Rumkugeln

Every December in my grandmother Eva's kitchen, the Rumkugeln came last. Not because they were an afterthought, but because they were the easiest and the most forgiving, the reward you gave yourself after days of rolling Vanillekipferl and piping Spritzgebäck. Eva and Gretel would sit at the table with a bowl of chocolate crumb mixture, a bottle of Stroh Inländer-Rum that could strip paint, and a tin of Schokostreusel. They rolled and talked. The kitchen smelled like Christmas.

Rumkugeln are what Austrians make from the bits and pieces. Cake trimmings, broken biscuits, the ends of a Gugelhupf nobody wanted to throw away. You grind it all up, mix it with melted chocolate, ground walnuts, a spoonful of Marillenmarmelade, and enough Inländer-Rum that you can smell it from across the room. No oven. No thermometer. Just your hands and a little patience while you roll them into balls and coat them in chocolate sprinkles, coconut, or cocoa powder.

The trick, if there is one, is the rum. Inländer-Rum is not the same as Caribbean rum. It's an Austrian product, intensely aromatic, with a flavor that sits somewhere between molasses and burnt caramel. It's what makes these taste like Austria and not like a generic truffle. If you can't find Stroh or another Inländer-Rum, use a dark overproof rum, but know that the flavor will be different. Gretel always said you could judge aKeksteller by its Rumkugeln, because they're the one thing that can't hide behind decoration. They either taste right or they don't.