Growing up, my Mom only made this candy for two occasions – Christmas and Valentine’s Day. It was always a long wait between February and December! These soft, sweet, luscious balls of chocolate, cherry and nuts, rolled in coconut, are a really wonderful treat! This is a wonderful, easy handmade candy for Valentine’s day. If there is a concern about nut allergies, just omit the walnuts.

I have to tell you – I had a bit of my own version of “Kitchen Nightmares” this past weekend! Trying to do too many things at one time, still a bit under the weather and honestly? Probably acting a little too sure of myself and Murphy’s Law deciding to put me in my place!

I overheated cream and ruined an entire batch of ganache for the truffles I was planning to make. Yes, lots of dollars worth of chocolate in the trash – it was totally beyond saving, though I did try! Check out this photo – talk about an unappetizing mess! Yuck! Briefly, I thought – could I make some kind of sculpture out of this? The voice of reason finally made its way through my clogged head…funny how it sounded suspiciously just like my husband!

The ruined, split ganache!

The trouble continued when I decided to double the batch of these chocolate cherry creams…hmm…ok, that didn’t work out too well, either! After chilling for 8 hours, the chocolate was still way soft! This recipe needs to be made in small batches, so follow this recipe and make it twice for a double batch. I actually froze the candy once it was formed into balls – they never actually froze completely and actually tasted good. However, making them was an absolute, epic mess! I couldn’t even take a photo, because I was literally swimming in chocolate and the “balls” looked more like patties. Well, maybe “patties” is actually too kind of a word. They looked horrible!

So the candy angels wacked me over the head with a bag of cocoa beans and reminded me to respect the chocolate! In spite of my chocolate covered tales of woe, this candy is awesome and definitely worth making!

Chocolate Cherry Creams:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (6 ounces)
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 2 ½ cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
• 1/3 cup well drained, maraschino cherries, cut up
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1 ½ cups of flaked coconut

You need to drain the maraschino cherries really well, and I mean REALLY WELL – those babies are juicy! I spread them out whole on paper towels, let them sit for a bit, changed the paper towels, cut them into pieces, and spread the cut pieces out again on paper towels.

In a heavy saucepan, melt the semi-sweet chocolate morsels in the evaporated milk over very low heat. Stir continuously and don’t rush the melting process. Once all of the chocolate is completely melted and smooth, remove immediately from heat.

Stir in 4-5 heaping tablespoons of confectioner’s sugar at a time, stirring well to incorporate the sugar completely into the chocolate after each addition.

After all of the sugar has been added, gently fold in the chopped cherries and if using the walnuts, gently fold in the nuts.

Cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill mixture until firm, about 2 hours.

Place a mound of coconut on plate. Scoop out a teaspoon of chocolate mixture, form into a ball and roll in coconut. Place balls in small candy cups or on waxed paper. Store chilled, in candy boxes wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or in layers separated by waxed paper in a covered container. In a heart-shaped tin, they make a sweet surprise for a chocolate lover – and a treat made by you is a perfect gift!

How about a little box of these as a “sweet” random act of kindness this week?

Have a sweet day filled with kindness and thank you so much for your visit!

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