Question about ( chocolate covered ) cherries

[Little Bit]

I'm planning to make some of Lorilei's chocolate covered cherries, but I'm wondering why it might be important to get the maraschino cherries with stems called for in the recipe, and then remove them before you make the candy. Maraschino cherries without stems seem to be more commonly available, that I've seen, and they cost less.

Does anyone know what sort of difference it might make if you substitute the kind without stems? Are the kind with stems more carefully packed, or something, so they've got a prettier shape or what? :)
Thanks for any ideas. :):):)

Here's the recipe, for those who're interested:

* Exported from MasterCook *

Lorilei's Chocolate Covered Cherries

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Candy Desserts


Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 jars maraschino cherries with stems -- (1 to 2)
1 recipe fondant( see below)
1 pkg. chocolate chips -- (1 to 2)
3 Tbls parafin wax per bag of chips -- (3 to 4)

Fondant
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup butter or margerine
1/2 ts. vanilla

For fondant: First with a fork, then with your hands, blend all ingredients together until very smooth and satiny in
appearance. Refrigerate overnight or for a few hours.

Take stems off cherries and lay on paper towels on a cookie sheet and set in freezer. When they are frozen
remove them a few at a time,(about a dozen), and wrap in about a teaspoon of fondant. You will need to work
with small amounts of the fondant as once it is warm it is impossible to use, it gets easier as you learn. Once the
cherries are wrapped set on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet and set back in the freezer. Once all the
cherries are wrapped, you will need to melt your chocolate, I always make a few milk and a few dark chocolate
cherries. Add parafin to chocolate while it melts, and working in small batches, remove from freezer and dip your
cherries.


The secret is here: Most people refrigerate their cherries until serving and the fondant doesn't melt, I dip my
cherries about 6-7 days before they are to be eaten, I put them on a high shelf in the pantry, well covered and
let them sit. Some will spring holes, you may have to eat them( what a shame) but the rest, in about 6 days will
be to die for good.


Source:
"Cooking Light Bulletin Board"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NOTES : I also often soak my cherries in brandy or rum for a few days before making the cherries. Brandied
cherries are even BETTER (if that's possible) than the original.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

[Laura B]

I have that same question! I am planning to make these this holiday season and also was curious why you get the ones with the stem just to pull the stem off? :confused:

Also, Lorilei (or anyone else who has made these), how long do they stay good? I am just wondering how far in advance I can make them before gift-giving and what to tell people about shelf life when I give them the cherries.

Thanks! I cannot wait to try them.

[Shirley Ekstein]

Well - I make chocolate-covered cherries every Christmas but have to admit I use ordinary glacé cherries, albeit the natural-coloured ones.
First I rinse them to remove all that stickiness, then dry them as well as I can and leave them out overnight spread on, and covered with, a tea towel to finsih drying. Next day I stuff them with as-big-as-I-can-shove-in-chunks of marzipan (that has been kneaded with as much brandy as I can get the marzipan to accept - making a paste of brandy and icing sugar [d'you call it confectioner's sugar?] then kneading it into the marzipan is the easiest way.)
Then I dip the marzipan-stuffed cherries into the best (at least 75% cocoa solids) chocolate I can lay hands on, using a cocktail stick to lift and dip. Lay them on greaseproof paper or baking parchment to set and dry, then keep them in a cool, dry place (pref. not the fridge) for up to a month.
Unfortunately, they never keep in our house for a month.
They usually keep about a day and a half. . .

[Laura B]

Thanks for the info, Shirley. What are glacé cherries?

[Little Bit]

Originally posted by Shirley Ekstein
Unfortunately, they never keep in our house for a month.
They usually keep about a day and a half. . .

How funny! LOL!

Shirley, Your 'stuffing' sounds divine.
I've already bought some of the maraschino cherries, for my first batch.

I'm just now catching on to the fact that Thanksgiving Day is next week! Yikes!
I pulled out this recipe just in the nick of time. Whew!

[crazycook]

They make for a nice presentation and they're less messy when you can just pick up the cherry by the stem. To decorate each chocolate cherry, I use a green coloured candy chocolate and pipe leaves near the stem. These are my brother's and mom's favourite homemade candy.

Anna :)

[Little Bit]

Just thought I'd share my experiences making these tonight:

If I'd realized that it would take me so long, I'd have rigged up a workspace for myself with someplace comfortable to sit. My feet are aching. Admittedly, I can hardly believe two hours went by, I was having such a good time.

I made the fondant in my Kitchenaid, and that went fine. I let it rest in the icebox while the cherries were in the freezer getting cold and we had dinner.

I used the stemmed cherries, and though I found it VERY handy to have the stems on while covering them in fondant and dipping them in the chocolate, I'm noticing that yummy looking syrup is leaking out from the stem end.

The ones I made without stems don't have that problem.

Also, one thing that did work fine, was counting the number of cherries I hand and measuring out that many teaspoons of fondant to chill as I covered a few frozen cherries at a time.

I also found that I needed quite a lot of chocolate, and that I should have waited to rinse the chocolate-covered double boiler until after the cherries had been dipped and allowed to harden. This would have given me some extra chocolate to use to cover up the little spots on the bottom where some of the fondant covered cherries settled to the pan before the chocolate hardened. (i.e., some cherries have a nice little hole in the bottom of their chocolate layer. Something tells me that over time the fondant will liquify and make a mess unless I cover that gap with chocolate. I guess some of mine will just have white chocolate bottoms. :o (Of course I did that on purpose! Aren't they pretty?)

[Robyncz]

This recipe looks so interesting to me. I'm dying to know how the suckers taste? Judging on taste AND presentation, was it worth the effort? I'm dying to know!!!!!

Thanks!

