Baking: Week 2 - Miniature - Irish Creme Liquor Balls

Mmm, balls.

Week: 2
Theme: Miniatures
Dish: Irish Creme Liquor Balls

Hi again! I have to admit, I feel like we cheated this week. After last week, we had a ton of brownies left over and because we don't have friends (FOREVER ALONE TOGETHER) we weren't able to finish them all. So I decided to repurpose the brownies into Chef John's Rum Ball recipe!

We looked at our sizable college stash of booze, but we realized that we didn't have enough rum to do this recipe, so we opened up our new bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme (Costco sized!) and went to work.

I may or may not have added more alcohol than what was needed. :)

We didn't follow the recipe very exactly, but it was a fun template to follow. I added about 6 brownies into the mix and mixed in a couple of swigs of Baileys till it looked like paste. Then, I used a tablespoon measuring spoon and scooped out the contents, using a chopstick to help maneuver it out. It smelled nice and alcoholic! I ended up scooping them beforehand and placing it in the freezer, but I wonder if I could just place the whole thing in...

 I didn't have good dark chocolate like he had suggested so I went back to the Costco sized bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I swear I'll start buying the good stuff once I finish this bag! I feel like learning how to melt the chocolate via the steaming method was my real learning point of this week. I've never been able to successfully do it -- well, I've done it twice -- so having it work is quite nice.

My kitchen seems inadequately equipped because I couldn't find a heat-resistant (i.e. not plastic) bowl that would fit over a pot without it touching the bottom so I had to fashion one out of a deep metal bowl and a stock pot. Thank god that it was just wide enough to fit.

Here are the rolled balls. I took them out a little early and rolled them and it looked like I smeared poop all over my hands.

Our chocolate didn't melt as nicely as Chef John's. It was thicker and didn't coat the balls as nice, but it was still really tasty and I had a hard time forcing myself not to stick my face into the concoction. Because the consistency of my chocolate was thicker, our balls didn't come out nice a smooth. But, it's okay, I want to say that it has character.

In the end, the ball was actually more mushy than I would have expected. I may have been heavy handed with the alcohol. But they were still quite tasty! You feel the kick after you finish it and after a few, it's gets nice. :)