Chocolate Covered Cherries
Homemade chocolate covered cherries can be a special treat to make from scratch. Using maraschino cherries with stems will make the process go a little easier for dipping them into the chocolate.
Yield: 24 cherries
Ingredients:
- 1 jar maraschino cherries with stems (10 oz size)
- 2 tablespoons butter - softened
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 teaspoons shortening or coconut oil
- 1 cup chocolate chips (see notes)
Instructions:
- Drain the cherries and dry them on paper towels. A 10 oz jar should have about 24 cherries.
- Cream the butter and then gradually add the sugar, beating well. Blend in the milk and the extracts.
- Take a small amount of the sugar mixture and flatten it out a bit, and then wrap around each cherry. Place on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.
- Chill the wrapped cherries for 2 hours.
- For the chocolate coating, melt the chocolate chips and the shortening (or coconut oil) in a double boiler or in the microwave.
- Dip each cherry by the stem until covered with chocolate. You may need to use a knife or spoon to get some of the chocolate on the tops of the cherries too. Place the chocolate covered cherries on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
- Let the chocolate covered cherries cool until the chocolate has hardened.
Notes:
The fondant sugar mixture might want to stick to your hands instead of to the cherries. It can help to put the sugar mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes. I also found it helpful to rinse and wipe my hands often during the process.
I used half semi-sweet chocolate chips and half milk chocolate chips for my cherries.
I prefer the double boiler method for the melted chocolate. The melted chocolate needs to stay warm and soft as you dip all the cherries. If you use the homemade double boiler method, you can just keep the bowl of melted chocolate over the pan of hot water as you dip the cherries.