[Little Bit]

Originally posted by Robyncz
This recipe looks so interesting to me. I'm dying to know how the suckers taste? Judging on taste AND presentation, was it worth the effort? I'm dying to know!!!!!

Thanks!

I did succumb to temptation and try a few of these last night, and they are divine even though the fondant was still not dissolved. I used Lorilei's recipe almost exactly, but next time I'm tempted to soak some cherries in brandy or something just to see what THAT's like.
I did find some semi-sweet baking chocolate and used that plus a bit of wax to plug the holes in the bottoms of some of my cherries, it worked nicely, but that chocolate does have a different consistency than the Ghiradelli I'd used to get things going.

I'm not sure I used enough of the paraffin, since I used my microplane grater to grate it. I shaved a few heaping tablespoons of wax, but wonder if that was really enough. (The chocolate covering on my cherries seems a bit soft. I'm assuming that's due to the lack of enough wax to firm things up.)

[Shirley Ekstein]

Quick explanation about glacé cherries - they're cherries that have been preserved in sugar syrup - it's a commercial process and have no idea how to do it at home - they end up looking very shiny and are very stiff and sticky - not like fresh (or maraschino for that matter) at all. They're used a lot in fruit cakes - specially Christmas Cakes - wonder if they have a different name in the US - could they maybe be Candied Cherries? Or Crystallised Cherries? (Though over here, crystallised fruit means something different again. . . )
Can't win, can we?

[Mamasue]

I believe you are right Shirley....they are called Candied Cherries here in US and I usually don't see them till the holiday time.
:)

[Laura B]

Thanks Shirley and Mamasue! Now the question is: which kind am I going to use in my chocolate covered cherries? :D

[Little Bit]

Just thought I'd post a bit of followup on this recipe.

The cherries I made turned out okay, but the chocolate I used wasn't in very good shape to begin with, so they're not very pretty. Mine also tended to leak on the bottom, probably because of the patch job I had to do with the other chocolate.

They taste great, and there aren't many left. :o

In other news, I had some fondant left over, so I mixed some of it with a bit of peppermint oil and red paste food coloring, and the rest with a bit of lemon extract and yellow paste food coloring, and covered teaspoon sized pieces of the colored fondants with some candy melts I got.

The peppermints I made taste great, as my dad says, "They have real authority."

The lemon ones are just fine, but I think when I try it again, I might work a bit harder to get some fresh lemon flavor into the fondant. (is there such a thing as lemon marmalade?)

[lorilei]

I hate to dredge up old threads... but I did miss this one (must have been taking a vacation) and wanted to clear up the cherry stem mystery for those of you who might care :)

I have NO CLUE what the purpose of taking off the cherry stems would be.
I never do this. Never ever.
Leaving the stem on makes the cherries easier to coat with chocolate. It looks pretty to have a stem hanging out of them when they're given as gifts. The stem acts as a great little handle for when you're eating them :)

I'm sorry if I confused all of you by leaving that inane step in the recipe... I won't do it ever again. I promise ;)

[catharine]

Lorelei or someone: could you please answer a really stupid question please?

Okay - so I have never made candy before I am wondering about the whole "mix the chocolate with wax thing" - so wax is EDIBLE? :confused: I mean, I never thought that you were supposed to, or could, eat wax. I am sure that all wax is different and assume that none of you have died from eating your chocolate covered cherries.

Help me get over this please. I just feel really funny about it. Call me crazy... :)

Also, what is the minimum amount of time I could allow to make these (assuming I get over my eating wax phobia)?

[Little Bit]

lorilei: Thanks so much for the feedback! Your recipe has really inspired me. :) I've had a great time playing with flavored fondants. I've even gotten some more flavorings to try with another batch of fondant, closer to Christmas. (If I make them closer to the holiday, there's a chance there'll be some left to share by the time Christmas comes around! :o )

catharine: I don't know much about the wax issue, but did use some new Gulfwax (the kind you use to seal jelly) in mine. I don't know exactly what I did wrong, but I think my chocolate/wax mixture didn't get blended properly. Maybe I should have stirred it more carefully between cherries or something, but some of my cherries came out covered in a more waxy chocolate than I'd have preferred. Since that first batch of cherries, I've covered any number of fondants (no cherries) in some "candy melts" that seem a bit easier to work with than the chocolate/wax blend. :)

[lorilei]

catharine :)

Yes, it is edible. Paraffin wax is often added to chocolates. The addition of paraffin to the chocolate cherry balls gives it a nice, glossy finish and helps it remain solid at room temperature.


BUT -- you don't need to use paraffin in your chocolate. I often don't. (so make these... you don't have to eat wax ;))

And I would allow at LEAST 5-6 days before eating the cherries -- the fondant needs time to liquify... not that they won't TASTE good, but they might be more firm than they ought.

[catharine]

Thanks lorelei! I just may try a batch.

[hendsl]

My mother made chocolate covered cherries every Christmas. It is one of my fondest memories of the holidays. They were always made the weekend after Thanksgiving and then kept in a Tupperware container in the garage untill they were either given away or eaten. My experiance is the longer they sit, the better they are. The center liquifies (sp?) the longer they sit. Because of the butter content, they should be in a cool place.

My mom's recipe is very similar but a little different.

1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk (don't use light)
1 stick butter (don't use light)
2 lbs. confectioners sugar

Mix together until smooth-Chill

2 large jars marachino cherries

Wrap above mixture around individual cherrries and chill.

1 large pkg chocolate chips
1/3 bar parafin

Melt over double boiler. Keep warm. Dip balls into chocolate. Set on waxed paper.

I haven't made these since my mom died 3 years ago. Maybe I will make them this weekend and listen to a Perry Como CD in honor of Mom.