Bake

Crazy-Good No-Temper Chocolate-Dipped Cherries (+ Other Things)

July  1, 2013

Every week, baking expert Alice Medrich will be going rogue on Food52 -- with shortcuts, hacks, and game-changing recipes.

Today: No need to temper chocolate before dipping cherries (or anything else, for that matter) in it -- once you know Alice's secrets.

chocolate dipped cherries

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Don’t let the season come and go without dipping some gorgeous ripe cherries in chocolate. There is no skill required to produce these elegant, yet kid-friendly sweets.  

And no need to temper the chocolate either: the secret to preventing the chocolate from turning grey and streaky is to dry and chill the cherries before dipping, and refrigerate them again immediately after dipping. There is nothing more to it. (The same goes for other fruits like strawberries, or figs -- wet slices or segments will contaminate the chocolate and thicken it, so dry them well!)

But please don’t cheat on the chocolate. Choose a bar that you love to nibble. Don’t choose chocolate chips (because they don’t melt well), and don’t choose “chocolate coating” that you might see sold in the produce aisle for dipping strawberries, because (trust me) it isn’t delicious enough -- real chocolate with nothing added is better. The cherries deserve it and so do you!

chocolate cherries

Crazy Good Chocolate-Dipped Cherries

Adapted from Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich (Artisan, 2012)

Please warn your guests about the pits. Kids will love to help you make (and eat) these.

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds of cherries with stems
8 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped, or white or milk chocolate, finely chopped 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

 

Alice's most recent book, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, doles out delicious dessert recipes that don't take hours of prep (a lot of them don't even require turning on the oven) -- everything from lattice-free linzer to one-bowl French chocolate torte.

 

 

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Sally Morris 1
    Sally Morris 1
  • Droplet
    Droplet
  • Allison (Spontaneous Tomato)
    Allison (Spontaneous Tomato)
  • Brette Warshaw
    Brette Warshaw
  • Kristen Miglore
    Kristen Miglore
My career was sparked by a single bite of a chocolate truffle, made by my Paris landlady in 1972. I returned home to open this country’s first chocolate bakery and dessert shop, Cocolat, and I am often “blamed” for introducing chocolate truffles to America. Today I am the James Beard Foundation and IACP award-winning author of ten cookbooks, teach a chocolate dessert class on Craftsy.com, and work with some of the world’s best chocolate companies. In 2018, I won the IACP Award for Best Food-Focused Column (this one!).

5 Comments

Sally M. July 2, 2013
mmmmmm I have a bag of cherries in the fridge & I was thinking of baking something but you just changed my mind. These look amazing
 
Droplet July 2, 2013
Alice Medrich Every Week- Thank you!
 
Kristen M. July 2, 2013
We're excited too!
 
Allison (. July 1, 2013
These look beautiful! And I imagine they'd be much easier (less messy) to make and to eat than other chocolate dipped berries... I think I'll try these at my next dinner party!
 
Brette W. July 1, 2013
These were crazy-good AND crazy-easy.