Fresh cherries - how to use?

LameWolf

The cherry jam recipe I use is 6.5 lb cherries, 3.5 lb sugar, and the juice of 3 lemons.

Apologies for it being in imperial, I'm sure you can convert, and work out proportions for the amount of cherries you have.;)

Anyways, the lemon juice aids with setting; I never use jam sugar, just ordinary granulated, and always get lovely jam.

The trick is to make sure to check for the setting point - I put a little jam on a saucer and float it on cold water to check, if it's not ready just boil it a bit longer.:o

HTH.:o

savingmonkey

Thank you very much for your replies - I decided to go for cherry vodka (never even thought of that!) and cherry compote which I had just tested with some ice-cream and it was delicious

scaredy_cat

cherry pie or crumble! or pip them and freeze!

Amys

You could bottle them for future use.

gayleygoo

I usually add a few slices, or strips of the peel of cooking apple, which adds pectin when making jam (remove apple after cooking).

I see you're making cherry vodka, if you still have a kilo of so of the fruit you could try cherry cider? You'll need a 5l water bottle, a little bread yeast and a bit of syphon tubing. Freeze and thaw the cherries and add them to a freshly emptied-out water bottle, and top up to about the 4l mark with carton apple juice and a mug of very strong tea, and add a sachet of bread yeast. Put the lid on and shake well, then remove lid and cover the top with a sanitised balloon, or cling film and a rubber band, and let it ferment for 5 days. Top up to the 5l mark with more apple juice, and leave another week to ensure it has fermented. Using a syphon tube, you can bottle it from there into plastic bottles with a tsp of sugar in each 500ml bottle, or you can transfer it to a second 5l water bottle (leaving the sediment at the bottom behind), and allow to clear for a couple of weeks before bottling. You can also use brewer's cider or champagne yeast instead of bread yeast of course.

Cherry pie or crumble sounds awesome too, and probably a bit quicker than making cider!

RHYSDAD

I'd have done cherry and cinnamon conserve. Absolutely delicious on home made sourdough bread!

Lita_Ford

I love cherries. just eat them and worry about any effects later

Mazzarati2000

I'm with Lita! If you get stuck I'll take them off your hands :-) Can't get enough cherries at the moment... I eat them like Haribo, 250-500g at a time....OH is putting it down to being a craving, but I've always loved cherries......however, while he keeps bringing them home for me at the moment, it suits me not to correct him :-)

Other than that they do make the most divine crumble.....Someones mum used to bring one to pony club camp every year, and it disappeared in an instant! I'm too tight to buy enough to make a crumble with generally, which is probably a good thing as I think it's be 'one for the crumble...two for me' in the kitchen whilst I made it! Enjoy!

lilrahi

I also have an excess of cherries and would love some baking recipes, cakes etc... I have puff pastry and all the usual baking suspects.

Thanks

Gigervamp

There's a simpler way to make cherry vodka than that Good Food link. Just poke the cherries with a fork, bung in a large jar, sprinkle on some sugar, then top up with vodka and give it a shake to mix in the sugar. Store in a dark place for a few months, shaking it every day for a week or two.

Keeping the stones in gives the vodka a hint of almond which really compliments the cherries.

When you feel it's ready, you can strain the vodka into a sterilised bottle and use the fruit in a dessert or cake.