Recipe: Dipped Cherries and Molded Cherries

DIPPED CHERRIES

1 large jar Maraschino cherries
1 pint Bailey's Irish creme (optional)

40 toothpicks

5 paper towels

5 pounds of Hershey's, Nestle, Guiradelli or some real high grade chocolate, milk or dark, sold in discs, not the blocks. It costs more, but it's worth every bit.

1 bain marie or double boiler (or just 2 pots in which one fits inside the other. You will put water in the bottom pot, heat it to warm and melt the chocolate discs you put in the top pot.)

1 box cut rite wax paper

OPTIONAL SOAKING OF CHERRIES IN IRISH CREME:
Empty out all of the maraschino cherry jar's liquid and replace it with Bailey's Irish creme. Put the lid back on the maraschino cherry jar and stick it back in the fridge for one month. In a month, remove all the cherries out of the jar and into a strainer' discard liquid.

TO PREPARE THE CHERRIES:
After draining cherries, place on paper toweling and let them drain more until they are dry. 30 minutes. Roll the paper towel around to get all the moisture off the cherries.

Insert a toothpick into the top of each cherry enough to pick it up and hold it. The toothpick will be used for dipping the cherries, then it will be discarded.

TO MELT THE CHOCOLATE:
Add as much chocolate to the top pot as will fit in there and add water to the bottom pot and turn the stove on low. Never let water touch chocolate because it ruins it. If you lick anything, like spoons, do not put them back into the melting chocolate. Moisture from your tongue will ruin the chocolate.

As the chocolate discs melt, use a metal spoon to stir them.

When the chocolate is melted and smooth, hold each cherry by the toothpick and dip it in the chocolate, covering it entirely. Don't leave the cherry sitting in the chocolate very long. Just dip it and let it drain off some of the chocolate in the pot, then sit it upright on the wax paper you have ready there on a flat cookie sheet near the stove. Gently twist the toothpick to get it out. If a hole is left there, take the toothpick and dip the tip into the warm chocolate and touch up the hole in the cherry. When all the cherries are dipped, sit them in the fridge for 20 minutes to harden the coating.

---

MOLDED CHERRIES

In addition to the equipment required above, get 6-7 plastic molds, specifically for cherries or truffles (bigger), so you have enough molds for all the cherries in one jar of cherries. There's 35-45 cherries in a jar, and 8 cherry molds in each plastic candy mold. 6x8=48. Hand wash the molds really good. Dry them with paper towels really good, not a cloth towel. They have to be really clean.

You'll also need fondant, which comes in bags; it's nothing but sugar. Don't use regular table sugar. The instructions say one pound of fondant mixed with 3 tablespoons water, mix it up and let it sit for one hour to absorb the water. It will be thick. You can add flavorings and colorings to the fondant if you want to.

Melt chocolate as described above. Spoon chocolate into the molds about 3/4 of the way to the edge and then set them in the fridge for 2 minutes. Not longer.

Lay out some wax paper and when the two minutes are up, bring the mold out of the fridge and quickly turn it upside down over the wax paper and tap out the excess chocolate. You don't want the coating to be real thick. This chocolate dripping on the wax paper is called flash. When you are done tapping out all the chocolate, put this wax paper in the fridge for a few minutes and then peel off the flash and put it back into the double boiler to be used again.

With your freshly washed fingers, pick up a cherry and grab some creamy fondant and rub it all over the cherry. Not too thick, now. Drop the cherry in the chocolate covered mold. Do this for every mold hole until they all have fondant-covered cherries in them. Now spoon in more melted chocolate until the hole is covered. Cover all the holes with cherries in them. Pick up the mold an inch off the counter and drop it on the counter 5 times. You are tapping down the chocolate and getting all the air out of the cherries. The chocolate will smooth out and any bubbles of air will come up and pop.

Put the mold in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bring out the mold and turn it over onto wax paper, tapping the stubborn ones until they separate from the mold. Store chocolate covered cherries in a cool dry place in a covered, air tight container for 3 days before eating; this gives the fondant time to cordial completely.

Use leftover chocolate to cover popcorn, nuts, dip strawberries, dried fruit, cookies, etc.

Adapted from source: notley37/rec.food.cooking/2002

---

ALSO SEE:

Chocolate Cherries (Liquid Centers) with Variations
(including recipe for Fondant)