Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries From Texas Recipes

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Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries

Ingredients:

3 c powdered sugar
1/4 c margarine or butter
1/4 c condensed sweetened milk (not evaporated)
4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 pkg high end chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, or dark)
1 jar(s) maraschino cherries, drained and dried, reserve the juice.

Directions:

Combine the first 5 ingrediants until smooth and no longer sticky (you're escentially making a fondant). Place finished fondant into fridge for 1 hour.

Spread cherries onto a large cookie sheet covered in wax paper, and place in FREEZER for 1 hour. NOTE: If your cherries have stems, LEAVE THE STEMS ON as it makes the dipping process easier.

Remove the tray from freezer and the fondant from fridge ONLY IF YOU"RE READY TO USE THEM IMMEDIATELY....I highly suggest only taking small portions from the fondant bowl in the fridge at a time, as the fondant needs to be firm in order to make your cherries, and it gets ooey gooey quickly!!!

Scoop 1-2 tsp filling around a cherry and roll into a tight ball.

Place cherry on the wax paper covered cookie sheet again, and do this with the remaining cherries.

Place the cookie sheet and cherries back into the FREEZER for 1 hour.

NOTE: Don't worry if your balls don't come out perfect right away, once they've been in the freezer a while, you can re-shape them very easily to make them perfect.

Melt chocolate.

Add enough of the reserved cherry juice to thin the chocolate and make it easy for dipping the cherries.

Once again, only take a few cherries at a time out of the freezer so they withstand the dipping process. (I placed a small square of wax paper on my counter, and did 6 cherries at a time until they were finished.)

Dip each cherry in the chocolate and coat completely.

If you still have stems on the cherries, this will make your job much easier. If not, I was able to use a toothpick and found it very simple.

Skewer the cherry with the toothpick, place it in the bowl, and using a spoon, spoon the chocolate to coat the cherry.

Carefully lift the cherry out with the toothpick, let the excess chocolate dribble off, and place the cherry on the wax paper.

Use your toothpick to add a tiny bit of chocolate to the top of the cherry where the toothpick hole is (cover the hole).

You can also use this time to make a quick decrative swirl on top using the toothpick.

Once all of the cherries are coated, place sheet in the refrigerator to set.

Let them set for at least an hour.

CAREFULLY remove them from the waxed paper and place them in an airtight container using waxed paper if you make more than one layer of cherries.

Store them in a cool dry area for up to 2 weeks. (If you let them sit 3-6 days, you will end up with that wonderful liquid center that you find in store-bought chocolate covered cherries!!!).