Post # 1
Member
1408 posts
Bumble bee
The other day I ran across an article on and reciepies for making homemade Maraschino Cherries. It took me a little while to find the right liquor, but I now have 3lb of cherries slowly turning into Maraschino Cherries in my fridge! I’ve made them both as gifts to give at our rehearsal dinner and for the bar at my wedding. I’m super excited for people to use my ediable DIY project! 😀
Also, I am experimentally trying a variation on that main reciepie- In one container I made 1/3 of the liquid Chocolate Vodka. What I am hoping to to achive a chocolate covered cherries type taste. Wish me luck!
Anyone else DIYing part or all of your food or drinks?
Post # 3
Member
612 posts
Busy bee
How fun! I hope the chocolate ones work out, they sound tasty!!! My mom and I are making Mexican wedding cookies (FI looked at me weird when I said I wanted those, after explaining what they were I guess his family calls them Russian tea cakes) and his mom and making brownies for our favors.
Post # 4
Member
10851 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
Umm that looks AWESOME! Thanks for sharing! I’m totally hitting the farmers market and trying these puppies out! How big of a jar do you need for the 1lb?
I’m DIY-ing homemade caramel for our favour. I found a recipe for blueberry caramel the other day and I’m going to try it out for comparison since blueberries are in season right now!
Post # 5
Member
10851 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
Oh and I’m making my famous cherry pretzel pie for part of our dessert buffet. Sounds awful, tastes awesome. Trust me. I bribed police with it 😉
Post # 6
Member
1408 posts
Bumble bee
@Daisylynn: Those cookies are Yum! My dad made them growing up and called them winter puffs! Haha…everyone seems to have a different name for them!
@bakerella: I actually have a whole collection of various sauce, jam, etc. glass jars I’ve been saving over the years (you never know when you’ll need a glass jar with a good lid in various sizes!). 3lb fit into 5 jars- 2 wide-mouth European jam jars, 1 homemade jam jar, 1 spaghetti sauce jar, and 1 tall and very thin olive jar. I still have enough cherries and liquor left over to make 1 more spaghetti sauce jar of cherries. I’m not sure if that information helps. Hmmm…if i had to guess, I would 3lb and a bottle of liquor would fill about 3 of the big, wide-mouth Bell jars you can buy by the case at the grocery/big box store. If you decide to try making flavored ones (like chocolate!) you could probably make 2 big bell jars and 2 medium bell jars. In my flavor mix, I put 1/3 chocolate vodka to 2/3 liquor, but since I have to wait at least 2 weeks to try them, I can’t say if that was enough vodka, too much or too little.
Post # 7
Member
10851 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
@rabbit: Perfect! Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to dig around and see what I have hiding in the cupboards. Mmmm I’m so excited. I’m driving through Niagara (sort of Ontario’s fruitbasket on top of making fantastic wine!) on Thursday so I’ll make sure to stop and grab some fresh cherries. I’m so excited to try this out! I love maraschino cherries although I’ve never tried the “real” kind.
Post # 8
Member
5154 posts
Bee Keeper
Thank you so much for posting this! I am going to try this 🙂 🙂
I am going to be in Traverse City tomorrow (famous for the CHERRY festivel) and I plan on getting some cherries and making this! Please keep it posted on the outcome.
@daisylynn I looove those cookies! mm!
Post # 9
Member
14186 posts
Honey Beekeeper
Oh sounds fun! My mom has a great cake recipe that uses maraschino cherries on top, but we just buy them. =]. i love cherries!!! i wonder if you could make them with rainier cherries while they’re still in season? Yum!
Post # 10
Member
1408 posts
Bumble bee
@bakerella: i hate the kind you buy in the store, but I am hoping, much like white sauces, i’ll love the homemade version. Plus, they’ll be full of liquor…so after awhile, even if they’re gross, you’ll not realize it! ;p
@Sulli301: I will update in two weeks when I try them for the first time! Then again after my wedding (at which point they’ll have been merinating for over a month).
@ejs4y8: I bet you could make these with any kind of Cherry!
Post # 11
Member
67 posts
Worker bee
Yum! I’m gonna try these this weekend!
@bakerella cherry pretzel pie is one of my favorite things to stuff my face with on Thanksgiving!
Post # 12
Member
645 posts
Busy bee
very cool idea! I would have never thought of doing something like that. I hope it turns out well for you. I can’t wait to hear how they taste 🙂
Post # 13
Member
10851 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
@effinjess: You’ve had cherry pretzel pie?! I’ve never “met” someone else who’s had it!!! AMAZING! Oh god it’s so good. I made two tonight to put in the freezer hoping we’d resist them until the wedding, and I freaking dropped one! Now we’ll have to eat it since it’s all smushed. *darn*
I made both versions of the cherries tonight. The non-alcholic ones tasted good straight away, so I’m excited to see how they taste in a couple of days! The other ones I’m marinading in cherry brandy (no maraschino liqueur up here either). Thanks again Rabbit!
Post # 14
Member
10851 posts
Sugar Beekeeper
Rabbit, any update on how yours turned out? I loved the non-alcoholic ones, but I haven’t ventured to taste the alcoholic ones just yet.
Post # 15
Member
1757 posts
Buzzing bee
These sound delicious, especially the chocolate ones – rabbit, what’s the verdict???
Post # 16
Member
1408 posts
Bumble bee
@bakerella: and @redherring: Sorry to take so long getting back to everyone! Days from the wedding and its one disaster after another around here! I had my brother and Fiance try the regular and choco-cherry cherries and the result is that they begged me to be able to eat a jar right that moment! They said the regular taste just like the store kind but better (?) and that the choco-cherry ones taste a whole lot like chocolate covered charries but without the pleasure (my word!) of chocolate.
Errg…i had more to say but I have to go meet the DOC and the caterer at the reception hall to go over stuff with the Hall manager. Also, my bachelorette party was just basically canceled because NO ONE wanted to come. *sigh* This is NOT my weekend! :_(