Homemade Cocktail Cherries

homemade cocktail cherries
Photo: Courtesy of Nikka
Prep Time:
20 mins
Total Time:
7 days 20 mins
Yield:
1 pint

Cheers to Dad! If your pop's the toast of the town, help him mix a sweet whiskey smash or a mean Manhattan with DIY cocktail cherries.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup tart cherry juice

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1 split vanilla bean and seeds

  • ¼ cup Luxardo maraschino liqueur

  • 1 dried bay leaf

  • 2 cups pitted fresh sour cherries (or drained sour cherries in light syrup)

Directions

  1. Boil cherry juice and sugar over medium-high heat with vanilla bean and seeds until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Stir in Luxardo and bay leaf.

  2. Pour mixture over cherries.

  3. Cool, seal, and refrigerate at least 1 week.

Cook's Notes

Partner up a jar with a bottle of nice whiskey (we like Nikka Coffey Grain; $65, astorwines.com) -- for a gift that only gets better with age, just like you-know-who.

Originally appeared: Martha Stewart Living, June 2017

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