Chocolate cherry cordials, Batman!
Jan. 16th, 2006 06:03 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
lisatrix.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
craftgrrlOh man. You know those chocolate-covered cherries with a layer of liquid sugar goo surrounding the cherry like amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus? I totally got a book that tells how to make them! I thought you had to use some kind of special machine or dark magic or something, but no! It's... uh, not simple, but not, technically speaking, impossible.
The secret is this: you wrap the cherries in fondant (aka the fluffy sugary filling in semi-fancy chocolate assortments), which mixes with the cherry juice and liquifies. Problem: fondant is so, so easy to screw up. That was what my friend (the half-naked model from my earlier post) and I did yesterday: try and utterly fail, twice, to make fondant.
But today, we suceeded! In only four hours! Do not do this alone, ever. If you actually manage to do everything, which you won't, you'll be bored out of your skull.
Anyhow!
-Cook 1 cup whipping cream, 1/2 cup milk, 1/3 cup light corn syrup, 4 cups sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt to boiling over medium-high heat, in a pot way bigger than you think you need. Once it starts to boil, DO NOT STIR IT! You'll utterly destroy it and have no idea until like an hour later. I speak from bitter experience here. Boil it to 238 degrees F (it's worth getting a cheap candy thermometer for this), or until a drop of it in cold water forms a soft ball. Then pour it into a baking pan and fridge it for 15-20 minutes.
-Start stirring the caramel (because that's what it is, pretty much) with a wooden spoon. Sort of make a figure eight, and make sure you incorporate all of the stuff as you stir. Now here's the fun part. Keep stirring. For twenty minutes. And if you stop for more than like thirty seconds it'll screw up horribly. This is where you really need a partner, to switch off with. You'll know you're done when you get a white, fluffy paste like delicious sugary dough. You'll know you screwed up during cooking when you get delicious sugary sand. (Btw- you can just stop here and dip squares of this in the chocolate. It's real good. But today... we have a loftier goal!)
-Now wrap a marble-sized amount of the fondant around a drained maraschino cherry (Real cherries won't liquify the fondant), roll it around in melted chocolate chips, and stick it on a baking sheet. Repeat a hundred times. You need a partner here too, because you can't just wrap them all and then dunk them all- they'll start to liquify pretty soon, which would mean all your hard work was utterly wasted. This part took us an hour and a half, by the way.
-Wait a day. Or two. Ours haven't actually liquifed yet, because we made them two hours ago. Just keep biting them until they're liquid.
-Eat! Eat! Eat!
This is only my half, it makes twice this many:
ETA- The insides, two hours after making:
This much goo has been created so far:
The secret is this: you wrap the cherries in fondant (aka the fluffy sugary filling in semi-fancy chocolate assortments), which mixes with the cherry juice and liquifies. Problem: fondant is so, so easy to screw up. That was what my friend (the half-naked model from my earlier post) and I did yesterday: try and utterly fail, twice, to make fondant.
But today, we suceeded! In only four hours! Do not do this alone, ever. If you actually manage to do everything, which you won't, you'll be bored out of your skull.
Anyhow!
-Cook 1 cup whipping cream, 1/2 cup milk, 1/3 cup light corn syrup, 4 cups sugar and 1/4 tsp. salt to boiling over medium-high heat, in a pot way bigger than you think you need. Once it starts to boil, DO NOT STIR IT! You'll utterly destroy it and have no idea until like an hour later. I speak from bitter experience here. Boil it to 238 degrees F (it's worth getting a cheap candy thermometer for this), or until a drop of it in cold water forms a soft ball. Then pour it into a baking pan and fridge it for 15-20 minutes.
-Start stirring the caramel (because that's what it is, pretty much) with a wooden spoon. Sort of make a figure eight, and make sure you incorporate all of the stuff as you stir. Now here's the fun part. Keep stirring. For twenty minutes. And if you stop for more than like thirty seconds it'll screw up horribly. This is where you really need a partner, to switch off with. You'll know you're done when you get a white, fluffy paste like delicious sugary dough. You'll know you screwed up during cooking when you get delicious sugary sand. (Btw- you can just stop here and dip squares of this in the chocolate. It's real good. But today... we have a loftier goal!)
-Now wrap a marble-sized amount of the fondant around a drained maraschino cherry (Real cherries won't liquify the fondant), roll it around in melted chocolate chips, and stick it on a baking sheet. Repeat a hundred times. You need a partner here too, because you can't just wrap them all and then dunk them all- they'll start to liquify pretty soon, which would mean all your hard work was utterly wasted. This part took us an hour and a half, by the way.
-Wait a day. Or two. Ours haven't actually liquifed yet, because we made them two hours ago. Just keep biting them until they're liquid.
-Eat! Eat! Eat!
This is only my half, it makes twice this many:
ETA- The insides, two hours after making:
This much goo has been created so far:
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