Each summer, for a short window, orchards positively drip with ripe sweet cherries – blushing yellow Raniers and Bings such a dark maroon they almost look black. If you’re blessed with an abundance, take the time to make homemade brandied cherries.
These boozy, fragrant, vibrantly fruity cherries add flavor to homemade cocktails and drinks. And their flavor only improves with time, so make them this summer and tuck them into a cupboard until Christmas time arrives.
Jump to Recipe | What are they? | Making Brandied Cherries | Storing | Serving Suggestions
What are brandied cherries?
Brandied cherries are boozy, sweetened fruits that you make by soaking fresh cherries in a combination of rich syrup and brandy. They taste richly sweet, delightfully alcoholic and, like homemade root beer, are a hallmark of authentic, early American cookery.
At their simplest, Brandied Cherries need only a handful of ingredients: cherries, brandy and sugar. And most early American recipes call only for those simplest ingredients. You can also add spices, if you like. Vanilla pairs particularly nicely with cherries.
Soaking fruit in sweetened alcohol was a popular way of preserving cherries, peaches and other stone fruit before refrigeration and water bath canning became widespread.
Making Brandied Cherries
To make brandied cherries, you’ll begin first by trimming the stem of cherries or removing them completely. Next, prepare a rich syrup with sugar and water. Simmer the cherries in the syrup for a few minutes, and then transfer them to a jar. Whisk the syrup with brandy, and then pour it over the cherries and seal the jar.
Before you make your first batch, there’s a few helpful tips to keep in mind:
- Select only the ripest, best fruit. Blemished fruit, over-ripe or under-ripe fruit make for poor preserves.
- Trim the stem. Most early American recipes call for keeping the stem on the cherry and trimming it short.
- Prick the cherries once with a toothpick. You’ll simmer the cherries for a few minutes in a hot rich sugar syrup, and pricking them should prevent them from bursting.
- Try substituting cherry juice for water. While not an authentic ingredient, it can amplify the flavor of your brandied cherries.
- Keep the sugar content high. It’s tempting to cut the sugar in the recipe (who needs more sugar, right?), but sugar acts as a preservative in this recipe – just like alcohol.
How Should You Store the Cherries?
Traditionally, cherries were preserved in brandy in the summer and stored at room temperature or in root cellars until winter. The high sugar content and the high alcohol content helped to preserve the foods and keep them safe.
Early American cookbooks like Miss Corson’s Practical American Cookery (1886) and Aunt Babette’s Cookbook (1889), recommend simply sealing the cherries in a jar and that’s it.
By contrast to traditionalists, modern preservers often use less sugar and recommend storing brandied cherries in the fridge or canning them in a water bath for about 10 minutes, increasing that time at higher elevations.
Brandied Cherries Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet cherries
- 1 vanilla bean split
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups evaporated cane sugar
- 1 cup brandy
Instructions
- Trim the stems of the cherries to about 1/4 inch, or remove them entirely. Then pierce each cherry once with a toothpick to prevent splitting.
- Warm the water and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk constantly until the sugar fully dissolves. Drop in the cherries and vanilla bean, and simmer them in the hot syrup about 2 minutes.
- Strain the cherries, and reserve the syrup. Place the cherries and vanilla bean in a jar, and allow the syrup to cool to room temperature.
- Whisk the room-temperature syrup with brandy, and pour it over the cherries. Seal the jar, and place it in a cool, dark cupboard or store it in the fridge. Allow the cherries to age at least six weeks before serving, and shake the jar periodically.
Notes
Serving Suggestions
You can add brandied cherries to cocktails like Manhattans, or sip the cherry liqueur on its own. I also like to add a shot of the liqueur and a cherry or two to homemade kombucha, and it’s also nice added to cherry water kefir. You can also use the cherries to garnish desserts, in crêpes, or eat them on their own.
I made some brandied cherries and after about 3-4 weeks, they were quite bubbly, apparently fermenting. Are they safe to eat? I thought the alcohol and syrup would have preserved them, but not I’m not sure.
Thank you for the recipe, the addition of spices sounds wonderful. Have you ever tried adding cocoa nibs? Just curious. I was wondering if these coukd be done with honey rather than sugar. I appreciate your time, thanks again.
You could try and let us know how it goes.
I would try this ( without the addition of canned cherry juice) but by warming the cognac aren’t you boiling all the alcohol out of it?
That’s why you have to let the syrup(water, sugar and vanilla) cool to room temperature before adding the alcohol.
