I found this recipe in a "Special Holiday Edition" of Canadian Living magazine but you can also find the recipe here.

Substitutions: None

Would I make this again? I think I will because they were pretty straightforward and big hit with people of varying taste palates. But I still prefer the cake-based rum balls.

Grade: Three-and-a-half stars out of five. Points docked for lack of doughy-cakey-goodness.