Washington's Birthday is coming up fast. If you're dipping cherries yourself it's time to get your cherry on! (If you're buying, though, you've got time yet.)
You know: Halloween pumpkin, Veterans' poppies, Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas candy canes, Independence day fireworks, Washington cherries... ring a bell?
Missing option: It depends on how many you are sending me to give away, since I have never heard of this before???
I am guessing this is an evil conspiracy by the cherry growers of America so they can unload all their old cherries that didn't get used to make chocolate covered cherries for Xmas.
My sister's birthday is in June, which happens to be the month that George Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. So in a dual celebration my mom decided to make a cherry pie. Being young, stupid and thin I was volunteered to pick the cherries from a distant cousin's house.
Have you ever picked cherries off of an old and unkempt cherry tree? Very dangerous, but I survived by eating one cherry for every 10 dropped in the bucket below.
So my mom cleans and pits the cherries and proceeds to make what was perhaps the best looking cherry pie in the world, lovingly placed upon a stand in the kitchen for all to admire.
Well it was a nice day and the family decided to head outside into the orchard which was filled with apple and cherry trees. At that point they were too little to produce anything of substance (hence going elsewhere for cherries), however time would solve this problem.
Unbeknownst to the family our 4 year old Labrador retriever decided to sneak into the house. When we returned to get some lemonade we found the dog curled up in the kitchen, pie crust and filling covering her face and the counter top.
We'll never forget that day. The day the dog took the magic out of Washington's first day of Command.
Bummer, but perhaps we can do better on his upcoming birthday, but I just have to find the right chocolate for dippin' again.
My sister's birthday is in June, which happens to be the month that George Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. So in a dual celebration
Wow. That's seriously above-and-beyond the call of celebrating Washington!
As for chocolate, we just use almond bark. Someday we'll do it with really good stuff, but it's a bit pricey for as many as we do.
Well, if it's done right - that is, if the chocolate shell is totally sealed - the fondant around the cherry melts after a couple weeks to become a really yummy liquid... ummm, goo. I dunno quite how to describe it. They're still good if they haven't sat long enough for it to melt, but they're superb when it does.
Well, Angel's the expert on this at our house... my mom gave 'em out, but never really showed me how to make them. (Boys, ya know.)
There's like a zillion variations, but the basic idea is that you take a stem-on maraschino cherry, coat it in fondant, and then dip it in chocolate. It often takes more than one dunk to get a good seal, and it's really easy to break the seal at or around the stem so handle them carefully.
Umm... I guess they're officially called cherry cordials, and this recipe - give or take a few horrid tyops - is pretty close to what we do.
Seriously. I have never heard of this practice before in my life. And it's not like "some people fast until sundown at certain times of the year but I do not"; it's more like when I found out about Mormon garments.
BTW, Alan, it may come as a shock to you, but until I moved to Portland and someone brought some in to work, I'd never heard of it, either. Gosh, that was right around the earthquake, wasn't it? I was getting surprised every day. Beer fridge in the office kitchen, people riding bikes in the street...
Anyway, this year I was thinking of deconstructing things a little with a new recipe. I was considering actually baking some cherries with some cinnamon, then pouring them into some little shaved chocolate cups. (shave the chocolate into sheets, press them into shot glasses or something a little bigger, heat them briefly, then chill) It could be modified to include a splash of something like Kirsch or brandy, but I don't think I will. I'm still not totally convinced I can carry this off, though.
Last year we decided to go all out. Our friends brought over cherry mice*, and we had to outdo them. Since my wife had various kinds of chocolate we had melted white, dark, and milk chocolate. Then it was time to get the cherries. I thought my wife had picked them up, she thought I had (we were both out and about that day). So we run to the store as quick as we can, and blessed be if every cherry isn't gone. We toyed with the idea of the marachino types in their scary jars, but opted to make truffles instead;-)
So, this year, we'll be sure to get them soon.
*An oreo base, with a hershey kiss snout, and a chocolate covered cherry for the snout and tail;-)
In all seriousness, it started as a publicity stunt for the Evergreen Ballroom's (Now defunct and gone) grand opening in my (current) home town of Lacey, WA.
Either that or he coincidentally gave out 300 boxes of chocolate covered cherries to "celebrate Washington's 300th" that just so happened to coincide with the opening of the ballroom.
Here's s cheap trick, since they age SO well. Make them for Christmas and stick em in the fridge till you're ready for them. It would work if I would stop picking them off. Ahh the joy of melted chocolate.
I made a couple dozen of these last night (using cheater's chocolate :^). I need to do a little work in the presentation department, but they taste great! I can't wait until osmosis does its magic on the insides.
My sister's birthday is in June, which happens to be the month that George Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. So in a dual celebration 
