A bowl full of cherries...

One of the things I've discovered and truly enjoy since I've moved to the northeastern part of the country is apple season. It's an annual autumn tradition--apple picking. What can quickly happen, though, is you end up picking MANY more pounds of apples than you intended when you set out. That's led to another autumn tradition that I've adopted--preserving and canning that bounty of apples to become holiday gifts for my friends and family. But every autumn, as I spend my days off from work steaming up my house, canning gallons of apple butter, apple chutney, and cinnamon apples, I kick myself for not thinking to do the same with other fruits and vegetables during the summer. But not this summer...

We've been using a lot of cherries in our recipes at work in recent weeks. I mean a LOT of cherries. But, I found myself inspired, and so today, I turned 10 pounds of sweet cherries into brandied cherries. What can you do with brandied cherries? They're great on ice cream or on pound cake. They're also very good in cocktails. Or, just eating by the spoonful straight out of the jar.

If you don't want to go through the entire process of canning the cherries, I would cut the recipe at least in half, and then just store them in an airtight container in your refrigerator. They should keep for a couple of weeks. Assuming you don't eat them all sooner.

Brandied Cherries

Makes about 25 half pint jars

10 pounds sweet cherries
3 ½ cups granulated sugar
6 cups water

1 ²/₃ cups brandy (or try bourbon, vodka, or amaretto)

Wash the cherries, remove the stems and pits. Transfer to a large, non-reactive saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium to medium high heat and allow to boil for about 10 minutes. Using a spoon or ladle, skim away any foam that forms on top of the cherries as they cook.

While the cherries are cooking, prepare your jars for canning. Remove the lids and rings from the jars. Bring a large stock pot of water to a rapid boil. Sterilize the lids and rings by lowering them into the boiling water for about 3 minutes. Transfer them to a clean towel. Repeat with the jars.

Carefully ladle the hot cherries into the hot jars, leaving about ½ inch of headspace. Spoon 1 tablespoon of brandy into the top of each jar, then cover the jar with a lid and a screw top ring. Tighten the ring to just finger tight.

When the stock pot of water has returned to a boil, lower the jars into the pot, standing them upright and in a single layer across the bottom of the pot. Make sure the jars are completely submerged under the water. Cover the pot and when the water in the pot returns to a boil, set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the jars from the pot and set on a clean towel. Repeat the process with the remaining jars, being sure to let the water come back to the boil each time.

Let the jars sit undisturbed until they are room temperature. You should hear a noticeable "plinking" sound as the jars cool and pull the center of the lids down. After they have cooled, gently press on the center of each of the lids to be sure they have fully depressed. Any jars with lids that have not pulled down tight have not properly sealed. Place those jars in the refrigerator and enjoy them first.