Cherries were on sale this week, and to make myself feel better about working over the holiday weekend (and you could definitely tell there was lead up to a full-moon going on out there), I bought some. Well, I bought a lot. I ate 4 pounds of them all by myself. I shared another pound or two, and I made cherry bounce with the other pound. If you are counting, that is a lot of cherries.
I saw somebody else recently making a drunken cherry infusion – and decided to try it myself. It’s pretty easy, just pitted cherries, sugar and bourbon. You add them all together and let it sit until Christmas.
When it’s done, you should be able to drink it just as it is – like a cordial, or add a bit of gingerale to it for a fizzy drink, but I plan put a shot of the bounce and a single cherry in the bottom of a champagne flute and top it off with some Prosecco. We have a house party on the last weekend of November every year and it’s become a bit of a tradition to serve some kind of Prosecco drink for the first drink – I think this is my pick for this year.
And then of course you can eat the boozy cherries over ice cream or just with your fingers. I can only imagine that it’s called bounce because someone ate all of the cherries and bounced off all four corners of the room afterwards.
I pitted my cherries for this, but apparently you can leave the pits in. I wanted to make it easier to eat the cherries afterwards. I don’t want my guests choking on pits in their Prosecco.
Cherry Bounce
Recipe adapted from The Runaway Spoon
- 1 pound fresh red cherries, pitted
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 cups bourbon
- 1 large sterilized jar (big enough to hold 6 cups worth of stuff)
Wash, stem and pit cherries, discarding eating any bruised fruit as you go. Layer the cherries and the sugar in the jar and leave to sit for about an hour. Pour bourbon over cherries, seal the jar and shake occasionally to help dissolve the sugar. Some cherries will float in the beginning, but they will sink to the bottom. When the sugar is dissolved, leave the jar in a cool dark place for at least 4 months to infuse.
Linked to A Pinch of Joy, Frugally Sustainable, Gastronomical Sovereignty
I’ve never been a huge fan of bourbon, but making this sounds like it could get me on the road to be at the very least a little bit of a fan. And how awesome to have something infused and homemade for my Christmas Eve shindig. I think I shall make it. Yes indeed! Thanks for sharing!
I don’t like it either, which is why I just happened to have an unopened bottle perfect to use for this. As long as the end result tastes like cherries and has prosecco poured all over it, Im in.
And you’re welcome. Cheers!
What is Prosecco? This recipe sounds delicious!!! Diane
It’s like champagne, only its made in Italy, so can’t be called champagne. Its also inexpensive and tastes every bit as good as Veuve Cliquot (a brand of champagne that I like, but only get as a very rare treat).
I am all over the boozey treats.
Wait, that sounds bad. Um…?
Does it? I wouldn’t have noticed. Mostly because I am all over them too.
I have made something like this for years – but I prick the cherries with a needles and leave them whole. The fruit keeps its texture that way. Also, bourbon and I don’t get along well together – so I use Eau deVie or clear Brandy. It’s getting a little hard to find but Christian Brothers still makes it.
I’ve seen it made with vodka too. I haven’t heard of Eau de Vie – must be a clear alcohol of some sort. Love its name though.. probably up here, we’d call beer the water of life..
It’s merely another name for clear brandy. But everything sounds so much more sophisticated when you say it in French!
Your post got me thinking about the boozy, frozen fruit slush drinks my mom’s friends used to make, way back when!
Oh yes, I am so going to try this recipe. Yum!! Thank you for sharing it!
love Processco – and combined with those cherries – heaven, Heidi
I hope so! It seems like a long time to wait to try it out!
Yum. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait until Christmas for cherries in this part of the world and yours will be completely pickled by then, or will that be you!
Quite possibly both. 🙂
SO after pitting all those cherries any hints for getting the stains off your nails?
Nope, and I highly recommend NOT wearing a white shirt while you do it.
boozy cherries + vanilla ice cream + summer evening = perfection!
lol the only thing better would be if you could’ve come up to the lake and made them for me: http://wp.me/p2myYW-cF
Easy enough to do at the lake… buy some cherries eat half, pour booze and sugar over the rest.. But my arm can usually be twisted to go sit by a lake.
Sounds pretty fabulous to me!
That looks great! Thanks for the reminder that I need to get my Rumtopf on the go.
I had to look that up, but it sounds amazing, with rum and various fruits. Next year I’ll try it out!
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My husband LOVES cherries and tells a tale about his Aunt Vi making cherry bounce…then she dumped the cherry pits out the door and the birds, as birds will do, bounced onto the cherries and got a bit of a bounce in their steps too 😉 drunken little birds flying aimlessly around the yard. She apparently never considered what would come of the pits. If I make some now, I can have it for DH’s bday!!
*anna
Sounds like they were happy birds. I’m looking forward into breaking mine open too.
My husband’s maiden great aunt, a grand lady of many years and a teetotaller in every way, loved her boozy fruit that a friend gifted her with each Christmas! She refused to believe that anything that tasted that good really had alcohol! I think she’d be in denial over this delectable fruit too — just so she could keep eating it on her vanilla ice cream! Thanks so much for sharing on Busy Monday!
I am SO doing this. I made brandied cherries a couple of years ago, but this sounds so much better, and I love the idea of serving it as part of a champagne cocktail.
Mmmmm! Better put this on my to do list while there are fresh cherries to be had! Probably not a lot of alcohol that wont go with cherries after 4 months of soaking me thinx….
– Kara xx
WOW!!!
Also not a big bourbon fan, but I think I might have to make some of this! And since my husband doesn’t like cherries, I won’t even have to share.
Perfect, then! I think I’ve seen people infuse other alcohols, like vodka with cherries. I wanted to try third one out.
Another way to make boozy cherries! I am out of fresh, but I do have frozen still. Will file this recipe away. Thanks!
i can’t seem to find a cherry pitter in my little island town – blast! that being said, i don’t mind just spitting them back in my drink. obviously no one wants to share beverages with me 😉 mmmmm bourbon cherries…
Thanks for sharing with Fresh Foods Wednesday! I hope you have something for us again this week 🙂