we had a loooooooovely valentines weekend. noah and I saw Valentine’s Day (cute, not amazing, no surprise there though). and we had a nice dinner at cracker barrel, I had spicy catfish and he had steak. I love the turnip greens there. we even shared a bowl of sugar-free ice cream. …. maggie had a date with her grandma, they made brownies and did “cooking and baking” in the bathroom sink. too funny. we had hoped to take maggie to our local paleontology museum– the Burpee Museum– but she passed out on the way there, so we just let her sleep.
so the chocolate covered cherries turned out really yummy. I used a lot of coconut oil so they start to melt pretty fast at room temperature, but that was okay with us….. just meant we had to eat them faster :)
These are really pretty simple to make. All you need is love. Just kidding. Get a bag of frozen cherries and let them defrost, or microwave so there very soggy and delicious. It’s probably a good idea to snack on some au naturale. Cherries rock. You also need dark chocolate, I used one bar 100% ghiradelli baking chocolate, and then sweetened it on my own with sugar free maple syrup. This makes for super intense grown-up bon-bons. You could definitely use anything from 60% on up, and just sweeten ’til it tastes right. I also used 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, you could probably use 1 tablespoon of butter instead, and melted it all in a double boiler (or a microwave, frequently stopping and stirring).
Then you get your self one of these handy little chocolate molds… they come in all shapes and sizes, and even specific cherry bon-bon ones. I found mine in the baking/confectionery section of a craft store. So you take a little bit of the chocolate mixture and either paint it on the bottom of the mold, or be careful and use a spoon to drop just a bit in. Then chill it in you fridge or freezer just ’til it sets. With the coconut oil, this doesn’t take very long. Next, add your defrosted cherries (one in each), and a bit of the juice from the bag. You could also use canned cherries and their syrup, but I was after low-sugar variation of the classic. Cover the cherries with the remaining and chocolate and chill again. I has enough chocolate left over to make two batches, but decided to make truffles with the rest of it.
my valentine approved. :)
