How to make your own Chocolate Covered Cherries ♥

Chocolate Covered Cherries are my husband’s favourite! I decided to try my hand at making him some as a Christmas gift. They take about 2 weeks to soften and so I never did have time to post a blog about them. I figured they would also make a great Valentine’s Day ♥ gift for a loved one, so here they are!

I researched different ways to make Chocolate Covered Cherries and I checked out a couple of recipes from some other blogs. I was inspired by the Downright Delish Blog and Bakergirl. I combined a few ideas from each of these blogs and here is what I did.

First of all, I was in the grocery store and spotted Maraschino cherries. I had it in my mind that I was going to make the chocolates but I hadn’t yet read over the directions carefully. However, I went ahead and bought this jar of cherries. Once I got around to getting started, I discovered I was supposed to buy cherries with stems. I did look in a couple of other stores and I never found them so I decided to just make due with these.

Ingredients

• approximately 60 Maraschino cherries ( I large 28 oz. jar) *preferably with stems
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 3 tbsp. of softened butter
• 3 tbsp. of light corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp. of salt
• 1/2 tsp. of almond extract
• 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp. of cooking oil
• 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips + 1 tsp. of cooking oil

Directions

• Drain the cherries and freeze them on a cookie sheet for an hour
• In a mixing bowl combine in sugar, butter,corn syrup,salt and almond extract. Mix it slowly. It will be very crumbly and dusty to start until it starts to form the dough.
• Cover dough in plastic wrap and chill for an hour
• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Use a cookie cutter or glass to cut into circles. (approximately 2″ circles)
• Wrap each circle around a cherry and lightly roll it in your hands to cover cherry and smoothen.
• Refrigerate for about an hour
• Melt chocolate chips and oil in pot on the stove.
• I used a toothpick to pierce each cherry and dip it into chocolate, swirling until covered. A spoon in your other hand with help with the process. (if you have cherries with stems, then even better)
• Next make sure you take the toothpick out and use the end to make sure the hole you pierced is covered and sealed with the chocolate.
• Set them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and put them in the fridge to set
• I melted white chocolate chips and drizzled them over half of the chocolates for some variety
• Once hardened the chocolates can be stored in containers in the fridge.

From what I read, the cherries get better with time. The fondant around the cherry softens to taste its best in 2 weeks. Although they still taste good right away the middle is firm. They are best served at room temperature as well.

I ended up with 61 chocolate covered cherries! No one else at my house likes them but my husband… and he managed to eat them all! Yup, it was a great gift and he was impressed that I made them for him.

PHOTO DIRECTIONS

If you are looking for a creative treat to try then I think these are fun. Wouldn’t that be a sweet gift for Valentine’s Day? ♥ ♥

About these ads