A Very Drunk Cherry

That would have been me last night, so I suppose it's appropriate I'm posting about boozy cherries today.

My Fruitcake tells me black cherries are in season. How I love a plump, juicy, arterial blood red cherry, they remind me of London when I was little. Mum used to buy us a pound of cherries from the wheelbarrow man, rustling in their brown paper bag and warm from sunshine. I'd bite them in half and then squeeze the remaining half with my fingers, letting the juice run down my arm and imagining myself in some horror movie. I was a morbid little freak.

Anyway, I'm all grown up now and I still love cherries - the only difference is now I get to eat them with rum!

Ingredients
1 day soaking, 2hrs prep to mouth
Cherries with their stems
Dark rum
Your favourite dark chocolate, about 1 square per cherry - I like Lindt's bittersweet

- Prick your cherries all over with a toothpick and put them in a container with a lid
- Pour dark rum over them until completely submerged, cover with lid and leave them in the fridge overnight. Soaking them for 1 day gets them quite boozy. I soaked them for 3 days, had a couple for breakfast and then had to go back and lie down for abit!

The next day(s),
- Find a small saucepan and a bowl that will sit on top of it like this. The smaller the bowl, the better unless you're melting a mountain of chocolate and planning to take the next week off work.
- Fill the saucepan halfway with water and bring to boil.
- Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and break the chocolate into it

- Take the cherries out of the rum and wipe them dry.
- Find a plate large enough for all the cherries and lightly oil the surface with a mild-flavoured oil like sunflower and then pop the plate in the freezer while you prep the chocolate

- By this time, the chocolate should be melting so keep stirring it until it's all melted and lovely and glossy
- Take the plate out of the freezer
- Pick a cherry up by its stem and dip it into the chocolate, gently swirling it around until it's all coated
- Drop it onto the plate and repeat with the other cherries
- Pop it in the fridge and try not to obsessively check to see if they're ready. It'll take at least an hour.

There'll be chocolate left over in the bowl, and I NEVER like to see good chocolate go to waste so make chocolate milk by adding a little milk to the melted chocolate, stir until incorporated, add a little more and stire and keep doing it until the chocolate is very runny. Then you can pour a big glug in until it's as chocolately as you like.

And of course one mustn't forget the lovely cherry flavoured rum left over! Make a Rum & Cherry Coke by pouring a big sploosh of cherry rum into a glass, top with Coke and garnish with a......chocolate rummy cherry!