Cherry Preserves

Preserves are such an easy way to add a lot of flavor to many things. Top pancakes, toast, or a bagel with preserves to up the snack ante.

I wasn't really prepared for cherry pitting, I'll admit. While cherry pitting tools exist, that just wasn't something I had. But what I did have was a plastic reusable straw. Stick that bad boy through the center and bam! Pitted cherries. It took some time, but I got to chatting on speakerphone and the time flew by.

Once I had about 3 cups of cherries pitted, I threw them in a saucepan along with some sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. The sugar is a crucial part of the thickening process. Though scaling back on sugars is almost religious for me, when it comes to being new at preserves you just have to take one for the team and suck it up.

I heated the cherry mixture to a simmer and cooked them down for 10-15 minutes, until they were a bubbly, liquidy, cherry pile. It was downright beautiful, like a witch's brew for a pie filling. I added the pectin and let it keep bubbling for about a minute, then removed it from the heat. I did not have much foaming, so scooped the mixture into sterilized jars.

As a side note, there is no real necessity to can these; you can keep them refrigerated for a few weeks just fine. In my case, I wanted to ship some off and share them with friends and family (and besides that, I've made a ton of preserves lately and can't eat them all at once). I did a very basic canning tutorial in my last preserves post, Blueberry Preserves. It requires some patience but really isn't too challenging if you want to give it a go.

Alas, cherry preserves were born after a little bit of simmer time. I'd like to play around a big with pectin/non-pectin/cutting back on sugar, but this was a great first go around. Once you get started, you see that preserves really are simple.

A friend of mine was thrilled when I made these, as cherries are her favorite (I did not know upon my sharing a jar but for anyone who bakes for friends and family, you know there is nothing more desired than hearing your food is loved). She loved them and I wound up giving her a second jar. My only ask? Give me a little bit to photograph, please! She mentioned how badly she wanted to have them on cheesecake, and frankly that hadn't even crossed my mind. But I do love a good fruit-topped slice o' cheesecake. Not as much as the chocolate swirl ones (hello, cheesecake variety platters at Costco, I'm talking to youuuu!), but they are such a tasty contrast to the sweet, creamy cheesecake texture.

So just like that, I spooned a little bit of preserves onboard the cheesecake ship and set sailing. The cherry preserves were sweet but slightly tart, and pourable over the cheesecake but also spreadable. The pectin made it the ideal density. All in all: I could have tricked myself into thinking this came from a store as it was basically perfect. Homemade for life!

Cherry Preserves Recipe

Ingredients:

3 pounds cherries

3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 packet pectin (1.75 ounces)

Instructions:

Remove stems from cherries and pit. Chop cherries into halves and quarters and and add to a medium saucepan heated to medium heat. Add sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add pectin and heat to boiling, cooking for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir. Can if desired, adding to sterilized jars and sealing.