I was wondering how long they last once the seal is opened? I’m assuming the “up to one year” comment is for sealed jars? ThanKS,
Hi Kristi,
They don’t really go bad – the alcohol acts like a great preservative.
I’m excited to try this but wondering about leaving them on my window sill.
I’m in Australia, window sill temps get up past 35 degree Celsius.
Can I store them in a cooler dark place straight away?
My husband just pits the cherries, covers completely with brandy, and puts them in the back of the frig until the holidays. Delicious and not nearly as sweet.
Do the cherries need to be very firm for this recipe or will they still be good if they’re starting to soften up a little bit?
Hi jenny, I’m wondering what can I do with the cherries afterwards? I made liquor every year and I get really sad when I have to toss those cherries… Well I eat all I can… But I wish I could make something with them too… A pie? Marmalade?… Thanks.
I pat dry them with a paper towel and then dip them each in melted dark chocolate. Very nummy!
I juat picked 2kg of cherries from a local tree. I have stoned them all and put most of them ito jars to make cherry brandy for Christmas. I was wondering what to do with the rest….. now I know. I may have to go and pick some more so I can leave the stalks on. I bet they would look pretty on a dessert plate if you dipped them in milk/white/plain chocolate.
I’m still trying to get a response to my question. I emailed your website and posted here several times. Please help!
How does one get a response on this website? I need recipe clarification. Please.
Does anyone know? Please help! I have done research on fermenting since then and see that foods should be weighted and kept below the liquid but is this true for this recipe? There is no mention of it. I’m not sure if it is assumed that people have experience with this sort of food preservation….?
Hi Jenny, I have a large jar on my counter these last 2 weeks and when I went to shake it, I see that some cherries are floating above the water! The ones floating look slightly rotted…would I just chuck the floaters or eat them or chuck it all? It was pretty costly to make this up since cherries were $5 a pound and the liquor was 20!
Do you think this recipe would work well with peaches in place of the cherries?
I made these and they are delicious but , they shriveled up quite a bit in a short time . I have several jars made for gifts and would hate if they were rotting on me .will they be okay ? I read that cherries should be brined before doing this . While I don’t like th extra salt from a brine , it would be better than losing all of my product . Just made some with stems to see if that makes a difference .
The cherries sound delicious, can’t wait to try! This year so far, I’ve made red currant and black currant jam from our bushes. Gooseberries I used in gooseberry/apple pies, blueberry crop disappointing this year.
So excited about my brandies cherries! Just finished 8 quarts and I can’t wait to eat them!!
Thanks for a great recipe:)
Hi I made these last week (so easy!!!) and another batch today. I looked at the batch I made last week and it appears that some of the cherries are rotting. The only thing I substituted was organic cane sugar for unrefined cane sugar. I have them sitting in a south facing window, although with the sun straight overhead, they’re not getting a whole lot of sun. What else could i be doing wrong? Thanks.
I just bought 4 lbs. of cherries from the market, but I don’t have sour cherry juice. Can I leave that out or substitute with fresh lemon juice?
Hi, I am going down the road now to the farm stand to grab some cherries!
One question..Is the sour cherry juice required for proper storage or is it just for flavor?
Thanks!
Hi =) Would you be able to use honey in lieu of sugar?
Will the alcohol still preserve it without the sugar? I can’t have any sugar right now, only honey.
Is the sugar necessary to the preservation?
Yes.
See my original comment below. My cherries are also fizzing, but for six cups of liquid (we had a double recipe) we only used 1/2 cup of sugar. Could that be the reason? Since this is Day #1 of the process, is it too late to add more sugar?
Thanks!
Michelle,
Doubling the recipe, but using only a half cup of sugar is a pretty big deviation from the recipe. It’s most likely not enough sugar to preserve the fruit, so they’re fermenting. You could probably ad the remaining sugar now though, dissolving it into the liquid.
I am sad to say I missed cherry season where I live. 🙁 I was wondering if this could be made with blueberries as well?
I see that the sour cherry juice you linked to is concentrated. Do you use 1/2 cup of that straight or do you dilute a certain amount with water to reconstitute?
I LOVE cherries and this looks like an elegant Christmas gift. I made a double batch yesterday, and they’re sitting on a sunny windowsill as instructed. I see in another comment that you say they’re not fermented, but mine seem to be fermenting. There are tons of bubbles moving up in the jars and when I open them, a little air releases and the juice bubbles up. All that in just one day. Is that normal? I, too, am afraid they might explode.
