DIY Party Mom: Pumpkin Chocolate Covered Cherries Candy Recipe

Celebrate Halloween with this sweet Pumpkin candy recipe. These chocolate covered cherries are in the shape of pumpkins using a cheap dollar store mold and an easy candy recipe. These chocolate candies are perfect for any fall holiday including Halloween and Thanksgiving, or just a more beautiful take on the store bought chocolate covered cherries.

After having owned a candy store, my kids have become chocolate experts. They have tried a lot of different candy recipes, both those made by manufacturers and those I have made to sell.

Most of the time, they love this. It's pretty rare for them to find a candy that they don't like in at least some way.

But they do have their favorites. While Drama Queen loved the mustache chocolate truffles we made for her mustache graduation party, her favorite candy is still chocolate covered cherries.

I had never tried this candy recipe because it seemed like it would be hard to make the chocolate "oooze" and sweet like the store bought ones can be.

But I stand corrected. These chocolate covered cherries were super easy, they taste wonderful, and in their cute pumpkin shape they are so much better looking than the store bought versions.

To make these you'll need to start out with a jar of Maraschino Cherries Without Stems*. I bought a small jar with about 20 in them to try, but next time, I think I'll need to go bigger since we ate most of them in one sitting.

Drain as much of the cherry juice as possible. Then pour out your cherries onto a dish cloth and allow them to dry. Mine only took about 2 hours.

While waiting, gather:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon softened butter
1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup*
2 cups Milk Chocolate Wafers *

Mix the butter and corn syrup together. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Melt your milk chocolate wafers in a microwave safe dish for 1 minute on 50 percent power. Stir chocolate. Continue melting on half power until chocolate is completely melted and smooth in 30 second intervals.

This pumpkin ice mold was found at the Dollar Tree in the holiday section at the front of the store. You'll need at least one of them. If you can't find it there, you can get the Pumpkin Halloween Plastic Ice Cube Mold Tray* from Amazon year round.

Once all your ingredients are ready, paint the inside of your pumpkin mold with the melted chocolate. Make sure to go up the sides and into the stem.

I found it was easiest to fill the mold about half way and push the back of my spoon up the sides to coat them. Then, I let the chocolate sit for a minute and dumped out the excess in the center.

When done, place your pumpkin mold into the refrigerator and let the chocolate harden for five minutes.

While your chocolate is hardening, use your hands to spread the corn syrup, butter, and powdered sugar mixture onto the cherries.

I found this to be a little messy and they didn't look too pretty when I was working on them.

But after covering all the cherries, I went back and found they rolled into a ball nicely in my hands and looked a lot better.

Remove your pumpkin mold from the refrigerator and place a cherry into each chocolate cavity.

Some of my cherries fit perfectly, and some were a little bit bigger than the mold. It didn't end up being a problem in the end, so don't stress over it.

Remelt your chocolate if you need to make it smooth and pourable. Pour the chocolate down inside the pumpkin cavity around the cherry. It can be a bit messy, but you'll clean it up later.

Make sure to tap your mold carefully on the counter to allow any air bubbles to rise to the top and the chocolate to mold into the cavity around the cherry.

Place your pumpkin chocolate covered cherries into the refrigerator and let cool for about twenty minutes.

Remove the pumpkins from the refrigerator and the mold by popping them out. (I LOVE silicone molds!)

Allow them to sit at room temperature for a while so the chocolate will soften up. Use a butter knife to trim off the extra chocolate on the edges of the pumpkins. The warmer the chocolate, the easier it will be to do this.

The longer you let the chocolate covered cherries sit, the juicier they will be inside the pumpkins. We did put aside a few to see which way we like it best, but the majority of the pumpkins were eaten on the first day (we are not a patient family) and it was agreed these pumpkin chocolate covered cherries were one of the best candy recipes we have tried in a while.