I have so many recipes to share! I’ve done a lot with fresh fruit this summer, and I’m loving it. I haven’t tackled peach season yet, and of course when fall arrives bringing apples I will be all over that action. I love canning, and baking, and I love summer. So I’m doing another week of recipes. Not all fruit-related, but I really need to catch up with these posts before summer ends.

Cherry season has been good to me.

I’ve made a lot of cherry pies this summer, and my pantry is full of homemade jam, so I decided to try something else with the rest of the cherries I bought. The limoncello I made last Christmas turned out so well that I wondered how I could top it this year. With homemade cherry liqueur this year. You put the ingredients together now and then let it macerate and age until Christmas. That photo above is what my cherries look like after 2 weeks soaking. The color drains out, but that’s because it’s infused in the alcohol. And you can reuse the fruit in December for all kinds of boozy desserts.

I used this great basic primer on making homemade liqueurs (reposted from liqueurweb.com), and specifically the first cherry recipe, for my sour cherry version. It’s now aging in a dark corner of the basement until winter. Here are the basics (so I have them for the future). I’ll check back in on the progress of this drink as it ages.

Ingredients:
1 lb. (450 g) sour cherries
3 cups (710 ml) vodka (or 1 1/2 cup pure grain alcohol + 1 1/2 cup water).
1 1/2 cup (350 g) sugar

Wash and check the cherries and remove stems. Place them in a jar, add vodka, cap with tight lid and mix. Stir daily during the first days, later at least once a week for 3-4 weeks.

Add sugar, and stir until most of it has dissolved. Stir again at least once a week for 3-4 weeks. Filter the mixture of berries and alcohol and transfer the liquid to a bottle. After three months strain the liqueur thru a cloth. Add some more sugar if necessary. The liqueur should mellow for at least 4 months before drinking, preferably for 8 months.

The color of the cherry liqueur is ruby-red and the flavor is delicious. This recipe can also be used with sweet cherries, but the flavor will then be slightly different.

**I skipped this bit, but: If you wish to make a liqueur with a stronger hint of almond flavor you should pit 1/3 of the cherries, brake them with a hammer, and add the broken piths together with pitted cherries and whole cherries when making the liqueur.