Chocolate Rum Balls

Chocolate Rum Balls:
Adapted from All Recipes

11 ounce box of Nilla Wafers
1/2 cup and 1 Tablespoon and 1 teaspoon confectioner's sugar
3 Tablespoons and 1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Valhrona)
1 1/8 cups chopped walnuts
2 Tablespoons and 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/3 cup and 1 Tablespoon Captain Morgan's spiced rum

Toast walnuts at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Use food processor to finely chop walnuts.  Consistency should be somewhat between powdery and chopped/diced.  If you don't want a little crunch, grind nuts all the way.  If you want some texture, leave some chopped/diced.

Crush entire box of Nilla Wafers in food processor until it is powder like.

In a large bowl, stir together the crushed vanilla wafers, sugar, cocoa and nuts.  Blend in corn syrup and rum.

Chill dough for 30 minutes to an hour.

Shape into 1 inch balls.  (If you dust hands in confectioners sugar, dough is easier to roll).  Place extra confectioner's sugar into Ziploc bag.  Shake balls in confectioner's sugar.

Store in an airtight container for 4 days or so to develop the flavor.  Roll again in confectioners' sugar before serving.

Variations:  Dust in cocoa powder, roll in sprinkles, maybe dust with confectioner's sugar/candy cane mixture?  Use coconut rum?  Use pecans instead of walnuts?  I did try Oreo variations as a topping and instead of the wafers, and I did not like it as much as the original with the confectioners sugar/cocoa powder dustings.  FYI for next year.

Also, proportions seem weird, but scale is adjusted due to the box size of the Vanilla Wafers.  This scaling makes about 40 balls and I really don't need much more than that.