Recipe: Cherry Mashers by Joanna Gaines

 

Image found here

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is making sweet treats with my mom. She was watching a video in which Joanna Gaines was making her Aunt Mary's cherry mashers dessert, so we thought we'd try making them.

Ingredients

• One 7.2-ounce package Betty Crocker Home Style Fluffy White Frosting Mix (see Cook’s Note)
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) margarine, at room temperature
• One 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
• One 20-ounce package chocolate almond bark, broken into smaller pieces
• One 11.5-ounce bag milk chocolate chips
• 2 1/2 cups dry-roasted salted peanuts, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the frosting mix, powdered sugar, margarine, maraschino cherries, vanilla, and condensed milk. Starting on low speed, then gradually turning the speed to medium, beat until the mixture has a fluffy consistency, about 4 minutes.
3. Form the cherry mixture into 1-inch balls using a small (.75-ounce) cookie scoop. Place on the prepared baking sheet and freeze until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
4. To make the chocolate coating: In a medium saucepan, combine the chocolate bark, chocolate chips, peanuts, and vegetable oil and melt over medium heat, mixing to combine.
5. Working in batches, remove the cherry balls from the freezer and dunk them one at a time with a fork or spoon into the chocolate mixture. Allow any excess chocolate to drip off over the pan, then return the balls to the parchment paper.
6. Refrigerate until completely hardened, about 20 minutes.
7. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

TIP: If you can’t find or don’t want to use the powdered frosting mix, omit the mix and decrease the amount of sweetened condensed milk to 3 tablespoons.

One thing that was tricky about this recipe was that, in the video my mom showed me, Gaines does not use the frosting mix (like in the tip above). So that threw us off. Even in the official recipe, while it says to see "cook's note," nowhere does the page say "cook's note." It's the "tip" I've included above. So this recipe is a little confusing. 

The cherry center is very soft even after being in the freezer for a few hours, so you have to move quickly. And we only melted a bag of chocolate chips and one bar of semi-sweet chocolate to cover the chocolate centers; we didn't bother with the peanuts or sprinkles. It got a bit messy with all the melted chocolate.

But what was even messier: as I was carrying the tray of these desserts down the spiral staircase to put them in the freezer, I fell down the stairs. I'm actually amazed how many of the desserts survived my fall, but my pants were covered in chocolate, and I was left with quite the bruise on my lower hip:

So these desserts had to be worth it! I thought they were good, but they are really rich. They are more like candy than cookie, so the smaller, the better. My mom said she probably wouldn't bother making this recipe again, but I thought they tasted pretty good, even if they didn't quite look like the picture: