This summer, I have been loving cherries! The worst part is pitting them, but I don’t mind that too much. Yes, it makes your hands pretty colors, but to me the end benefit is what I keep thinking about!
I have been making these cherries for several years. They are just so good! I use them for topping ice cream, putting in yogurt, to just eating by themselves! And the juice is good in tea as well (or cocktails!).
Brandied Cherries
Print this recipe!
3 1/2 pounds sweet cherries, pitted and halved
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup (or more!) cherry brandy
Combine the cherries, sugar, water and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the cherries come to a boil. Stir will to dissolve the sugar.
Prepare a boiling water bath canner. In the hot sterilized jars, pour in about 1 inch of brandy in the bottom of the jar. Add cherries and syrup to fill the jars and top with two part lids and bands.
Process in the boiling water bath for 10 minutes, or the time recommended for your altitude.
Remove from the canner and let cool 24 hours. Label and store!
This is some of my homemade almond yogurt with the cherries, probably my favorite way to enjoy the cherries.
I love preserving some of the delicious cherries to enjoy year round!
This is being shared with The Carnival of Home Preserving.
Oh! I love cherries! I just read that 97% of the tart cherry crop was ruined this year. So when we can, we better enjoy them. I think I cornered the market on dried cherries the other day!
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Oh really? That is sad… I was wondering when tart cherries would be available!! I just found some Ranier cherries for $3 a pound yesterday, and that is the cheapest I have ever seen them!
Those look so good, I don’t know if I would have the patience to pit three pounds of cherries
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haha, yeah it did take a while. Sometimes I get lazy and buy the frozen ones that are already pitted
Yummmm! I am so obsessed with cherries right now. Need to put these on the to-do list.
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It is so good – you will love them!
This sounds so good! Thank you for linking this up at the Carnival of Home Preserving, Jane.
Thanks Laura! I hope you are having a great weekend! I just love about anything cherries
Cherries are not something I eat often, but they are good. I’m just wondering – when you add sugar, do you add refined white sugar, brown sugar, or something else?
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I have an organic cane sugar that I get at Coscto that I mostly use, but I also have some sucanat that I use for pretty much anything else. I really don’t use a lot of sugar so it lasts me a long time! The sucanat I double for whenever I would normally use brown sugar, because it is kind of brownish in color and not as fine as regular sugar. Making jam and canning is where I have been using most of my sugar recently though!
How do you pit yours? I’ve found that the rounded end of a (clean) bobby pin works pretty good.
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hmmmm I’ll have to try that! I just use a knife and my fingers
Great recipe! Whole foods had cherrys for $2.00 a pound, so i went crazy
Although, if I pit this many cherries again, I am going to get a cherry pitter. http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Cherry-Pitter/dp/B000NQ925K
I always think about getting a cherry pitter, then I figure I can just do it myself! But, when I am sitting there pitting a ton of cherries, that is when I wish I had a cherry pitter
I made a combination cherry/blackberry fruit leather this year.
Do you have a recipe for the almond yogurt you show in the picture?
Cherry blackberry sounds like a great combination! Here is my post on coconut milk yogurt – http://www.thehealthybeehive.com/crockpot-monday-how-to-make-coconut-milk-yogurt/. Honestly, I think the best reference for making almond yogurt (and one that I make) is from Lexie’s Kitchen – here is the link. I love it!