Chocolate Mice

The Art.

    When we were kids, my mom would wrangle us into helping her make the Christmas treats for our friends and neighbors. This usually involved making trays and trays of the Traditional Greek Baklava that I posted last year, in addition to several hundred candy mice. By the end of the evening, the entire kitchen would be a sticky mess with maraschino cherry juice, and the table would be covered in rows and rows of chocolate mice. This is the first time I've made chocolate mice on my own, and it wasn't nearly as traumatizing. One jar of maraschino cherries will yield approximately 25 mice, which is a manageable number. The entire process took me about an hour and I think the payoff is as cute as can be! Just make sure you store them in a container to keep these creatures from stirring about your house on Christmas Eve.

The Science.
    To make these mice, I used chocolate Almond Bark to coat the cherries. Almond Bark is not chocolate at all, it's mostly composed of palm oil and sugar, with some cocoa powder. Because it doesn't have any cocoa butter, this confection has a higher melting temperature and cools much faster than real chocolate. These qualities make Almond Bark ideal for decorations and candymaking, although the texture and flavor are not quite as good as the real thing.  If you really want to make gourmet chocolate mice and use real chocolate, check out my Burnin' Love Sriracha Truffles post for suggestions.

         While we're on the subject of science, you may have noticed an odd-looking cookie in the photo to the left. It's decorated like a DNA gel, which we use in the lab to determine the genetic makeup of our mice. If you would like to make a genotyping gel cookie for your mice, you can ice a graham cracker with the icing technique I described for my Lemon Polka Dot Sugar Cookies.




The Recipe.

1 jar maraschino cherries, with stems
25 milk chocolate Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped
50 sliced almond pieces, in pairs
2 squares chocolate Almond Bark
royal icing

    Rinse the cherries 3-4 times in water, until the syrup is washed off completely. Lay the cherries out in a single layer on paper towels to dry. Lay out your Hershey Kiss "heads" and match up your almond slice "ears" to prepare yourself for easy assembly. In a small microwave safe bowl, heat the Almond Bark for 30 seconds. If it is not completely melted, stir and heat an additional 30 seconds. Be careful not to overheat it, or it will seize up and harden.
    Pick up a cherry by its stem, dip it into the Almond Bark, then set on waxed paper. Working quickly, attach a Hershey Kiss by pressing it onto the cherry, and insert the almond slivers between the Kiss and the cherry. Almond Bark cools quickly, so you want to have all of the pieces handy. If you need a little extra help, you can use a toothpick to apply more Almond Bark to stick things together. Once all of the mice have cooled, pipe their eyes and noses on with the royal icing. Allow approximately 15 minutes for the icing to dry before serving.

     Chocolate mice can be stored in the refrigerator for one week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. However, they can be part of a holiday display at room temperature for a couple days without any harm. Get creative with your presentation! These mice can decorate cakes and cupcakes, or reside in a gingerbread house. You can even put them in little truffle wrappers and put them on the boughs of your Christmas tree, if you like.