’Tis the season for festive treats! Elizabeth Chambers’ Bourbon Balls make the perfect addition to any holiday bash.
“My mom made hundreds of them for our annual Christmas parties each year when I was growing up, and I always found them to be beautiful and chic,” the BIRD Bakery founder, 40, exclusively reveals in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “Once I was older and made them myself, I couldn’t believe how simple they were.”
Chambers — whose award-winning bakery has storefronts in San Antonio, Dallas and Denver — also likes to gift her confections to her loved ones during the merry season. “They’re wonderful for teachers, friends, coaches,” the Cooking Channel personality told Us. “And they freeze beautifully, so I always have them on hand!”
Chambers’ recipe — which makes up to four dozen sweet spheres — features baked goodies that are filled with bourbon and orange juice. Interested in a stronger bourbon flavor? Chambers advises Us to reduce (or eliminate) the orange juice.
The TV host — who shares daughter Harper, 8, and son Ford, 5, with ex-husband Armie Hammer — opened up BIRD Bakery in 2012, sharing her arsenal of family recipes.
“We celebrated 10 years in March. It has flown by, and also at the same time, it feels like it’s been 100 years,” Chambers gushed to San Antonio Magazine last month of her bake shop, noting Harper and Ford love coming to visit the cafés. “Our San Antonio location is my heart. That’s where we originally opened as an homage to my grandmother and my mom. … San Antonio always feels like home when I’m there. If I could be there every single day, open to close, I would. Few things make me happier.”
Keep scrolling to get Chambers’ recipe for her Decadent Bourbon Balls in time for the holidays, and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly for even more festive inspiration:
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups Texas pecans
11 oz vanilla wafer cookies
¾ cup dried cherries
1 ½ cups unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa, divided
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, divided
1 tsp high-quality vanilla extract
⅓ cup corn syrup
¼ cup high-quality bourbon
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp edible gold dusting powder
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Toast the pecans on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes, rotating regularly, until golden brown. Let cool.
- In a food processor, pulse the wafers into crumbs and then add the cherries. Pulse lightly, and then add the toasted pecans. Pulse the mixture three more times.
- In a large bowl, mix together the crumb-pecan mixture. Add 1 cup of the cocoa, 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar and the vanilla extract. Incorporate completely and add the corn syrup.
- Stir in the bourbon and orange juice. Mix thoroughly.
- Sift the remaining ½ cup cocoa and ½ cup confectioners’ sugar onto a large plate or flat surface.
- Form the crumb mixture into ¾ -inch balls and roll them through the cocoa-sugar mixture, coating completely. Sprinkle with gold dusting powder, if desired.
