Monday, May 5, 2008

Deep Fried Chocolate Covered Cherries


Well, I did it! This past Sunday I fried up my first batch of chocolate covered cherries! And let me say it was quite the experience. Albeit a tad messy but exhilarating none the less. There's something about oil splashing and food frying that gets me excited. 

I first got the idea a week or so ago while driving by a KFC on my way home from work. I borrowed the idea from hearing about Snickers Bars being fried. I just thought it might be a better way to eat those awful chocolate covered cherries or boxed chocolates. I somehow don't see myself as being the first ever to come up with such a silly idea. But hey why not give it a go.....everyone loves food deep fried!

I went out and bought several packages of Cella's boxed chocolate covered cherries and stuck them in the freezer (thank you Christina from She Runs, She Eats for that tip! Go check out her blog....er after reading this one). I decided to use a simple tempura batter for the coating.

Tempura Recipe:
1 cup of flour
2/3 cup of ice water
1/3 cup of milk
1 egg
1 tbs salt
1 tbs sugar

Before mixing up the batter I filled up my deep fryer with 100% vegetable oil and heated it to 400 degrees. Next I procured the chocolates from the freezer and dunked them in the batter. I slowly tonged them into the oil. The first few I over-cooked. They exploded when the chocolate melted and the liquid center leaked out into the oil. So, I figured they needed to be "lightly" coated, flash fried and removed quickly.



After ruining 5 or 6 of them I started to get the hang of it. I just made sure to dip them one at a time and move quickly. Once fried, I patted them down with a paper towel to remove any excess oil, and then sprinkled them with powdered sugar. You might want to eat them as soon as they've slightly cooled, since they don't keep too long. The leftover ones later turned into a mushy ball of batter and syrupy goo. I must say the fresh ones were quite tasty, even for a boxed chocolate. 

All-in-all yummers but very heavy on my stomach and super messy. For the finale, I ended up popping a bottle of champagne to help celebrate this new creation. Give it a try! 


8 comments:

Thistlemoon said...

Very interesting Aaron. I think you should open a shop in Scotland - they deep fry everything and I think they were the first to deep fry Mars bars!
These would be a hit over there!

Anonymous said...

My brain is pulling me in two different directions. Part of me thinks that this is absolutely fantastic, what an astonishing display of creativity. The other part is saying, "Don't these sit on your stomach like buckshot?" :) I don't think that the two are necessarily incompatible, mind you.

Christine said...

Great choice with a tempura batter. Your creation sounds more interesting than a typical fried candy bar, or a Twinkie! I remember seeing a menu for a pretty upscale restaurant in Chicago that had s'mores, I bet this would be something on that menu, too.

Anonymous said...

It seems so wrong... and yet so right! They look yummy!

adrianne said...

They really were a LOT better than I thought they would be. I think it's the crunchiness! And that liquid in the middle doesn't taste quite as unnatural and weird when it's warmed up a little. A definite success!

TheRavenousMommy said...

Wow...what a great idea. The best discovery since the deep fried Oreo!

SteamyKitchen said...

you are my hero! now i want to deep fry choc.

Anonymous said...

What's not to love here, chocolate, champagne and deep fried food ... looks to have all the food groups that I love!

Denise