Brandy up those cherries to add to my Old Fashioned Cocktail Cookies!
Brandied cherries are easy to make and delicious in Brandy Old Fashioned cocktails, as a thickened syrup topping ice cream, as well as in and on my Brandy Old Fashioned Cocktail Cookies. Easy to make, they only use 5 ingredients - fresh cherries, sugar, Brandy (or Bourbon), bitters and firmly packed brown sugar.
This recipe yields three to four 8 ounce containers.
Ingredients:
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Brown sugar, packed firmly
1 T Bitters
1 3/4 C Brandy or Bourbon (use a good brand)
1 # Cherries, fresh, washed and pitted (I have also used maraschino cherries)
Brandy your Cherries:
- In a medium to large sauce pan, mix the sugar and brown sugar, brandy and bitters. Cook over medium heat until the sugars are dissolved. (If you're not a big fan of bitters, use about a teaspoon.)
- Add the cherries. For darker burgundy finished cherries, use the darker fresh cherries. I have used maraschino cherries which are in the picture here. They will come out brighter red than the darker cherries.
- Divide the mixture into 3-4 glass 1/2 pint glass containers with tightly fitting covers. If you don't need that many jars of cherries, just make half of the recipe. or use share them as gifts
Storage:
I have stored these in the fridge for a number of months.
Serving:
Use the cherries diced in my Old Fashioned Cocktail Cookies or whole in Brandy Old Fashioned and Brandy Manhattan cocktails. They are delicious and keep a long time in the fridge.
- To give as gifts to your favorite Old Fashioned connoisseurs, decorate the jars with ribbons and personalized gift tags in time for the holidays, birthday or some other special occasion.
Thicken for ice cream topping:
To thicken the sauce for topping on your favorite vanilla or chocolate ice cream, cook it over medium heat for 10 minutes until it thickens. Cool. Pour over ice cream, cheesecake or or a heavy cake such as a Bundt cake.