These cherries are completely awesome~there is no other words to describe them. Everything is so easy to work with and I had no problems making them.
After ripening, they took on such a creamy texture and they just melted in your mouth~Perfect in every way! Linda
Alice Schmidt's Candy
1 #(lb.) butter
5 # (lbs.) powdered sugar
Yes! That isn't a typing error!! You need to use good quality powdered sugar (C&H is good!). This is extremely important! You don't want all of your time and effort to be wasted by skimping on this single most important ingredient!
Knead like pie crust with hands until crumbly and well incorporated.
1/2 pint whipping cream
Heat until almost boiling. Add to butter and sugar. Knead 'til smooth - until it sort of rolls off your hands. It'll take about 30 minutes!! You'll really be building your arm and hand muscles during this part! Once we have the "candy dough" incorporated, we then divide it into 4 - 6 pieces and have that many people kneading it. After kneading is done, decide how many different flavors you want to make and divide the "candy dough" accordingly. We begin by making chocolate covered cherries..... Use maraschino cherries with stems. Drain the juice as best you can. Then pinch off a small piece of the dough and form it around the cherries leaving the stem intact. (Keep reading...) When your cherries are coated, set them on cookie sheets and set tem aside in a fairly cool spot and allow them to "dry". Now you can color and flavor the rest of your "candy dough" to suit your tastes; i.e. peppermint - pink, maple nut, orange, lemon, whatever flavors and colors you like. Add flavors a bit at a time and taste as you go so you don't flavor them too strong! As they age, the flavor will intensify. So be cautious.
Then you pinch off bits of dough and roll them into small, uniform balls. Place on cookie sheets and set them aside as you do with the cherries.
*Candy and candy coated cherries need to "Dry" in a cool place B-4 dipping into chocolate. Fruit cellars work nice. But don't let them freeze!
When you are wrapping the cherries, you need to seal the area around the stem as best you can, so when you dip them the chocolate stays on the outside!!
Now you are ready for:
Alice Schmidt's Chocolate Coating
Heat until thin, in double boiler;
1 1/4 square pf parafin wax
4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 Tb. butter
Dip cherries deep enough to completely cover the "candy dough" around the cherries to "seal" the top.
One of the reasons this is our first holiday project making Christmas goodies, is so the cherries can "age", or as Alice says, "Ferment!" The truth is, the longer they sit in a cool, dry spot, the better they taste.
Now you can move onto dipping the rest of your candies. For this, you'll need wooden skewers. You poke them into the candies, dip them into the chocolate, then set on waxed paper and carefully remove the skewer. When the candies have all been dipped and dried, you'll take a spoon, dip it into the chocolate and then fill in the holes on the tops of the little balls.
These, too, will improve in taste the longer they are left to "Ferment". You can also get creative and drizzle chocolate over the dipped candies and make them look like the hand dipped candies you buy in some of those pricey candy shoppes!!
You will have to periodically reheat the chocolate when it cools or it will get too chilled and thick and it's hard to then dip the candies.