World Chocolate Day: how to make chocolate dipped cherries with sweet almond filling

Make the most of nature's glut of sweet cherries
Beverley Hicks
Beverley Hicks7 July 2017

With a gorgeous glut of super sweet cherries in the shops at the moment, what better way to celebrate World Chocolate Day than to simply cover them in melted white chocolate.

Remove the stone and replace it with marzipan and you can eat everything but the stalks.

Ingredients (makes 15)

15 cherries

50g white marzipan

100g white chocolate

For the toppings

White chocolate stars

Edible glitter

Cocoa powder

Method

Wash the cherries under cold running water and remove the stalks. Drop the stalks into a bowl of warm water and swish them around a little to make sure they are clean then leave to dry on a piece of kitchen paper.

Dry the cherries thoroughly and with a very sharp and narrow knife, carefully make deep incisions into the top of the cherries and around the stones to loosen them. Doing as little damage as possible, remove the stones and discard, you may have to do this with a pair of kitchen tweezers. Leave the cherries, cut-side down, on some kitchen paper.

Take small pieces of marzipan and roll into balls, roughly the same size as the discarded stones. Push one stalk into each of the marzipan ‘stones’.

Break the chocolate into a microwavable bowl and melt in quick bursts, being careful not to burn it. Put the cherries into a box where they can stand up straight (you may need to wedge them in to a small box so that they can’t roll around). With a teaspoon drip a very small amount of melted chocolate into the gap in each cherry (about a quarter of a teaspoon) then insert the stalk and marzipan ‘stone’ into the gap. You may have to hold it there for a few seconds to make sure it doesn’t tip over. When all the cherries are done, put the box into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to allow them to set properly.

Line a baking sheet or other solid flat surface with parchment paper and put to one side.

Now it’s time to get creative. Pour your selected topping into separate bowls and if the melted chocolate has thickened up a bit put it back in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to melt a little more.

Remove the cherries from the fridge and dip each into the melted chocolate, covering completely to the base of the stalk. Gently scrape the bottom of the cherry on the side of the bowl. If you are adding toppings now is the time to do so. Either dip the cherry directly into the topping of choice or, for a lighter covering, sprinkle the toping on, holding the cherry over the bowl to catch the excess, then place on the prepared sheet.

Cover all the cherries in this way and put into the fridge to set.

Notes:

You do not need to remove the stones if you don’t have time, they will look just as beautiful with the stone in, but the extra sweetness and almondy flavour of the marzipan makes a wonderful difference to the overall taste.

The sweet marzipan in the centre of the cherries may make them ‘bleed’ a little juice out if you haven’t covered them completely, this is normal.

Other topping ideas include matcha powder, freeze-dried berries, desiccated coconut, cocoa nibs, chopped toasted almonds, the list is endless.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in