Queen Meg's Chocolate Covered Cherries

      This one is dedicated to Papa Kompik, a recipe for dairy-free and egg-free chocolate covered cherries, ready to share.  Queen Anne chocolate covered cherries were the traditional Christmas gift for my Papa Kompik.  The Queen Anne factory used to be located  nearby and used local cherries.  Seeing the boxes stacked high in the city stores and then reading "Hart, MI" on the label was pretty much as close to fame as a kid could get. 
     At $1 a box, it was within a piggybank budget, and the best part was knowing he'd share. Papa's usual routine was to unwrap the box in surprise, open the cellophane with his pocket knife, eat one himself and pass the box around. Queen Anne has since been acquired by a Chicago company, and Papa passed away a few years ago.  I created this recipe for the first Christmas without him, knowing the tradition would continue and wanting my kids to join in. I'm sure he would approve of  "Queen Meg" and the return of the local cherry cordial factory. Merry Christmas!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

2 jars of maraschino cherries (with or without stems, depending on how you dip)
2 cups powdered sugar
3 T. shortening, dairy-free margarine or coconut oil
3 T. corn syrup
2-3 T. maraschino cherry juice

1 pound safe chocolate chips (I used Divvies)
1-2 T. shortening

Making the Fondant
1.) In a mixing bowl, blend the shortening and the corn syrup.
2.) Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
3.) Add some cherry juice as needed to make a soft dough.
4.) You want this fondant to be pretty soft, but not liquid or sticky.
5.) Chill fondant in the refrigerator for an hour.

Making the Cherry Centers
1.) Drain the cherries, and set on paper towels.
2.) Pull off a blob of fondant, about the size of a big gumball.  Flatten it out in your hands into a disk and wrap the cherry in it. Don't worry if it isn't perfect in shape, you can fix that later. If your fondant is really soft, you'll have great cordials later, but it can be hard to wrap the cherries, don't despair.
3.) Place on waxed paper.  Once all the cherries are done, place in the freezer for a few hours, or a few weeks.
4.) If your cherries are kinda funny looking after freezing, just remove them, roll around in your hands to reshape and freeze again.

Dipping
1.)  Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave slowly, add more shortening if the chocolate seems too thick to dip.
2.)  You've got a few options as far as how to dip.  For cherries with the stem you can just use the stem as your dipper.  Without the stems, you can use two plastic forks with the middle tines broken out as your dipping tools.
3.) Allow to dry on waxed paper. You may need to go back and patch any holes with melted chocolate.

Let these guys sit for a week or so to let the centers liquefy a bit.  I found this cool stuff, invertase, at sugarcraft.com.  It's an enzyme that breaks down solid sugar to liquid sugar, I add about 1/2 teaspoon to the fondant and the centers become nice and liquidy after a few days.

chocolate cordial recipe, chocolate covered cherry recipe, dairy-free chocolate covered cherry cordial recipe, egg-free chocolate covered cherry cordial recipe, vegan chocolate covered cherry cordial recipe.

Read more...

Construction Grade Gingerbread

I have cookie cutter issues, plain and simple. I have cookie cutters for the most ridiculous things (a mushroom?), and always find room for more. We were once late for dinner in Seattle, and became even later when we drove past a glittering store simply named "Cookies"...and had to stop. Our friends really thought we were nuts when I proudly displayed my newest cutters! This week, a quick run into Hobby Lobby for ribbon had me stopped dead in the center aisle gasping at the Wilton gingerbread house cutter set...and just like that...my "ribbon" cost $8 more.
I'm married to an engineer, and we're currently building our own house. I'm sure I could have done this without the cutters, but this is way more fun. The cutters also snapped me out of my old routine of using graham crackers for the walls. Have fun!

Gingerbread Houses

Dough
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 t. cinnamon
2 t. ginger
1/4 t. cloves
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/4 cup water
2 2/3 cups flour

1.) Cream together the shortening, sugar and molasses.
2.) Add the all the spices and powders.
3.) Cream in the water (things may separate a bit, just keep beating).
4.) Add the flour.  You'll roll more flour in later, but if your dough seems particularly soft, you can add a few more tablespoons of flour.
5.) Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until chilled (2 hours or so)
6.) Roll dough out thin, adding flour to keep the dough from sticking. (1/4 inch thick at the most, if your walls are too thick and heavy...especially the roof...it's hard to get them to glue together).
7.) Cut out shapes and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Place pans in the freezer while oven heats.
8.) Preheat oven to 350.
9.) Bake for 12-15 minutes until browned.
10.) Cool on a rack before assembling.

Sugar Cement (Egg-Free Royal Icing)
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3-4T water

1.) Mix it up! It should be thick like toothpaste, not runny like Elmer's glue.

Necco Wafers, Laffy Taffy (small ones only, the big bars have egg), Airheads, Skittles, Dum-Dums, Life-Savers, Jujubes, Starburst, Mike&Ikes, Hot Tamales, Dots, Nerds, Peeps, Gimballs Jelly Beans.

Enjoy!

Dairy-Free Egg-Free Gingerbread House Cookies Recipe, Vegan Gingerbread House Cookies Recipe, Perfect Dairy-Free Gingerbread Cookies Recipe, Perfect Egg-free Gingerbread House Cookies Recipe. egg-free royal icing recipe egg-free icing cement

Read more...