I have a drink I want to make that calls for Brandied Cherries. This is the recipe I went with:
- 0.50 cup white sugar or turbinado
- 0.50 cup cherry juice or water
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 0.25 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 1 cup brandy, maraschino liqueur, aged rum, or any combination of the three
- 1 pound cherries, stemmed and pitted if desired
In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cherry juice (or water), cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Bring to a low simmer. Simmer, stirring until sugar is fully dissolved. Remove saucepan from heat. Add brandy or other liqueur, and stir to combine. Add cherries and stir until coated with syrup. Remove to clean canning jars. Let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight before serving.
I have a classic cocktail that I want to make that isn’t in the book, but I found a recipe on-line. It in pretty complex, but starts with muddling brandied cherries. While I have some Luxardo Cherries that would probably work, I decided I wanted to make my own. I had to wait until cherries came into season, however.
I found Daniel Shoemaker’s recipe, but it was a little too over the top for me, and I don’t need five pounds of them. This shortcut recipe was more my speed, but I didn’t wait months for cherries to be available to used canned ones.
The recipe above seemed just right. I first dutifully stemmed a pitted a pound of cherries:
using my most excellent cherry pitter (Alton Brown cautions against single use kitchen tools, but this one is amazing and I guess I could use it for olives). I found cherry juice at my local co-op and opted for a concentrated cherry juice since I figured that would further intensify the cherry flavor.
For the alcohol I used 0.75 cup of Martell’s cognac and 0.25 cup of Luxardo Cherry Liquor.
I didn’t process them all that long, about five minutes (I think the alcohol should take care of most issues) and each jar developed a nice seal. I had a little bit left over so that went into the refrigerator, and the ones I’ve sampled from there have been tasty.