Chocolate Covered Cherries

Living in Saudi Arabia you can’t find chocolate covered cherries so when my father was visiting – I tried making these. They are time consuming and you need to allow at least a week to allow them to age but so worth the effort! Here are my best pointers: 1) drain and blot dry the cherries, then freeze them on cookie sheets. 2) Divide the fondant into four equal pieces and then after lightly dusting it, roll it onto an arm’s length piece of wax paper that you will fold in half. Then turn the fondant over and dust it on the other side so that it won’t stick and place between the two sheets of waxed paper. Stack the layers in the fridge. 3) Take out 10 – 20 cherries from the freezer and use a 2” biscuit cutter to get the right amount of fondant. MAKE SURE THE CHERRY IS SEALED WELL and then freeze the fondant rolled cherries overnight. 4) When you are ready to dip them, take them out 10 – 20 at a time use a good quality semi sweet chocolate. (Candy dipping tools makes it easier although I've used chopsticks before I had those...) Place in the freezer for 15 minutes and then paint the bottom with chocolate again to seal in the fondant. You might need to “repair” other places that were not covered by the chocolate to keep the cherries from oozing. I then allow them to freeze overnight and then place them on the counter under saran for 1 week after giving my family the “don’t you dare touch them” look. I will redip them after the week to make them look fresh.

This is a great recipe, but I combined it with another one that I found so I'll let you know my helpful tips. I used the maraschino cherries that have the stems still on them, it made it so easy to dip them in chocolate. Plus people will know that they are homemade. You use less chocolate this way as well. I still used slightly more chocolate than the recipe called for, but not much more as you can shake them off a little bit by holding onto the stem and spinning them. I also soaked my cherries in Taylor's Port for a couple of days before hand. This makes them a delicacy. The alchohol combines with the fondant that you wrap around the cherries and makes a great cordial. It also cuts down on the extreme sweetness of the fondant. This recipe would not have been as good without it. I wrapped my cherries in the fondant and then froze them on a cookie sheet for a couple of days before dipping them, that way they were good and hard. I had no trouble with them melting. To wrap the fondant around the cherries with out it sticking to your fingers, it is best to spray your hands with nonstick spray several times throughout the process. It is also good to blot the excess moisture off the cherries with a paper towel after draining them from the Port. I tried dusting my hands with powdered sugar too, and that didn't work as well as the spray. After these were cooled, I arranged them in little foil cups like miniature cupcake cups and placed them in Candy boxes that you can

Great recipe. Whoever had problems b/c she melted butter with the chocolate -- NEVER melt butter with chocolate. You MUST use shortening. The high water content (20%) makes the chocolate freeze up and you'll ruin the entire batch.