White Chocolate Strawberry Cordials

So, I stepped out of my comfort zone a little here. I don't think I've made cordials in 10 years but they sounded like fun so I went for it. I was aiming for something red, white, and blue for this post but we are rolling with red and white. I actually also made blueberry cordials just like these but it's been 5 days and the fondant is still only half way set up so they just aren't ready. How do I know this? I try one each day. :) Now don't get me wrong, they taste really yummy, but you can still see some of the fondant that hasn't turned to liquid so it's not that pretty. 

These on the other hand have completely turned to that delicious cordial liquid. The strawberries add a different touch than cherries do. I'm a little wild like that sometimes, mixing up the fruits so you don't get what you think you will :). So the ingredient list is short but the directions are sort of long, only because these are very specific to make. I will tell you if you use milk or dark chocolate you will need to temper it or buy chocolate coating or something. When I use white chocolate I don't both tempering it because fat bloom and sugar bloom are both white! So, you can't really seem them on the white chocolate :) Tricky, yes? 

Fat bloom is the swirls of white you see on chocolate that hasn't been tempered or has been stored at the wrong temperature. Sugar bloom is the speckles of white you see on chocolate that has come into contact with moisture such as humidity or being in the refrigerator to long. Both are completely safe to eat, they just aren't pretty. My point is that you don't need to worry about either of those on white chocolate for these purposes. This is also why after the quick refrigerator to harden the chocolate, you store it at room temperature in an airtight container. These were featured on Southern Sundays, check out the post with the other feature and linkups here.

 This is day 2 of waiting for the cordials to setup. Note the white fondant on the left that has not completely turned to liquid yet. It was day 4 before I was satisfied with the liquid as you can see in other pictures :).

So, are you ready to make some cordials?

White Chocolate Strawberry Cordials
Makes 12

Ingredients:
- ¼ cup strawberries, chopped small
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons water
- 1 ½ tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- pinch salt
- 8-12 ounces white chocolate

Directions:
1. In a non-stick skillet cook strawberries over medium heat for about 1-1 ½ minutes until soft. Remove from heat, set aside.
 
2. Combine the water, corn syrup, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over high heat. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it begins to boil then clip a candy thermometer on the side of the pan. Cook the mixture to 240F without stirring, then remove from heat. Pour the mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet but do not stir or scrape it.
 
3. Leave the cookie sheet to cool for about 20 minutes on a flat surface, it will help to put it on a wire rack so that the air can flow underneath it. After 20 minutes the pan should feel slightly warm and be ready to work.
 
4. Pushing one side of the pan up against a wall may be necessary to help when you are scraping the mixture. Using a metal scraper (I used a plastic scraper though, oops) work the fondant in the pan folding it over on itself over and over to  mix it. The fondant will start to become opaque pretty quickly because this is a small amount. The mixing could take up to 10-15 minutes before it is complete. When the mixture is bright white and starts to crack then you are done mixing, set aside.
 
5. Line a 12 cup mini muffin pan with paper cups. Over a double boiler slowly melt the white chocolate, stirring constantly, until smooth. Using the back of a spoon spread the white chocolate evenly onto the cups. Put the cups in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes until the chocolate is hardened. Set aside the remaining chocolate.  
 
6. Over a double boiler on medium/low heat melt down the worked fondant and stir until smooth.
If necessary thin the fondant with some water, 1 teaspoon at a time, so that it is a pourable consistency, let cool a little bit but not too much or you will have to remelt it.
 
7. Remove the cups from the refrigerator and evenly fill the cups with about 1 teaspoon on the strawberries making sure not to overfill the cups. Evenly distribute the melted fondant over the strawberries in the cups being careful not to overfill the cups so that there is still space for chocolate to seal them. The fondant need to be thin enough so that it doesn’t turn hard before you get to put it in the chocolate shell over the strawberries. Place the cups in the refrigerator to help cool the mixture and cups.
 
8. Remelt the white chocolate until it is smooth, stirring constantly. Remove the cups from the refrigerator and spoon the white chocolate over the strawberry/fondant mixture to seal the cups.
Once the cups are sealed place them back in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate. Remove the cups from the refrigerator and let them sit at room temperature in a cool place (not next to the stove) for several days. As long as they are sealed they will be fine on the counter. After four days my fondant had completely turned to liquid like a cordial. They last up to three weeks in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

When I served the cordials then I kept them in the paper cups until they were served because the when the warm fondant was put into the cups it melted a little of the chocolate on some of them and as long as they were in the cups they were fine with no leaks. This problem may be alleviated by using an actual candy mold, then you wouldn’t need paper cups at all. Mine are just packed away somewhere so I used mini muffin pans and liners instead. 

Printable recipe 


Basic fondant recipe adapted from Confessions of a Chocolatier

This recipe may be linked up to:

· Inside BruCrew Life - Trick or Treat Tuesday's

· Crazy For Crust - Crazy Sweet Tuesday’s
· Alli 'n Sons - Sweet Tooth Friday 
· DJ's Sugar Shack - Whatcha Whipped Up?

· Mrs. Fox's Sweets - Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party 

· Sweet as Sugar Cookies - Sweets for a Saturday 
· Mandy's Recipe Box - Totally Tasty Tuesday's

· A Pinch of Joy - Busy Monday Link Party 

· House of Hepworth's - Hookin up with HoH 

· Cups by Kim - Sweet & Simple Sunday  

· Couponing & Cooking - Mealtime Monday 

· What's Cooking, Love? - Showcase Your Talent Thursday 

· Bacon Time with the Hungry Hungry Hypo - Anything Goes Linky

· Dwell on Joy - Dwell on Friday 

· Six Sister's Stuff - Strut Your Stuff Saturday

· Something Swanky: Desserts & Designs - Sweet Treats Thursday 

· A Slice of Southern - Southern Sundays 

· Me and My Sweets - My Sweet Party