A recipe for homemade whiskeyed cherries, made with fresh or frozen bing (sweet) cherries.
Whiskeyed Cherries
Course: Condiment, DessertCuisine: French, Italian, American2
cups6
hours!50
minutesIngredients
24 oz. frozen bing cherries
Unsweetened cherry juice, or water
3.5 oz. (½ cup) sugar
2 oz. (1/4 cup) cherry whiskey
Directions
- Place the cherries into a colander suspended over a bowl and allow to defrost. This will take as many as 6 hours. Add enough supplemental juice (or water) to the strained juice to equal 1 cup. Pour into a medium saucepan. Add sugar.
- Over a med-high flame (setting 6), bring the juice and sugar and to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the cherries, cover, return to a boil, reduce to medium heat (setting 4), and simmer (still covered) for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Transfer the cherriries with a slotted spoon to a pint jar. If, once all the cherries are in the jar, you see that juice has also made its way in, invert the jar over the slotted spoon to drain the liquid back into the saucepan. Add the whiskey to the jar.
- Boil the syrup over rather high heat (setting 7) until reduced to ⅔ cup (if using water, reduce to ¼ cup). Now and then, lift the pan off the heat and swirl it around to reduce the bubbles (which are absolutely mezmerizing), to prevent it from boiling over. Pour over the cherries. Cover tightly and swirl to mix. If planning to store longe than 3 months, add enough whiskey to reach almost to the top of the jar. Cool, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Good immediately, but allow 24 hours for the flavors to meld, nonetheless.
Notes
- Cherry Substitutions: 1 can (1 lb.) pitted bing cherries in heavy syrup: drain the cherries for 30 minutes, reserve 1/2 cup syrup, add 1/2 cup of water to it, add 1 oz. (2 Tbs) sugar, and proceed with Step 2.
- Whiskey Substitutions: kirsch or Cognac
The whiskey’s beautiful in the background. The cherries and the juice are just sweet enough, just tart enough, and have a pleasant texture.
Great with vanilla ice cream, obviously. Also good as a cake garnish. Great on a grownup sundae! In fact, I used them to deconstruct the idea of a sundae and make a flourless chocolate cherry cake along those lines. Good in a cocktail, too – although they tend to absorb alcohol, so if you put one in something like a Manhattan, it’ll pack quite a punch when you eventually eat it.
Social Learning
If you have a low heat “simmer” burner, it will work well for reducing the cherry juice without worrying about it boiling over. Otherwise, you must watch it constantly and carefully because the bubbles will rise so high, it will amaze you.
For a personalized touch, consider experimenting with different whiskeys or spirits. I’ve already mentioned a few in the “notes” section of the recipe box, but another obvious choice would an unflavored whiskey. Rum or bourbon might be interesting.
The Backstory
I used Traverse City cherry whiskey. They didn’t sponsor this post, but I don’t mind promoting them in my small way. It’s good whiskey, and I do some of my best summer day drinking at their stillhouse.
These cherries would make a great homemade gift. It is a lot of cherries, though. You could if you wish, use them to fill one-cup jars, and use those as gifts. That’d be a lot more manageable.
I spend the summers in cherry country, where pints of fresh Bing cherries are available on every roadside, so I don’t often find myself buying them frozen. However, I did use frozen cherries for this post. I was impressed with both their flavor and texture. And I loved not having to pit them!
Whiskeyed Cherries
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thank you, Kesor. Thank you, ⌘+C. References: Beranbaum, Rose Levy. “Brandied Burgundy Cherries” in The Cake Bible. (William Morrow, New York, 1988) p. 346. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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