Homemade chocolate-covered rum cherries aren't a candy that you can make on impulse. You need to set aside 10 days to give the cherries time to properly marinate, dry and set inside the candy molds, and tempering the chocolate is a lengthy process. Give yourself enough time to prepare them if you are making them in time for the holidays or a gift.
Instructions
Marinate and Frost Cherries
1. Drain two cups of cherries into a glass bowl, but keep some of the liquid in the cherry jar. Pour the rum over the fruit until it is sitting in a pool of liquid. Make sure all of the cherries are submerged.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap so it's air-tight, and refrigerate for two full days. For a stronger rum flavor, you can marinate the cherries for up to a week.
3. Drain the cherries again and sit them on a cooling rack that has a cookie sheet under it to catch the drippings. Let the fruit dry overnight.
4. Put the butter, corn syrup and two tablespoons of cherry juice into a mixing bowl. Beat it with a mixer until it becomes smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Mix it with the other ingredients on a low setting until the texture is like softened butter. Add a little more sugar if the fondant is too sticky, more juice if it's too stiff.
5. Scoop up enough fondant with a spoon to coat the outside of a cherry. Roll it into a ball with your hands, then flatten it and put a cherry in the center. Pinch the edges together and completely encase the fruit. Cover each piece of fruit this way.
6. Refrigerate the cherries for half an hour.
Temper the Chocolate
7. Slice or chop the chocolate bars into equal-sized pieces with a knife. Don't use chocolate chips: They have additives that enable them to keep their shape while baking, so they won't temper correctly.
8. Set the double boiler so that the water is simmering. Melt two-thirds of the chocolate, stirring steadily with a rubber spatula.
9. Clip a chocolate thermometer onto the boiler. Heat dark chocolate to 115 degrees F; milk and white chocolate should be heated to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. When it reaches the proper temperature, remove the bowl from the heat and set it on a heat-resistant surface.
10. Stir in the remaining chocolate and let it melt in the warmed chocolate. Let the mixture cool until its temperature drops below 84 degrees Fahrenheit. If any chocolate pieces are sticking out, remove them for later use.
11. Put the chocolate bowl back in the double boiler and continuously stir it until the dark temperature becomes 88 degrees. Milk and white chocolate needs to be heated to 87 degrees. Remove the chocolate as soon as it hits the right temperature.
12. Turn the warming tray on low. Sit the chocolate on the tray, clip the thermometer to the side and stir regularly. The chocolate has to stay warm while you work with it (85 to 88 degrees for dark and 86 degrees for milk and white). You can also keep it warm in the double boiler as long as you can maintain the proper temperature.
Dip the Cherries
13. Dip the cherries in the chocolate with a small fork. Scrape the fruit against the edge of the bowl to get rid of the excess and set it on a cookie sheet.
14. Refrigerate the cherries for 30 minutes. This gives the fruit a protective coat to keep the liquid filling inside.
15. Scoop up a teaspoon of warm chocolate. Pour some chocolate into the bottom of each candy mold to make sure the top of the cherry is totally covered.
16. Sit a cherry in each mold. Then completely fill the molds with the chocolate. Be neat when you pour the chocolate in with a spoon and wipe off any excess so the candy will be neatly shaped.
17.Refrigerate the cherries again for another 30 minutes.
18. Put the cherries in an air-tight container and let them refrigerate for another week so the centers will completely liquefy.
Tags: double boiler, Refrigerate cherries, cherries again, chocolate with, cookie sheet, degrees Fahrenheit