Christmas Mice

From the kitchen of FootsieBear

I found these in the Country Woman Christmas issue. (The original instructions listed the ingredients to make 24 mice. I made 33 because that's how many cherries were in the jar, so that's what I'm basing these instructions on.) This is the picture that I took of one that I made.



1 jar maraschino cherries with stems
1 package double stuffed Oreos
1 package Hershey's kisses
1 tube red decorating gel
1 tube green decorating gel
Slivered almonds
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoons shortening

Drain cherries well and count them. Unwrap an equal amount of chocolate kisses and carefully remove one side of the chocolate cookie from the Oreo, leaving the cream filling on the other side. (Save plain side for another use.)

Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave and stir till smooth. Dip the cherries in the chocolate, shake to remove excess. Set the cherry on the flat side of chocolate kiss, then position them on the cream filling of the Oreo, slightly off center with the stem hanging over the edge. Position 2 slivered almonds for ears. Use red gel for eyes. Use the green gel to draw 2 holly leaves slightly apart, put a red berry in the center with the red gel.

Now a few things I learned! I kept the chocolate warm by setting it in a bowl of warm water, it made it easier to dip the cherries. If you can find the larger size cherries, use those. The ones I got were kind of small and didn't fit quite right. I took a toothpick, and used some of the slightly set chocolate from the side of the bowl to fill in any holes in the cherries and to make the head and body look more connected.

If you let them set a few minutes before adding the ears, the almonds will stay in place better. I tried putting them on right away and they kept falling over. Try not to get chocolate all over the almond sliver like I did.

In fact, I tried several methods of putting these together, I followed the directions to a T and discovered it wasn't quite as easy as they made it out to be. Then again, I was keeping an eye on the news, DH was in and out and so was the dog, so maybe I was slightly distracted! LOL

I also dipped the cherries and set them on a plate then dipped the ends of the almond slivers in chocolate and glued them to the kiss, then stuck them together. That worked ok too.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper to set the mice on as you put them together. When you get them all done, let them set for a few minutes before decorating. Don't forget to knead the gel tubes first or the first drop will run. You can use blue gel or any other color for the eyes if you want. The holly leaves are a little tough to get right. I ended up making a "v" on each side of the red berry. Next time, I may just sprinkle colored sugar on the cream filling. (In fact, if you want to make these for Halloween, I'd use yellow, red and orange sugar.)

I figured out what to do with the other half of the Oreos. I'm going to put a little chocolate frosting on them, then make more mice, only this time, I'm going to dip them in white chocolate and maybe sprinkle a little coconut around them.

NOTE: You could use cherries without stems and use a chow mein noodle for the tail.