Brandy Cherries

Hiya! Now if you know me... well then you know me! But you will also know that I love to tweak recipes. While I was thumbing through recipes and cookbooks last week I came across a recipe for Chocolate Covered Cherries that looked delish on it's own. It got me to thinking about soaking the cherries in liquor, like some soak in moonshine or whiskey. The only problem in my mind was the clash of whiskey and chocolate. It didn't sound good to me. So I took a little trip to the liquor store and started looking around for something that wouldn't knock you down when you ate it. I wanted the punch to perfectly accent the sweetness.

So with the help of a friendly neighborhood liquor store worker I found what I was looking for... Cherry Brandy. I went home and immediately popped open two jars of cherries, poured out the liquid and filled them with the brandy. Let me tell you, they are lovely on their own because they still taste like cherries, they just have a tiny twang to them... perfect!

So here's the rest of the recipe using brandy soaked cherries or not they are still YUM!

Spiked Chocolate Covered Cherries

30 - cherries with stems, drained (which is 1 small jar)
1 Tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons butter, softened
1 Tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
1 cup powdered sugar
5 squares chocolate candy coating

Combine sugar, butter, corn syrup and powdered sugar in a bowl until it forms dough. I formed a dough ball, wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated for about 30 minutes. Wrap each cherry with about a teaspoon of dough. I patted out the dough using powdered sugar so it wouldn't stick to my hands. Chill on wax paper until firm.

Melt candy coating in microwaveable bowl on low temp, stirring until melted. Dip each cherry into chocolate and place on wax paper to dry. Store in an airtight container.

There are really good! And if you're going to the Stidham's Christmas Party don't take these because I am :) Or maybe we could just have a competition! Have fun!