These homemade candied cherries are quick and easy to make – and they taste much better than the store-bought kind! The candied cherries are made with fresh cherries, not canned cherries or maraschino cherries.
I love candied cherries – but the store-bought ones have such an unnatural color and doesn’t taste like cherry at all! After making candied lemon and orange peel and candied orange slices I thought I’d give homemade candied cherries a try.
And they turned out delicious and I never would’ve thought that candied cherries can be made so quickly and easily at home! All you need for these homemade cherries is pitted cherries, sugar and water. Some candied cherry recipes say to let the cherries soak for up to 14 days in simple syrup but this recipe is quicker: the candied cherries can be done in 1 hour!
As you surely know by now I love historical recipes! So I was happy to find this Edwardian recipe for homemade candied cherries (below is the ‘modern’ recipe):
How To Make Candied Cherries – Edwardian Recipe
‘Stone ripe cherries, saving any juice. Put into a saucepan one pint of water and two cupfuls of sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then add cream of tartar and boil until it forms a thick syrup, skim, add the cherries and cook slowly until tender. Drain well, then place on platters to dry, or in baking tins lined with white paper and dry in a slow oven, changing the paper quite often.
When free from moisture, pack in boxes which have been lined with waxed paper, placing waxed paper between each layer of fruit, and sprinkling well with sugar. Put on the cover of the box, then wrap the box securely in paper and put away in a dry place. These are delicious served by themselves, or used in candies, puddings, cakes and sauces.’ (Canning, Preserving And Pickling, 1914)
Homemade Candied Cherries
Ingredients:
- 3 cups pitted cherries (450g)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (300g)
- 1 cup water (200ml)
- optional: vegetable oil, such as almond or sunflower oil
Directions:
Wash, drain and pit the cherries.
In a large saucepan, bring cherries, sugar and water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the cherries for about 1 hour. Stir the cherries occasionally trying not to pierce the cherries.
Stir frequently during the last 10 or 20 minutes so that the candied cherries don’t burn!
Remove the pan from heat and drain the candied cherries. Place them separately on (lightly oiled) plates and let them dry overnight at room temperature.
Homemade Cherry Syrup
Don’t throw away the leftover ruby red syrup: You can use the cherry syrup for iced tea or cherry lemonade, pour it over vanilla ice cream or stir it into yogurt! It’s delicious!
-> Dairy-Free Yogurt Ice Cream With Homemade Candied Cherries
I love this! Obsessed with cherries at the moment so this is fantastic! #bloggerclubuk
Thank you! 🙂
What a great way to use the harvest! I would have never thought to candy my own cherries but now I really want to try it!
Thanks, Carlee! 😀
What a fantastic recipe! I love candied cherries but have never thought to make them myself.
Thanks for stopping by, Cat! 🙂
Wow! What a great idea. And they look delicious. Do you have a special method for pitting all those cherries? Thank you for bringing this to FF.
Thanks, Liz! 🙂 I used a handheld cherry pitter.
can pit them by putting the cherry on the top of an empty small necked bottle (eg beer bottle) the pushing the stone out of the cherry into the bottle using a chopstick. Really easy and works well!
I use a paper clip unfolded just once into an S. Insert into the stem end, snag the pit, and pull out. Not as much damage done to the cherries as with a “mechanical “ pitter.
This fascinates me. I’ve been trying to develop a recipe recently using glace cherries but as you say..they don”t actually taste of cherry…AND I have a stone removing device thingy too that I’ve never used…I need to make these asap, I never knew ti could be this simple – thank you 🙂 #cookblogshare
Thanks so much, Rebecca! 🙂 I’m glad you like it!
Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party! Have a wonderful week.
Thanks, Helen! Have a wonderful week too!
Your Candied Cherries will be delicious, I can’t wait to try this recipe! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday.
Miz Helen
Thanks, Helen!
These look so good I can’t wait to try and make some. They look so easy to make. Thanks for sharing at the Bloggers pit stop.
Connie
Thanks so much, Connie! 🙂
Looks so yummy!! Can you use frozen cherries as well for the recipe?
Thanks, Natilda! 🙂 Yes, you can use frozen cherries as well.
So glad you asked this! I was wondering too! I was searching for organic candied fruit with little results. It will be much easier to find organic cherries using frozen!!! And much tastier being homemade, of course! So glad to find this recioe!
Thanks for stopping by! I’m glad you like the recipe! 🙂
Hello! Just wondering what type of cherries you used? Yours look so red in the photos! I used dark sweet cherries so they turned out a lot darker than the ones shown.
I used sweet cherries from grandma’s garden. But I don’t know what variety they are.
Great! I’m going to make these candied cherries this weekend. How long can I store them? Or maybe freeze them per layer with wax paper?
Thank you! You can store them at least for a month (or even longer) in the fridge – I’ve had no problem with mold growth so far.
I’m trying to find a replacement for those candied cherries sold at Christmas time for holiday baking. (My sister is allergic to the sulfites.) The only thing going for them is that they don’t have to be refrigerated. I make a macaroon cookie with them, and then I mail them to family members – so no way to refrigerate. Do you think your recipe would work?
Also, would frozen cherries work?
Candied fruit usually don’t need to be refrigerated because the high sugar content prevents spoilage. Frozen cherries should work – I always use frozen cherries to make cherry jam – they may not turn out perfect (as a cake topper) but they should work fine for baking.
They seem to have worked well. I was going to post a picture of them in my cookies, but I don’t see a way to do that…
Thanks!
That’s great! Thanks for letting me know! 😀 You can use pinterest’s “tried it” feature or share a photo on instagram and tag me.
Is it possible to store the cherries in the syrup?
Yes, you can store the cherries in the syrup. 🙂
I just paid over 21.00 for 2 cups of candied cherries to put into my Christmas Stollens!! Thank you for this recipe! As I also make my own candied lemon and orange peel, I don’t know why I never thought to do the cherries until your lovely written blog was put before me! So excited for next years Christmas baking! Thank you again!
Thank you so much! 😀 Glad you find it helpful!