50 Whole candied cherries 3/4 c Cherry brandy (more may be -necessary) 1/2 lb Sweet milk chocolate, broken -into pieces 1/4 lb Unsweetened baking -chocolate, broken into -pieces 1 1/3 c Powdered sugar 7/8 c Butter, softened 3 tb Unsweetened cocoa 1/3 c Powdered sugar 1/3 c Unsweetened cocoa Soak the cherries in the brandy overnight or longer. Drain the cherries, reserve the brandy. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer. In a double boiler, melt the chocolates. Spoon the melted chocolate, spoon by spoon, into the butter and sugar mixture and mix thoroughly by hand. Add reserved brandy to sugar and chocolate mixture and stir by hand until all is absorbed. Add 3 T. cocoa and mix by hand. Put mixture in the freezer and thoroughly chill. Prepare a surface to assemble the balls. Mix equal amounts of cocoa and powdered sugar, about 1/3 cup each. On a piece of waxed paper, heavily dust with the cocoa powdered sugar mixture. Remove the chocolate from the freezer when it is chilled and stiff. For each cherry, spoon out a heaping teaspoon of the chocolate and drop on dusted paper. Dip your fingers into the cocoa/sugar mixture and flatten chocolate to a small pancake. Place a cherry in the center and fold chocolate around it. Gently roll the ball between your palms to form and finish by rolling the ball in the cocoa/sugar mixture. Repeat for each cherry. If the chocolate mixture softens, return to the freezer to firm up. Place the completed balls in a container with a lid and store in the frig. These balls are dense and heavy with a rich chocolate flavor. For a lighter flavor, I suggest you omit the unsweetened baking chocolate and add 1/4 lb. more milk chocolate. Licking your fingers is not permitted during the assembly, but manditory after you are done. (grin) There's yet another variation to chocolate covered cherries. It's for the brave & daring at heart. You have to start in the summertime, when cherries are ripe. You take a pound of them, a pound of rock candy, and a fifth of good brandy or bourbon. Mix together, & let set in the back of the 'fridge for 3-4 months. When you finally get around to making the chocolate covered cherries, you use the preserved cherries for the centers, & the liquor as the base for the cordial. Courtesy of: Al Martin
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