Rumballs by Mag

Okok I admit I've been somewhat neglecting my cooking recently. The other day, opened my cupboard and saw my baking tins and brand new jelly mould (thanks ZH!) sitting there sadly in a corner and felt guilty about not using them. Work has been bothering me a lot lately, whoever said Dec was a lull period??!!

Anyhow, Mags posted this superbly easy recipe, really inspiring to try, if I can haul my lazy ass off to the supermarket to get the ingredients!

ME Rumballs(serves 30)Ingredients
1 dark fruit cake (supermarket variety)
1 x 250g dark cooking chocolate
50g butter/margarine
Real Rum (recommended brand: Bundaberg Rum, of course!)

Instructions1. In a deep bowl, break up dark fruit cake using fingers. Pour 1/2 cup of rum over mixture. Mix it well. Cover with cling wrap. Set aside for overnight if you can. (I was too impatient and only left it alone for 2 hours, but still GOOD!)

2. In a microwave bowl, cook the cooking chocolate in the microwave according to instructions on pack. In a seperate microwave container, melt margarine/butter in the microwave for 15 seconds.

3. Pour melted chocolate and margarine/butter into dark fruit cake and rum mixture. Mix very well.

4. Take a tablespoon of mixture and shape it with the palm of your hands until they resemble golf balls. Place each rumball into small paper cake cups to prevent each rumballs froms sticking together. Refrigerate overnight to allow the rum to infuse.

5. You may also choose to roll your rumballs in dessicated coconut or chocolate bits for texture and presentation. I left mine au natural. It is simply divine!

Tip: The rumballs keep very well because they are alcohol laden. If you love your rum, add more to the mixture. They freeze well for a long time. So make plenty now and freeze them. When friends come over, thaw them out on your kitchen benchtop and they would compliment you to no end!

Verdict:
1) Finally tried out the receipe and realised that it's not really suitable for humid weather! :( The mixture started to melt pretty fast so you gotta work fast. Towards the end, everything was just a river of rummy choc and my balls weren't spherical at all. Alternatively, after adding the hot stuff and mixing properly (the melted butter and cooking choc), return to the fridge for just 20 mins to firm up again. Not too long or it sets as a blob and you can't work it into balls either!
2) I added left over choc chips to the mixture. Simply divine! Adds crunch to the bite. By the same token, u could add nuts too, altho that's not very 'rumball-ish'.

Updated: another recipe http://simmetra.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/rum-balls.html