Cocktail Cherries!

When I saw the sale price of cherries last week, I jumped on it and bought a few pounds. Of course, even though cherries are quite possibly my favorite fruit, I couldn’t eat that many cherries just as is (without getting ill), so I decided to make cocktail cherries. My favorite winter cocktail is a Manhattan, but I’m really not a big fan of the traditional florescent maraschino cherry. I’m always in search of proper brandied cherries or high-end maraschino type cherries. Now, I will no longer have to search. There are several recipes for brandied cherries on the Internet and they were all pretty-much the same. It was easier than I’d imagined, especially with the help of my brand-spankin’ new cherry pitter. Here’s what I did:

Cocktail Cherries

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pounds cherries (traditionally sour cherries are used, but I used sweet cherries because they were there)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup water
• seasonings: this could include a pinch of grated nutmeg, a cinnamon stick, a vanilla bean, lemon zest, whatever you fancy
• 1.5 cups brown booze (brandy, bourbon, dark rum, rye whiskey, or a combination - I used brandy and bourbon)

Directions:

1. Wash the cherries and remove all stems and pits. Place in a large bowl.
2. Place the sugar, water and seasonings in a saucepan and bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar.
3. Add the brown booze and stir.
4. Pour the mixture over the cherries and stir.
5. Transfer the cherries to clean mason jars and refrigerate.

So, once the cold weather returns in three or four months, and I’m in the mood for a Manhattan I’ll not have to run around looking for the proper cherry. I’ll have a huge mason jar full of them in my fridge.

Or will I? Winter is several months away, after all…