Cordial Cherries

Have you vver wondered how they make Cordial Cherries!? Well let me tell you, it's ALOT easier than you'd think! And they taste DIVINE! Be warned though, they need to set for at least 1 week. So this recipe is not for the impatient! =) I got this recipe from the website, AllRecipes.com about 3 years ago and we've really enjoyed them!

Let's get started, Im sure you are all dying to try these beauties!

What You'll Need:

60 Maraschino Cherries WITH Stems, about 2 jars

3 Tbs. Melted Butter

3 Tbs. Light Corn Syrup

2 C. Powdered Sugar

2 C. Semi- Sweet Chocolate Chips, or any chocolate to dip in!

Directions:

Drain the cherries from their syrup and let them set on a paper towel to dry. In a bowl mix together the butter, corn syrup and powdered sugar until it forms a dough. Chill for a few minutes in the fridge to stiffen, if necessary.

<---- How my work station looks!

Now this next idea came from years of working with these lil guys! I get out a small bowl and pour some powdered sugar into it. Then I scoop out about 1 tsp. of the dough, roll it into a ball and then roll it around the powdered sugar. This makes the dough not so sticky when you're working with it. Now wrap the powdered sugar covered, dough ball around a cherry. (Got that? 1 tsp of dough is wrapped around each cherry.)

If you're having a hard time getting the dough to cover the cherries, try to flatten the dough ball into a disc.

<----- Please ignore the quite chipped, Valentine's Day decorated nail. lol. They were quite pretty and fun for awhile though.

Then, carefully smooth the dough until it covers the cherries.

Once all the cherries are covered,I let them sit in the fridge for a few minutes while I melt the chocolate. You can use any chocolate, semi-sweet, dark, milk I guess even white if you really wanted too! lol. I usually use semi-sweet, but whenever we order these from candy stores we usully go for the dark chocolate! YUM!

Since their stems are still attached, these should be way easy to dip in the chocolate! Be sure to place them on waxed paper!!!!! (Waxed paper is essential if you dont want to tear the bottoms off when you go to pick one up!) Then set them in the fridge for a few minutes to get the chocolate hard. (If you're not a fan of the stems, they don't really bother us, but I assume you can attempt to pull them out before the chocolate sets and gets too hard. Then you can dab a bit of chocolate on top to cover the hole!)

Some people would tell you that you're all done, BUT WAIT! Again, this tip comes from making these for a few years. What you will need to do is go through every cherry and dab extra chocolate on the bottoms! Most of the cherries will only have a very thin layer on the bottom and when the cherries start to turn to a liquid, the juices spill out of the bottoms. All that work ruined!

<---- This is probably worse case scenario. Most won't be this bad, but be sure to reinforce all the cherries even if they look fine!

Please remember to place them on waxed paper!

Once you're done with all those steps, the hard part comes, waiting for at least 1 week, 2 weeks for best results! During this time, the remaining juices from the cherries will liquify the powdered sugar dough!

I leave mine out on top of the fridge, so I can attempt to forget about them. Lol. I usually can't wait longer than 1 week though! =D

After the long wait, you will be highly rewarded!!

Haha, Darren just LOVES these!

I like using these for fun at home dates! What a fun way to change things up a bit! Adding a bowl of Lindor Truffles, Sixlets and Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs doesn't hurt the cause either! Or Jones Soda or 2 Redbox movies! Because we like options! haha! =D