Cherry bombs are maraschino cherries soaked in vodka, dipped in white chocolate, and dusted in blue sugar at the base. Done right, they look like little fireworks lined up on a tray, stem pointing up. I make them for the adults every Fourth of July for the adults and they disappear fast, I often double the batch.
The catch is the chocolate sliding off the cherry if there’s any moisture left on it, and there’s one step I’ll get to that handles it.
Key Ingredient Notes
Maraschino cherries:
Fresh cherries will not work for this recipe. Choose Maraschino cherries with stems. They have been sitting in syrup for quite a while, which softens the flesh enough that vodka can soak in. Fresh cherries have tight skin that won’t take on the alcohol, and they bleed pink onto the white chocolate.
Vanilla Vodka:
The Absolut Vanilia flavored vodka does more than just add alcohol – it improves the taste. Plain vodka works but tastes sharper in the finished cherry.
Whichever I use, I don’t soak the cherries more than 24 hours. Past that, the cherries start to taste unpleasant, like perfume.
White chocolate: melting discs (not chips).
Chips have stabilizers in them so they hold their shape in cookies, and those same stabilizers keep them from melting smoothly for dipping. Melting discs (Ghirardelli, Wilton, or whatever the store stocks) are made for this. If my chocolate stays thick or grainy and I know the cherries were dry, the wrong product is usually why.
Watch The Microwave Power
White chocolate burns faster than other chocolates, which is why this recipe calls for 50% microwave power instead of full. I melt mine in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between each round.
I also stop before all the discs are fully melted. The residual heat in the bowl finishes the last few pieces as I stir.
If I push it until every disc looks liquid, the chocolate at the bottom has already overheated, and it turns from smooth to grainy paste. Once that happens, there’s no bringing it back, and I have to start over with new discs.
Don’t Miss This Step
Dry the cherries until the paper towel comes away clean.
White chocolate is oil-based, and any water film left on a cherry skin causes one of two failures: the coating beads up and slides off in the bowl, or the water hits the melted chocolate and seizes it into a grainy paste that won’t come back no matter how hard I stir.
Make-Ahead Guidance
I soak the cherries overnight and dip them the morning I’m serving. That’s when they look their best. I’ll refrigerate them, loosely covered, till I’m ready to serve them.
If I’m setting them out for a long backyard afternoon, I’ll bring out a small tray or bowl at a time and keep the rest in the fridge.
The dipped cherry bombs will hold in the fridge for up to 2 days if I need more lead time than that, but the chocolate picks up moisture and turns cloudy. They still taste the same, but the shell doesn’t look as sharp.
I never freeze these. Maraschino cherries collapse when they thaw and the chocolate shell cracks as the cherry shrinks.
4th of July Cherry Bombs
Ingredients
- 10 ounces maraschino cherries with stems
- ¼ cup Vodka, I used Absolut Vanilia
- 5 ounces white chocolate melting discs
- ¼ cup blue sanding sugar
Instructions
- Remove the lid of the jar of maraschino cherries, being sure to save the lid, and drain out a third of a cup of juice from the jar of the maraschino cherries.
- Add a quarter cup of vodka to the jar of maraschino cherries.
- Replace the lid to the jar of cherries and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to overnight. The longer you allow your cherries to soak in the Vodka-infused juice, the stronger the flavor will be.
- Once the cherries have soaked in the vodka-flavored cherry juice, carefully remove all the maraschino cherries from the jar.
- Place them onto a paper towel-lined plate, and pat the cherries dry really well.
- Line a rimmed tray with a piece of parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a small, microwave-safe bowl, add the white chocolate melting discs. Microwave for thirty seconds to one minute at 50% power, stir, then microwave an additional 15-30 seconds or until the white chocolate is fully melted and stirred to a smooth consistency.
- Hold a very dry maraschino cherry by the stem and dip it into the melted white chocolate, covering approximately three-quarters of the cherry with the white chocolate.
- Once you have dipped the cherry into the white chocolate, then dip the bottom of the white chocolate dipped cherry into the blue sanding sugar.
- Place the dipped cherry bomb onto the prepared rimmed tray. Be sure that the stem is pointing up. Repeat until all the stemmed maraschino cherries have been dipped.
- Place the tray of cherry bombs into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill before serving.
Nutrition
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