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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Enjoy all the traditional flavours of a rum ball, with the addition of crunchy pecans! Crunchy on the outside and decadent on the inside, these butter pecan rum balls are perfect for the holidays.
Why not try making some Pecan Pie Bars or Pecan Tassies with the pecans you have left from this recipe? If you’d like to experience these flavours without making balls, try this Pecan Butter Rum Cake Recipe.
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: These pecan rum balls are very easy to make.
- Total Time: The assembly of these balls will take you about 10 minutes, but you do need to bake and cool a cake first, so get started early in the day.
- Variations: Try adding some mini chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or some Skor bits to these rum balls! Roll them in some sprinkles along with the chopped pecans. Maybe even add a drizzle of caramel or chocolate sauce to them before you chill them.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a large baking sheet, a medium bowl, and some parchment paper or wax paper. You’ll also need a 9×13 pan, a mixing bowl, and a spoon for preparing the cake.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Cake: For the purposes of this recipe, a butter pecan cake mix will make everything flavourful and easy. But if you have a favourite cake recipe you’d like to use instead, or you can only find yellow or vanilla cake mix, that’s fine.
Rum: Nothing fancy needed here, though you can absolutely use your fanciest rum if you’d like. If you don’t want any alcohol in these rum balls, you can buy rum flavouring at the grocery store, right next to the vanilla and other extracts.
Pecans: You can buy them pre-chopped or chop up whole ones yourself. Either way, they’ll give a delicious chewy bite to the exterior of the rum balls.
How To Make Butter Pecan Rum Balls
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Prepare cake according to box directions and let cool completely. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.
- Crumble the cooled cake into a medium bowl. Add the rum and the condensed milk. Mix to form a dough.
- Form 1 inch balls from the dough. Roll the balls in the chopped pecans and place them on the lined baking sheet.
- Refrigerate or freeze.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Butter Pecan Rum Balls
Rum: Just like you don’t want to cook with wine you wouldn’t drink, you should use rum you actually like. Spiced rum will add depth of flavour. Or, if rum isn’t your alcohol of choice, try some bourbon. And remember, you can still get rum flavour in there without stepping foot in a liquor store. Just check the baking aisle for rum flavouring.
Make These In Advance: These rum balls freeze well and defrost quickly, so why not make an extra big batch and freeze them for that holiday party coming up in a few weeks? Or, make them in advance and giver them a day or two to sit in the fridge. The flavours will get richer and more intense that way.
Storage Instructions
You can refrigerate these in a sealed container for several days. The flavours will get even better.
If it will be longer before you serve them, put them in the freezer. They’ll freeze well for several weeks or even months. Freeze them until they’re solid on a sheet pan or tray before putting them into an airtight container.
More Delicious Holiday Dessert Recipes
Looking for more tasty treats to make for your holiday parties?
Try some Old Fashioned Gingerbread or make a batch of Grandma Marion’s Christmas Pudding for classic flavours.
For the chocolate lovers, whip up some 3 Ingredient Christmas Fudge or a pan of Fudgy Gingerbread Brownies.
There you go, everyone. A tasty and chewy twist on a decadent classic. Try these pecan rum balls and let me know what you think.
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
Pecan Rum Balls
Ingredients
- 1 375 gram Butter Pecan Cake Mix
- ½ cup dark spiced rum, or bourbon
- ¼ cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup pecans, finely chopped toasted
Instructions
- Prepare the butter pecan cake according to the package instructions.
- Cool in the pan completely.
- Assemble the Rum Balls
- Crumble up the baked cake into a medium mixing bowl.
- Add in the rum and the condensed milk. Mix together until all of the ingredients are combined and the cake is now a dough that can be rolled into balls.
- Roll the mixture into one inch balls, then roll the balls into the chocolate sprinkles, covering them completely.
- Place the rum balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze them individually first, then transfer to a sealed container to keep frozen.
- These are best if left to sit a few days in the refrigerator if you are eating them soon, or keep them in the freezer until you are ready to eat.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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