Cherry Almond Cream - A Year of Cocktails (February)

February, such a chilly month in the middle of the winter, calls for a cozy drink that pairs well with chocolate! We discovered Cherry Almond Cream - which was delicious with some easy homemade chocolates. This drink is perfect for a Valentine's Day Celebration with your significant other, or a girls night in.

Cherry brandy drinks have been popular since the colonial era, the Mount Vernon website even shares the Washington family recipe for Cherry Bounce (very similar to this drink).  Cherry Heering, the quintessential Cherry liqueur, has been produced in Europe since 1818 and was even the signature drink on some European airlines in the mid-century. As American cocktail parties reached their peak during the post-war boom of the 1950's; it's no surprise that they included drinks influenced by European liquors. Many servicemen had the opportunity to try such drinks while deployed, and some- no doubt- brought them home as souvenirs.

 While the original recipe (found below) that we used called for a Cherry Brandy, we discovered that they are no longer widely available in the United States. We could not locate a distributor in a several state area, in the southeast region. If you can buy it in your area, grab some and consider yourself lucky! If not, you have one of two options... pre plan and make your own (soaking cherries in brandy for several weeks -recipes readily available online), or substitute. We took the later option, substituting an easily available Cherry Bourbon. We had to slightly reduce the amount of bourbon, as it was a bit too sweet for our tastes. You can play with the ingredients to suite your preferences as well.

Cherry Almond Cream Cocktail

3/4 ounces Cherry Brandy

3/4 ounces Amaretto

half and half

ice

Chocolate for garnish

Add liqueurs to a tumbler filled with ice, and add half and half to fill up glass. Stir to mix, and enjoy!

We created our chocolate garnish with leftovers from the chocolates we made to accompany the drinks- simply put a glob of chocolate on parchment paper to cool. Then carefully shave off a curl with a sharp knife and place the curl around the glass lip!

To make the chocolates...

Start with a silicone mold- we used a slim ice mold that we had available, but you could use any shape or style that you like. If you use a deeper mold, don't fill it more than about 3/4"

Adding the craisins and salt to the mold

deep with chocolate. 

Sprinkle crasins and sea salt in the bottom of your mold

Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips on the stove top or in the microwave. If you use the microwave, initially do one minute at 50% power. Stir and continue at 30 sec intervals, 50% power until the chips are melted. With a spoon, put the melted chocolate into your mold. After the mold is full, tap it gently on the counter several times to remove air bubbles. You will see them come to the surface and pop! 

Refrigerate the mold until the chocolate it set, then carefully pop it out. 

We found that the tartness of the crasins was the perfect foil to the sweetness of the drink. It might be even better with a dark chocolate! If you try any variations, share them with us in the comments!! 

Finished Chocolates

Bon Apetite!

Stacy