50 Whole candied cherries 3/4 c Cherry brandy 1/2 lb Sweet milk chocolate, broken -into pieces 1/4 lb Unsweetened baking -chocolate, broken into -pieces 1 1/3 c Powdered sugar 3 tb Unsweetened cocoa Powdered sugar Unsweetened cocoa Soak the cherries in the brandy overnight or longer. Drain cherries, reserve the brandy. Cream butter and sugar with 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 in my hand until all is absorbed. Add 3 T. cocoa and mix by hand. Put mixture in a clean bowl and thoroughly chill in the freezer. Meanwhile, make a 50-50 mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa. Begin with 1/3 c. EACH and mix thoroughly. Heavily dust a sheet of waxed paper on a working surface. When the chocolate mixture is chilled and very stiff, remove from the freezer. Drop by teaspoonfuls on dusted working surface and dust your fingers in the sugar/cocoa mixture, press with fingers to make a small flat shape with the chocolate. Drop a cherry in the center and form a ball around the cherry. Working quickly, complete the shape by rolling the ball between your palms. Roll ball in sugar/cocoa mixture to coat. Continue working until the chocolate mixture is too soft to continue. Return to freezer to chill some more and continue until all the chocolate and cherries are gone. The chocolate covered cherries can be stored in the frig. For a lighter, sweeter chocolate taste, increase the sweet chocolate and decrease or eliminate the unsweetened chocolate. The more milk chocolate you use, the more diffucult it will be to work with as it melts rather rapidly. You can also substitute and equal portion of semi-sweet bits (toll house chocolates) for the chocolate. Other candied fruit and liquors can be used according to your taste. Enjoy!
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