I saw the exact same thing with mine, Veronica. Put them up yesterday, and this afternoon checked the jar for pressure… and it hissed at me. I have mine in a Fido, so I’m not too worried about explosions, but I wasn’t expecting to see all those bubbles, either.
Looks super tasty!! Do you think bourbon would be a tasty/workable substitute in this recipe? (No brandy in the house but we do have a big ol’ jug of bourbon…)
I tried looking for locally made brandy on the Internet but didn’t get any links for it. Any ideas? I saw that you mentioned that you do this in your recipe.
I,m just too jealous that , here in CT, we don,t have commercial cherry orchards. Used to have a cherry tree in our yard when I was growing up. That looks so yummy.
I will be fermenting cukes, carrots, and cabbage from my garden this year. Does one ferment green beans?
Am planning to have a fermentation party in the fall to introduce some friends to the process.
Jenny, I’m heading to my local u-pick farm this Monday. I’ll be sure to pick up some extra cherries to give this recipe a go. Thanks!
This looks perfect. We have 5 gallons of sour cherries waiting for us to do SOMETHING with them. Besides eating we are drying a few ( very time intensive) and freezing . Have you ever make jam with cherries?
I love cherries! I never seem to be able to get my hands on enough to preserve them. Should I ever, I will have to try this recipe. I like that you mixed the Rainier and the Bing. Love the pic!
These sound scrumptious! I’m putting up snow peas, sugar snap peas, green beans, peaches, apricots, blueberries, plums, etc this season.
I’m neck deep in mangos at the moment. Freezing, dehydrating, eating fresh. Later I’ll take some of the frozen ones and make jam. I’ve also saved all the juice and I’m going to try my hand at fruit leather.
Yum on the brandied cherries!
As to your question about what plans do I have for preserving? I can’t wait until my cucumbers are ready so I can make fermented pickles again. I had a crop failure last year so it has been much too long!
I’m assuming these are not for children? Thanks.
Do you have to sterilize the jars?
I never sterilize my jars. I just run them through the dishwasher and call it good.
Hi jenny,
Thank you for the recepies.
Elsa
After years of making brandied cherries i found out they will stay crisp if you leave a bit of stem on, just clip it if you wish. They still absorb all the nu
mmie flavor.
Brilliant idea!
Yumm! This has inspired me to make brandied jocotes. I live in El Salvador, and I call jocotes the plum of central america.
I also plan on making green papaya pickles, and green mango pickles!
Doesn’t heating the brandy cause the alcohol to burn off? The boiling temp of alcohol is lower than that of water, and the boiling temp of sugar water is much higher than the boiling temp of water. Am I to understand that we are barely heating the sauce ingredients together?
I am *totally* going to try this! I have a 10-pound tub of sour cherries on order from a local farm.
Already I have canned a gallon of strawberry jam, and I am likely to can sliced peaches in my own maple syrup sauce. I will definitely do applesauce in the fall (Cortland for preference, usually 20-30 quarts), and maybe either tomato sauce or salsa. Canned fresh sweet corn is pretty popular around here, too, although I am not sure if I’ll be doing it this year yet. (A sack of 60 ears is decently manageable for my group.) And pickles! I am growing pickling cukes this year, and I have about a hundred flowers out there, so it should be a great batch of dill pickles.
You just warm it enough to dissolve the sugar, not burn off the alcohol. It’s still plenty, plenty boozy!
How long will they last once you open them?
They’re always open.
So excited to make this now for a couple Christmas gifts!
Sounds super yummy! Thanks for sharing! Is there a reason for leaving the pits in? I would rather do the work all at once up front rather than try to remember to remind guests and whoever else is eating it later if it won’t affect the end results…
The pits give a little flavor to the cherries, and you can use pitted cherries, but I prefer them with pits in.
OMG! These remind me of childhood – maraschino cherries? Maybe they’re the perfect adult excuse for a childhood reunion! thank you 🙂
I am very excited to try this. But is there a fermentation going on? Do we need to burp the jars each week. Do the jars not explode? I have had exploded Kombucha, and it ain’t funny!
This is not a fermented recipe, so you don’t risk exploding jars.
To make this recipe non-alcoholic, sometimes I use cherry juice with a bit of balsamic vinegar to replace red wine while cooking. Do you think that would work for this preserving recipe? To replace the alcohol with more juice, a bit of balsamic and keep all the spices? It looks really nice thank you!
No, that would not preserve the cherries. Though I think you might be able to preserve them in straight vinegar. Alcohol acts as a preservative.
What do you mean by “seal the jars?” You’re not talking about canning? Thanks.
I mean that we should close the jars tightly.