chocolate covered cherries

fishlessman

is there a trick to getting the chocalate to stick to a marinated cherry, ive got a few quarts of cherries marinating in cognac for a couple months now and my first attempt at dipping them was lousy. the chocalate seems to thicken up and either lumps or slides off. they were tasty though not picture worthy. anyone do it with success and nows the secret, maybe something to add to the chocolate while melting etc

stike

those liquid filled cherries are made with a kind of gum or wrapped in a type of sugary wafer that later melts at room temp.

they wrap the cherry in this stuff that i think looks like fondant. then it's dpped in choclate, and the stuff melts inside.

hate to say it, but i remember this from Mr. Rogers or the Romper Room.

...maybe you could powder them with powdered sugar, or bartender's sugar, then dip in chocolate. the moisture in the cherry should meltthe sugar afterward. no?

cool idea.

what does google say?

J

fishlessman

i was thinking after makeing this mess with a trial run that my best option would be to put them in an ice tray semi frozen and just pour the chocalate in. as is they turned brown in the cognac and dont look appetizing, the messy chocalate hides that. next summer i might add a red dye to the congnac before canning. after trying this, i knew there had to be a trick

fishlessman

ill try the sugar coating next time but have the ice trays as a back up. what does google say? i figured i would ask on a bbq forum, seemed like the right thing to do

Buckethead

Melt your chocolate on a double boiler.
After melted remove from heat and add some additional chocolate to temper.
The chocolate will not adhere to anything high in moisture, (it will slide off). Dry as much as posible.
Place dipped product on wax paper. (Dipped Stuff won't stick to the wax paper)

Best to use a dipping chocolate instead of chips, chips weren't meant to melt but instead hold their shape during baking.
Hope this helps.
Doug

stike

i can't remember how i learned it. my dad loves those cherries. we used to get the brach's ones for him for christmas, and he'd pretend he didn't know what was in the box. heck, he could have been faking that he liked them for all i know.

years later, my wife got him (and me) some hand-dipped ones from Winfrey's (local candy shop), in dark, milk, bittersweet, etc. chocolates. he said "these are great. i don't ever want those other kind ever again.

found this (i have a sh!tload of work i am avoiding right now) "Have you ever wondered how the liquid center gets inside a chocolate covered cherry ? The "liquid" is actually fondant, and is firm when wrapped around the cherry. The juice from the cherry acts on the sugar causing the fondant to liquefy days later, and only after being dipped in chocolate."

with this link.

http://www.baking911.com/candy/fondant.htm

fishlessman

thats pretty much what i did and i used the dipping chocalate you use for strawbeerries. what i didnt realize until too late is that the liquid from the cherries causes the chocalate in the double boiler to harden/ thicken quickly, adding oil seemed to get it to liquify again.

stike

any moisture will cause the chocolate to seize up and get grainy

Grandpas Grub

fishlessman,

There is a very elderly lady in our neighborhood that makes a lot of candy including chocolate covered cherries.

All I know is that the liquid used around the cherry is somewhat solid and after dipping the cherries must 'cure' (not sure if that is the correct word) for a certain amount of days to turn into a good tasting liquid.

She brought over a box and we were told not to eat for 10 days.

That got me curious and after 4 or 5 days I bit into one. Terrible tasting. After the wait period the same batch was great.

If you haven't found out a solution let me know and I will see if she will tell me what she does. However, she wouldn't tell me a few years ago. Probably time to try again.

GG

fishlessman

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,177,147189-228194,00.html
it looks like you need to coat them like what stike was saying, looks labor intensive but if it works it would be worth it. i like the way the cherries taste right out of the cognac, but for others the chocolate will tone it down.

Grandpas Grub

sounds like you found what you need.

Here is another recipe I just found on the net.

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=145411

GG