Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries

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If you love Chocolate Covered Cherries, you’ll love this Amish recipe. My husband, a long-time lover of chocolate covered cherries, says these are the best!

Calling all cherry lovers! We’re crazy for cherries, whether they are in sweet bread, 2 layer cakes or in jello salads, we’re all in.

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries I Tastes of Lizzy T I

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries Recipe

As much as I love baking, I love making chocolate dipped candies just as much, if not more.  If I had the choice between a cookie or a chocolate covered buckeye, you can bet that I’d be choosing the buckeye candy 90% of the time. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I can pass up a freshly baked cookie.  You see, I’m horribly addicted to sweets.  Any sweets.

It was just in the past two months that I attempted to make chocolate covered cherries on my own.  I found a recipe for these Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries and was hoping that this would be to my hubby’s approval since cherries are his favorite.

Are chocolate covered cherries and cherry cordials the same thing?

Yes! Chocolate covered cherries are often called cherry cordials. It’s the same candy.

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries I Tastes of Lizzy T I

What do you need to make chocolate covered cherries?

For chocolate covered cherries, all you need is maraschino cherries, powdered sugar, salted butter and chocolate for dipping.

  • We show maraschino cherries with stems, which make it easy for dipping, but cherries without stems work just fine too.
  • This can be a messy process! Embrace the mess.
  • We recommend using salted butter. The salt cuts down on the sweetness just slightly. If you don’t have salted butter you can use unsalted butter and add a dash of salt.
  • Use whatever type of chocolate you’d like: semi-sweet, milk or dark chocolate. We love a combination of semi-sweet and dark chocolate. Just be sure to use a high quality chocolate so that it melts smoothly. Buy chocolate chips, chocolate melting wafers or large chocolate bars. Don’t use mini chocolate chips. They won’t melt.

How do you make chocolate covered cherries?

  1. Drain the cherry juice, making sure you reserve ¼ a cup of juice for the sugar mixture.  Then place the drained cherries on an absorbent paper towel so the juice gets soaked up.  You’ll want your cherries dry before you cover them in sugar.
  2. Below you can see pictures of how exactly we shaped the filling.  You’re going to want a little pile of powdered sugar on the counter or in a bowl because the sugar mixture might be a little sticky. Roll a 1-inch ball of sugar mixture.  If the ball is too sticky, roll it lightly in the powdered sugar, then flatten the ball between the palms of your hands. Take a cherry that has been drained and dried and place it in the center of the disc.  Wrap the sugar mixture around the cherry mixture and roll it into a ball.  Refrigerate the cherries for 20 minutes and then they’re ready to dip in that melty chocolate!Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries
  3. I love dipping candies in chocolate.  I have regularly used chocolate chips for this process, melting them in a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave. Feel free to use your favorite type of chocolate…chocolate bars, chocolate chips, or even Candiquik. You can use milk chocolate, semi-sweet or even dark chocolate.
  4. Dip these cherries in melted chocolate within two hours of rolling them in the sugar mixture. The centers will start getting soft and be hard to dip if you wait too long.

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries I Tastes of Lizzy T I

How do you store chocolate covered cherries?

If you like a liquid center to your candy, let these sit in an airtight container for 3-6 days before eating.  As they sit, the centers will liquify into gooey goodness. Chocolate covered cherries store well at room temperature. Just make sure they are covered. We’ve stored the cherries in a cool, dry place for up to 8 weeks and they are still delicious.

Can chocolate covered cherries be frozen?

We don’t recommend freezing chocolate covered cherries because they can expand and break the chocolate. This will give you a sweet mess once they are defrosted. They may not always break (and honestly Matt LOVES frozen chocolate covered cherries), but for the best look and the best results, we don’t recommend freezing them.

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries I Tastes of Lizzy T I

Other Cherry Dessert Recipes

chocolate cherries for valentine's day on a baking sheet
chocolate cherries for valentine's day on a baking sheet

Amish Chocolate Covered Cherries

4.69 from 57 votes
A simple amish recipe for chocolate covered cherries. Just 4 ingredients!
Servings 25 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes

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Ingredients
 

Instructions
 

  • Drain the cherries, reserving the juice. Let dab the cherries gently with a paper towel so that they are as dry as possible. Set them aside on paper towels to continue to dry while you prepare the sugar filling.
  • In a medium size bowl, mix 3 cups powdered sugar, butter and ¼ cup cherry juice together. Add in the last cup of powdered sugar, ¼ of a cup at a time, until the mixture forms a soft dough. Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.
  • Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Make small balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Flatten the dough balls between the palms of your hands, dusting your hands with powdered sugar if necessary. Fold the dough over the cherry to completely cover it, then roll it into smooth ball again.
  • Refrigerate the covered cherries for 20 minutes. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.* Holding the cherry by the stem, dip it in the melted chocolate and allow the excess to drip off. Place the chocolate covered cherry on a baking pan that has been covered with wax paper. Repeat with the remaining cherries.
  • Allow the chocolate to set completely before storing the cherries in an airtight container.

