Yes, we can, can, can….Brandied Cherries

I hope you had a great weekend! We had a nice quiet weekend.

If you’re wondering, my kids are feeling better Thankfully! Now, I am looking forward to a nice slow day today.

After having kids home for 9 days, eh my house is a bit of a mess. As I’m sure you could imagine. I’ve got quite a lot of tidy work to do today. 🙂

We had some rain on Saturday evening, and Sunday was a rainy day (all day), a perfect day to do some cooking and watch some movies.

I made more bacon jam (This time I made it with pork bacon and prosciutto, instead of turkey bacon) and it’s good, but we like the turkey bacon version better.

Okay, it’s canning time……we’re cooking with brandy and wine….

Brandied cherries with red wine.

Brandied cherries are super yummy. They are great in mixed drinks like Sidecars and Manhattans (both of which Greg and Katherine of Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide excel at), these cherries are wonderful tucked into pies or cobblers, in poultry dishes, or my personal favorite drizzled over vanilla ice cream.

Okay…let’s get technical for a moment. I’ve done some investigating and more investigating and no matter what my Momma told me or your Momma told you….there is no way to totally remove alcohol from a recipe by boiling it. You can reduce the amount of alcohol, but not totally remove it.

So, this recipe is going to contain some alcohol. How much alcohol? I’m not sure, I’m sure a few cherries in a pie or cobbler that contains other fruit might be okay for the younglings, but I want you to be totally aware.

These cherries are not non-alcoholic. Mkay?

Brandied cherries with red wine

adapted from a Liana Krissoff recipe (From Canning for a New Generation)

Makes 4 half-pint jars of cherries and 3 half-pint jars of syrup

Ingredient list:

• 2 cups brandy
• 1 cup red wine
• 1-2 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) the first time I made these I added 1 cup of sugar, I wanted the cherries a little sweeter, so I added more sugar the next time, and kept experimenting. I like 2 cups, but I like things pretty sweet. 😉
• zest from 1 orange, remove it in long strips if possible
• juice from zest-ed orange
• 6 cups of sweet cherries, pitted (psst….I used frozen cherries…because I’m a cheater)

The instructions:

• Prep your water-bath canning pot. I warm and sterilize my canning jars in my canning pot. I place my jar lids in a bowl and ladle hot water into the bowl to warm my lids.

• In a 6-8 quart pan, combine the brandy, wine, sugar, orange juice and orange zest. Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.

• Boil for 5 minutes, then add the cherries and return to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring gently and occasionally, until the cherries are tender, but still hold their shape. About 5 minutes.

• Remove from heat.
• Remove the canning jars from the canning pot. Drain the water back into the canning pot.
• Ladle the hot cherries and syrup into jars. Leave 1/4 inch of head-space. Use a knife or chop-stick to remove air bubbles.

• Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp cloth.

Like my fancy nail polish? It's a butterfly. My daughter is quite the artist.

• Place lids and rings on the jars, tighten the lid finger tight.
• Place the jars into the water pot , making sure that the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch.

• Bring water to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes to process the jars. Allow the jars to rest for 5 minutes in the hot water.
• Remove the jars from the pot, place on a folded towel on the counter-top and allow to set for 12-hours. After 1 hour, check to make sure the lids have sealed. You can check the seal by pressing down on the center of each lid, if you can press down on the lid and make it *pop* the lid has not sealed. Any jar that has not sealed should be refrigerated immediately.

• Once opened jars can be stored in the fridge for about 2 months.

Please make sure you check out Allie’s post about how to spend the weekend with your parents. . It’s cute, and boy does she “read” a lot.

To see previous weeks canning link ups… week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4.

Please use the link below to add your canning related post to our linky! Any canning related post…new or older can be added to this link up! The link will be open until October 23 at 11:59pm (central time zone).

Our next linky in two weeks will be different. We’re moving into cooler weather so…..our next linky will be a slow cooker recipe linky.

Today is the last day to enter my Swanson Health Products giveaway.

the giveaway closes at 9:00 pm central.

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• Posted in: blogging ♦ canning ♦ Cooking ♦ food ♦ Frugal living ♦ Giveaway ♦ homemaking ♦ How to ♦ meatless ♦ Texas ♦ things that make you go Yum
• Tagged: blogging, Cherry, cook, Cooking, frugal living, Fruit and Vegetable, Home, homemade, Homemaking, Manhattans, Mason jar, Momma, Recipe, Sugar, Swanson Health Products, Tablespoon, Texas, Zest (ingredient)