Chocolate Rum Balls | The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I spoke of my five-layer cakes - using a dozen eggs - my spun-sugar sweets, chocolate rum balls, sponge cakes with pots of cream. Cakes made with good white flour - not that cracked-grain and bird seed stuff we were using at the time.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

I did the very much condemned notion of watching this movie before reading the book. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society happened to come up on Netflix last year and catch my eye. It's an okay movie, but basically left me wanting to move to England and live in an island and be constantly grumpy while baking pies. Pretty much my life's goal.

I picked up the book not that long ago and sped through it on a work trip, managing to inhale the entirety of it within a single flight. It's quite simply written but delightful to read. While the notion of attempting a potato peel pie did cross my mind briefly, it soon disappeared when the description of the tantalising treats that Clara Suassey spoke of, which had her kicked out of the literary society, came to my attention on the page. Spun sugar, five-layer cakes and chocolate rum balls, an array of delicious sounding delights that immediately set my mind wandering. It settled quite firmly on chocolate rum balls - a treat that I remember as being very Australian, very much available around Christmas, and very much not containing rum. Though my memory of eating them is primarily based around the primary school years and may be a little skewed.

I wanted to step away from my childhood memory of rum balls and instead concentrate on ones that would have been most appreciated possibly on Guernsey as Clara Suassey read out loud her recipes. Ones without the outside coating of coconut, very much filled with a rich spiced rum and intensely chocolate-y.

*Note: I used coconut condensed milk and chocolate ripple biscuits for this recipe - both which happen to be plant based!

Chocolate Rum Balls
Makes approx. 12 - 16
Ingredients
1/4 cup of raisins, finely chopped
3 tbsp spiced rum
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups desiccated coconut
250g chocolate biscuits, *see note
320g condensed milk, *see note
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt

1. Combine the rum and the finely chopped raisins, set aside for around 10 - 20 minutes and let the rum soak into the raisins.

2. Meanwhile, using a food processor or blender, crush the chocolate biscuits until they're basically powder. A few chunks here and there are okay.

3. Place chocolate biscuit powder, 1/2 cup cocoa, desiccated coconut, condensed milk, rum soaked raisins, vanilla extract and sea salt in a bowl together and mix until well combined. The mixture should be firm enough to mould into a ball - if not, add a touch more cocoa.

4. Using the palm of your hand, roll spoonfuls of the rum ball mix into balls, placing them onto a a piece of baking paper on a tray. When all mixture has been rolled into balls place the tray into the fridge for a few hours or until mix has set.

5. Place the remaining cocoa and icing sugar into two seperate bowls, and roll the prepared balls into them to coat (separately that is, unless you want to combine the icing sugar and cocoa, all means go ahead). Enjoy with a good cup of tea!