Spiced Boozy Cherries are a delicious treat to give or receive – sweet cherries are simmered in a spiced bourbon laced syrup and are scrumptious in your favorite cocktails, spooned over ice cream or pound cake or even just straight out of the jar – not that I’ll ever tell!
Welcome to Day Five of Christmas Week. This event is hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. We hope to inspire you to break out those holiday sprinkles and get your bake on!
You didn’t think I’d finish off #ChristmasWeek without a bit of holiday “spirit” did you?
One of my culinary bucket list items this year has been making homemade maraschino cherries. Now – while I was going to do that – the cherries that you need for that recipe are sour cherries and the most I could find was sweet cherries. So – after much thinking, I decided that I’d add a bit of bourbon to a spiced simple syrup and made these divine Spiced Boozy Cherries.
If you are planning on giving them away, you might want to process these in a water bath for 10 minutes or so to make them shelf stable. However, as these were going to be in my refrigerator before gifting to neighbors and friends, I decided that I’d refrigerate them instead as I don’t think these are going to last long. This recipe can easily be doubled. If you want to make a spiced boozy cherry syrup to drizzle over some pound cake or ice cream, reduce it a bit on the stove. A few cherries in a cocktail like my fave Egyptian Martini or a classic Old Fashioned or Manhattan is good too.
Looking for that accent to take Christmas cocktails or dessert from ordinary to extraordinary – make these Spiced Boozy Cherries. Your guests will love them – just resist the urge to snack on them straight from the jar – they are pretty tipsy.
On to the recipe:
Gather your ingredients
Everything is better with bourbon don’t ya think?
Let’s have the cherries macerate a bit in the spiced bourbon syrup
Nestling the cherries into their jar for their long chilly nap
Now – wouldn’t you want some of these lovelies for your next cocktail?
Aly M. Cleary
These Spiced Boozy Cherries are perfect in your favorite cocktail or drizzled over some pound cake or ice cream. These Spiced Boozy Cherries is great to give and to receive!
15 minPrep Time
10 minCook Time
25 minTotal Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound of cherries, rinsed and pitted, stems removed
- 2 cups of brown sugar
- 2 cups of bourbon
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, add the brown sugar, bourbon, cinnamon sticks and star anise.
- Bring to a bubbling simmer and let simmer over medium low heat for about 5 minutes.
- Pour the pitted and stemmed cherries into a large bowl,
- Pour the bourbon syrup over the cherries and let macerate for 5 - 10 minutes or so.
- Ladle into clean sterilized jars, leaving about a 1/2" headspace, making sure the cherries are submerged in the liquid.
- Seal the jars. You can either put them in the refrigerator or process them in a water bath for 10 minutes or so.
- Enjoy!
- Let cool and enjoy!
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