Bite-sized chocolate truffles filled with bourbon-soaked pecan and butter cream, the Kentucky Derby chocolate that turns up at every Louisville confectioner.
Bourbon balls were created by Ruth Hanly Booe at the Rebecca Ruth Candy shop in Frankfort in 1938, the year before bourbon became the official Derby drink. Booe's original combined chocolate, butter, sugar and a generous splash of Kentucky bourbon with a pecan topping. The candy became a Kentucky Derby gift tradition. Muth's Candies and Cellar Door Chocolates in Louisville both produce hand-rolled bourbon balls each Derby season, with peak production from Thanksgiving through May.
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