Chocolate-dipped Cherries

I recently bought a ten kilo bag of premium quality bittersweet chocolate bits, with 80% cacao solids. I say "bits" so as not to be confused with "chips," which typically are formulated not to melt when baked in cookies, whereas these are pure couverture chocolate. The beauty (for me) of having the chocolate in this form is that I won't have to waste time chopping a big block every time I want to use it, which means I'll be more inclined to make chocolate dishes  often.

Yesterday I found some deep dark red organic bing cherries at the market, and decided it was about time to make a favorite of mine: chocolate-dipped cherries. I had a little ganache left over from preparing the truffle bits for that absinthe ice cream, too, which shortened an important step. All I had to do was to soften it in a bowl over hot water, stir in a little ruby port (I was out of kirsch) and then stir it over an ice bath. Voilà--a filling for the space that would be left when I pitted them, which would remain soft when refrigerated.

The trick is to pit the cherries from the side, leaving the stem in place. Then I prepare a parchment cornet, fill it with the ganache, and pipe the creamy stuff into the cherry's juicy core. After that, it's just a matter of dipping the cherries in tempered couverture and letting them set.

These cherries have nothing in common with those tired old chocolate-covered maraschino slugs you may have run into out there. For one, they're fresh, not embalmed with artificial color and flavor. My little beauties are gushing with delicious bing cherry flavor.  But the kicker is the incomparable pleasure of biting through a thin, crisp, dark chocolate shell, sliding through the luscious flesh and into a soft chocolate center. Pretty amazing, really.