Plums in Chocolate

A plum in chocolate is a typical Polish delicacy. A toasted almond can be included in the center of the confection and crushed nuts can be used as a topping as well, but I wanted to make my own version of it using local ingredients because I don't live in Poland.

I'd suggest you to make them in your own way using the ingredients you like most. Nowadays you can find a very big variety of dried fruits such as apricots, cherries, cranberries, mangoes, raisins... and mix them with any local alcoholic beverage.

These are the ingredients:

- Dried fruit (I used plums)

- Any sweet alcoholic beverage. It could be rum, anisette, brandy... I used "Brandy de Jerez"

- Chocolate (I used 70%). Some people use milk chocolate or even white chocolate. Just choose the one that combines better with the fruit you chose

Put all the plums in a bowl or flat pan and cover the plums with the brandy.

Cover them with plastic film so that the alcohol won't evaporate.

Let them macerate over night for about 8 hours. In case you didn't want them to be deeply soaked in alcohol leave them for 2-3 hours.

The following morning you'll be able to apreciate how the plums have grown and the quantity of brandy has decreased.

Now drain the brandy and let the plums dry on a paper towel.

We want to dip them in chocolate and if they are wet the chocolate will not stick to them.

Once they are completely dried, melt the chocolate.

Then, take each plum and dip it completely into the melted chocolate. Twirl it around to get it completely coated. Put it on a non-sticky surface to cool.

Just enjoy your plums!

If you make these plums in summer store them in the fridge. It's hard to set a use-by date to this delicacy because they have been dried and then soaked in alcohol; two traditional ways of food preservation. I'd say they last for about a year in good conditions if they've been stored in the fridge.

I never know how much chocolate I have to use when I dip or cover something and so I always end up with some left over chocolate. I didn't know what to do with it, I used to add a second layer or just eat it ;D but what I do now is to let it cool and keep it for the next time I decided to make plums.