Homemade cocktail cherries (small batch)
Fresh cherries are covered with a heavy syrup for storage in the fridge or for canning.
Calories:
Equipment
- 2 1-pint jars
Ingredients
- 1 quart sour cherries
- 2 cups water
- 1-2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
PREPARE INGREDIENTS
- Pit cherries, setting aside in a bowl to collect juices.
- If canning, bring a large pot of water to boil. Sterilize jars.
MAKE SYRUP
- Add water and sugar in a sauce pan (that is big enough to also accommodate the cherries in the next step). Heat until boiling.
- Add cherries to boiling syrup, including their juices. Simmer for a minute or two - just long enough that the cherries absorb some of the syrup. This prevents them from floating when stored.
STORAGE
- If storing in the fridge: transfer cherries & syrup to jars for storage for up to 1 month in the fridge.
- For canning: with a slotted spoon, scoop cherries out of the syrup mixture and pack into canning jars tightly, without crushing them. Ladle hot syrup over the top, leaving a ½ inch of headspace (space to the top of the jar). Cover with a lid and tighten the rim. Process in your large pot hot water bath as instructed below. (If new to canning, see rest of blog post for detailed instructions).
- Hot water bath processing times:- Elevation of 0-1000 feet: Pints for 15 minutes or quarts for 20 minutes- Elevation of 1001-3000 feet: Pints for 20 minutes, quarts for 25 minutes- Elevation of 3001-6000 feet: Pints for 20 minutes, quarts for 30 minutes- Elevation above 6,000 feet: Pints for 25 minutes, quarts for 35 minutes
Notes
Each quart of sour cherries will make about 2 pint jars of cocktail cherries, four 1-cup jars (jam jar size), or eight 4-ounce mini jars. I actually really like the 4-ounce jars for cocktail cherries because I usually don't go through more than a small jar in a single night when hosting. If you make these to pour over ice cream, you'll want to use pint jars at a minimum.
Almond extract: 1 teaspoon doesn't seem like much, but it's pretty strong depending on the brand you buy. Start with ¼ teaspoon and stir it in. Taste the syrup, add more almond extra if desired.
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