Homemade Brandied Cherries
Making your own allows you to control sweetness and booze level. These improve with age and keep for over a year.
Making your own allows you to control sweetness and booze level. These improve with age and keep for over a year.
- 1 cupbrandy(or bourbon)
- 1 poundfresh sweet cherries(stemmed and pitted)
- 0.25 wholestar anise(optional)
- 0.5 cupwhite sugar
- 1Place pitted cherries in a clean jar.
- 2Add cinnamon star anise and almond extract.
- 3Pour sugar syrup over cherries.
- 4Add brandy to cover completely.
- 5Seal and refrigerate for at least 2 weeks before using.
- 6Keeps refrigerated for over a year. Flavor improves with age.
Store in sealed jars in the refrigerator for up to one year. The high alcohol and sugar content prevents spoilage. The flavor improves significantly over the first three months of aging.
Bing cherries produce the most classically flavored brandied cherry with deep color and firm texture; Rainier cherries produce a milder, more delicate result. Pit the cherries and keep them whole — halved cherries absorb spirit too quickly and become mushy. The cherries must be completely submerged in the brandy-syrup mixture or the exposed portions will oxidize and discolor; weigh them down with a small piece of parchment if needed. Two weeks is the minimum before use, but brandied cherries made in August and used the following spring are dramatically better — the flavors integrate fully and the texture firms slightly.
Brandied cherries have a documented history in European confectionery stretching back to at least the 17th century, when northern European distillers and households began preserving summer cherries in brandy and sugar as a method of extending the brief cherry season. The Maraschino cherry — originally produced in Dalmatia (modern Croatia) using Marasca cherries preserved in Maraschino liqueur — was a premium cocktail garnish in the 19th and early 20th centuries. When US Prohibition banned the alcohol-based original, a new product was developed using bleached cherries preserved in sugar syrup and dyed with red food coloring, and this artificial version dominated American bar culture for most of the 20th century. The craft cocktail revival was in significant part a rejection of the neon red artificial Maraschino cherry in favor of quality brandied cherries — particularly Luxardo Maraschino cherries imported from Italy — and homemade brandied cherries made with Bing or Rainier cherries and good brandy or bourbon became a hallmark of serious craft cocktail programs.
A bourbon-based brandied cherry using good Kentucky bourbon in place of brandy produces a deeper, vanilla-tinged cherry with more American character, well suited to Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. A spiced version can be made by adding one split vanilla bean, two whole cloves, and a small piece of orange peel to the jar during steeping. For a Luxardo-style cherry closer to the Italian original, substitute Maraschino liqueur for half the brandy and reduce the sugar syrup accordingly.
No common top-eight allergens. Contains alcohol (brandy or bourbon). Cherry allergies are rare; individuals with birch oral allergy syndrome may experience reactions. Naturally gluten-free.