Notes

You can use maraschino cherries without stems if you'd like. Use a fork to dip them in the chocolate, tapping off the excess chocolate.
*Be sure to melt the chocolate slowly or over low heat. If chocolate gets too hot, it will seize up and become unusable. If using a double boiler, allow the water in the bottom pan to steam, but not come to a full boil. If you're melting the chocolate in the microwave, melt in about 20-3o second increments, stirring between each interval.
**If the chocolate is too thick for dipping, add a tablespoon or two of shortening to the warm chocolate and stir until it is melted. This will thin the chocolate. 
 

Nutrition

Serving: 51g | Calories: 197kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Calories 197
Keyword cherry cordials, easy homemade candy, how to make cherry candy

Recipe from: www.amishshop.com

CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES WITH RED DRIZZLE

 

About JulieJulie Clark

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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Zosia
5 years ago

I am making them as we speak but my cherries are soked in liquor (naughty I know 😉 I hope this is gonna work.

Jennifer Nuno
3 years ago

5 stars
I made these for my husband because he loves the box of cherry cordials at Christmas time, his words: “I will never ever buy a box of those again, these are SO GOOD”
I made some with white chocolate and those turned out so good I’m making a full batch in the white

Fritzie
4 years ago

Have you or anyone you know of tried using sour cherries in this recipe? My cherry tree produced abundantly this year so I made a lot of different cherry liqueurs. I hate to think about wasting all those cherries when they come out of the liquor. Do you think it will work?

eileen r hoke
2 years ago

5 stars
I make these alot
For Christmas gifts
They please everyone they are so good

Angel
2 years ago

5 stars
Thanks for the recipe, these are now requested from family for Christmas. I found by mistake…expresso chocolate is delicious with this! The mistake…my husband got the groceries and special items like baking items he just grabbed anything with chocolate on description turned out out to be the most favored!

Lonie
4 years ago

5 stars
Omg, perfect, surprisingly easy (and fun) to make, and SOOooo much better than Queen Anne’s.

Thank you!

Anonymous
4 years ago

I don recommend using chocolate chips as suggested. I have made these before using a different technique and they were flawless. This time I had so many issues and am very disappointed with the outcome. I used milk chocolate chips and when I tried to pick them up off the silicone mat, the bottoms were open. Such a disaster. I had been making these to go into goodie packages for coworkers and community helpers in my area. They look terrible and I wouldn’t dare give these out. So disappointed.

Alifemoment
9 years ago

5 stars
Delicious recipe, love the results and the brilliant colours!

Debbie
2 years ago

Can I use Almond Bark?

Michele
3 years ago

I made these on December 6th..stored in an airtight tin&placed in my pantry. I checked them a few days later-still not liquid. So I put the tin into the refrigerator. Checked them yesterday..still not liquid!! What the heck???

Dona
4 years ago

I’m going to make this recipe on Monday. May I use milk chocolate instead of semi sweet chips?

Debbie Thiry
4 years ago

I should have added this question also. Could I use semi sweet morsels like in chocolate chip cookies

Debbie Thiry
4 years ago

Could I just dip the cherries in chocolate without the powered sugar middle

Kris Eshleman
4 years ago

I’m just now making this recipe for my Mom, but with an ingredient alteration to make it diabetic-friendly. Instead of powdered sugar, I’m using powdered erythritol, as both my Mom and I cannot STAND artificial sweeteners. So far so good, but we’ll see if the sweet center turns to liquid over time. I’ll set myself a reminder to let you know the outcome. I also used the darkest chocolate I could find, with the least amount of sugar in it, because the taste of unsweetened chocolate definitely tastes a little time to adjust to. Still, dark chocolate, cherry cordials were… Read more »

Lee
4 years ago

Why does it develop a bloom after a couple of weeks?