Cherry preserves recipe (spoon sweet) with ingredients that are available in every home!
Delicious homemade cherry preserves (spoon sweet) recipe with ingredients that are available in every home and without any special tools!
About this homemade cherry preserve recipe
In Greece, we call this a “spoon sweet” and we serve it in a small semi-swallow plate with a glass of cold water on the side. I really enjoy eating it on top of Kaimaki Ice cream (ice cream with Greek spices).
This recipe for homemade cherry preserve is by my friend Kyriaki Simeonidou. Her recipe is one of the best cherry preserves (spoon sweet) I’ve ever tried so I kindly asked if I could share it on my website!
I would like to thank her very much and eager you to try it out too if you are looking for a really delicious cherry preserve recipe!
What cherries to choose for this cherry preserves recipe?
The cherries you should choose for this recipe need to be firm and fresh to produce a good quality preserve.
If you have Cherries that are about to go bad you can make a cherry syrup recipe instead
How to pit the cherries without a pitter?
If you don’t own a cherry pitter for removing the cherry’s core, you can remove it with a skewer. I have prepared a video here.
Start by removing the stalk from the cherry and use the pointy edge of the skewer to poke it where the stalk was. Swirl with circular movements around the pit of the cherry to loosen it and then pierce through the cherry with the skewer to come out the other side of the cherry. Use the flat side of the skewer to push the pit out where you just made a hole.
They will not come out in perfect rounds like they would have been if you use the special tool but they are good enough for a homemade cherry preserve!
How to store the cherry preserve?
The best way to store the cherry preserve is to pour it into sterilized canning jars and keep it in a cool place until it’s time to use it. This recipe yields 3 jars of 380ml each.
If you are wondering how to sterilize the jars here are 3 ways to choose the one you like the most:
1) Just wash them in a dishwasher because it also sterilizes them.
2) Put them in a pan and then in your oven at 100C/200F together with their lids for 20 minutes. (You need to have washed them first and dried them with a cotton kitchen towel).
3) Add the jars with their lids to a saucepot on your stove top, with enough water to cover them, over high heat, and bring them to a boil. Count 3 minutes and close the heat. (We must wash them first before adding them to the saucepot and after you take them out of the pot you need to let them dry out on a clean cotton towel).
To achieve jar canning for your cherry preserve add it into sterile jars as it is, hot, close the lids well and flip them over until they cool down.
Store them in a cool place for up to 1 year. After you open each jar it needs to be consumed within 14 days if you keep it at room temperature, or 30 days if you keep it in the fridge.
Cherry preserves recipe (spoon sweet) with ingredients that are available in every home!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg Cherries
- 1 kg Sugar, plain
- 165g Water (1 teacup)
- 50g Lemon juice (for the pot)
- Juice of 1 lemon (for the bowl)
- 1 Vanillin or 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Wash the cherries, and remove their stalks.
- Remove their cores with the special tool or by using a skewer with the technique that I demonstrate in the video here.
- It is advised to wear gloves as you remove the cherry cores because they will color your fingers black.
- After you are finished with all the cherries, add them to a bowl and pour in the juice of 1 lemon.
- Give them a good stir and let them marinate with the lemon juice at room temperature for 6 hours.
- Drain them and add them to a saucepot layered with the sugar and leave them in the fridge overnight.
- The next day take the saucepot off the fridge, add 165g of water and 50g of lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat.
- After they start to bubble, turn off the heat and skim off the white foam on top with a spoon.
- You need to be careful at this point because the syrup foams a lot and if you don’t turn off the heat on time there is a risk that it will leak out of the pot and spill all over your kitchen. (You might even have to remove the saucepot from the heat completely until the foam subsides).
- After the foam subsides, turn on the heat to low (2/6) and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let it rest for 30 minutes on stovetop.
- Turn on the heat again to high, add the vanilla and bring to a boil for a second time, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
- Skim off the foam again, if necessary, and the cherry preserve is ready!
- Do not cover the saucepot at all, not even for the resting.
- Add it in sterile jars as it is hot, close the lids well and flip them over until they cool down. This recipe produces 3 jars of 380ml.
- Store them in a cool place for up to 1 year. After you open each jar it needs to be consumed within 14 days if you keep it at room temperature or 30 days if you keep it in the fridge.
- Enjoy it as a spoon-sweet serving it on a small swallow plate with a glass of cold water or as an ice-cream topping which is actually one of my favorite toppings!
- Dessert, Greek Traditional, Recipes
- cheeries, cherry preserve, cherry spoon dessert, cherry spoon sweet, easy dessert, how to pit cherries with a skewer, how to pit cherries without a pitter, lemon juice, old fashion greek dessert, vanilla
- CUISINE: Greek Traditional
- Recipe by: Kyriakh Symeonidou (Κυριακή Συμεωνίδου)
Did you make this recipe? Or are you planning to make it? Let me know in the comments below, tag me on Instagram @freshpiato or show me your photos on Pinterest!
