I used to make them for my dad for Christmas when I was in high school and college. The recipe in the BH&G cookbook works fine, no liqueur needed and the stuff inside turns liquid after ripening for a couple of weeks in the fridge. It's easy and they taste a lot better than the ones from the store. I used cherries with the stems on.

I just had a quick look round the Internet and the recipe I'm linking below is the same one I used to use.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate covered cherries

Yup, no liqueur or liquor needed. The cherries are rolled in fondant and then dipped in chocolate. I had a great recipe but just realized it was on my computer that crashed. The cherries themselves turn the fondant to liquid after a couple of weeks. I was always told to let them sit in a cool place, not to refrigerate them, but whatever works. One good thing is that after a week or two you have to test one to see how the center is doing. Do try to make sure the chocolate covers them completely or they will leak as the center liquifies.

Liqueur is a liquor that has been sweetened and is also known as a cordial. A common example of a liqueur is Grand Marnier.

Never heard of confectioner coating,what is that,is there another chochlate you can use,now I make chochlates with melted chochlate with a little parrafine in to set

Here is an old thread with a couple different recipes. Marilyn's is a traditional version I've made and they're excellent. Ann T also has a truffle version. I don't think you can go wrong either way! It's been awhile but I remember when I made Marilyn's that I left them in the fridge a few weeks to ripen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate covered cherry thread

Never heard of confectioner coating,what is that,

Bulldinkie - it's a bad "chocolate". The best chocolate is made from good beans that are ground fine. You take the beans, ferment them, dry them, break off the shells and blow them away, then grind up the nibs really fine until they turn into a paste, add sugar, and then you conch the paste. That basically means stirring it over and over and over. The chocolatiers who are serious will do it for days. That gets rid of any unpleasant flavors and also makes the chocolate super smooth.

But the cocoa butter is valuable for things like make up, so commercial producers take that out and replace it with cruddy fats like palm kernel oil. They also add things like soy lecithin to keep it all in suspension and smooth. That low-grade stuff is confectioner's coating. Most Americans don't really care and they'll eat that, so producers turn it out. That's why the brown stuff on your Snickers bar is so bad - it's chocolate flavored wax and fat but it stays shiny if you don't temper your chocolate, which most people don't.

Just get good chocolate and use that. And don't put paraffin in it! Just let the chocolate set on a cake rack or something and it will be fine.

Funny you should bring this up. My MIL's recipe for these was sitting on the table next to my favorite chair! She made the best -- those boxed ones you buy in the stores for a couple of dollars pale in comparison:

CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup white Karo syrup
1 box (1 lb) powdered sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla.

Mix the above and chill. Roll into balls, chill.

1 jar cherries, drained well

Drain the cherries. Wrap a ball of dough around each cherry. Chill. Dip in melted chocolate chips and paraffin wax. Store in tight container.

Donna

The cherries that you soaks are cherry bombs deadly but good. They are not for chocolate covered cherries.

I have a recipe for chocolate mousse with a garnish of chocolate cherries that has you place cherries with stems in the freezer in a shallow saucer of rum. Rotate the cherries in the rum for a few hours. Then dip in melted semisweet chocolate of your choice and cool on waxed paper. Yummy!

I used to make them. I remember buying a special sugar (sorry, can't remember what it is called) from the candy store. I would fill my mold (line the mold with chocolate and let harden after draining excess chocolate), add 1/4 - 1/2 cherry, mix the cherry "juice" (liquid from bottled marachino cherries) with the special sugar until it is a thicker liquid add a 1/4 tsp of this - be sure not to overfill and top up with more chocolate, let harden and remove from molds. You could mix some liqueur with the cherrry mixture but I personally love them plain.