Cinnamon Bourbon Cherries (2024)

Re-ignite the summer feeling once the weather cools by keeping a jar of Cinnamon Bourbon Cherries on standby. These cherries will liven up dessert, garnish your weekend co*cktail or make the perfect edible gift.

Prepare yourself. I’m about to start declaring my undying love for cherries again.

When a love is so deep and pure as the love I have for fresh, ripe, dark & beautiful cherries, I find it hard to accept that they are in season for just 6 weeks of the year. Yes – just 6 weeks.

It’s just not fair.

Fortunately for me, my local farmshop does stock frozen cherries year-round. And I do regularly use them in smoothies and compotes. But when cherry season hits, I do like to make something with the fresh produce so that I can dive into it when the weather turns chilly in the autumn. My obvious salvation is cherry jam, but this year I’ve also put aside a jar of Cinnamon Bourbon Cherries.

How to Make Spiced Bourbon Cherries

These cinnamon bourbon cherries are as straightforward and alcoholic as they sound: fresh, pitted cherries are cooked briefly in sweetened bourbon and gently infused with cinnamon spice.

Honestly, follow these easy steps and you’ll have a jar in no time:

• Put the sugar and cinnamon into a small saucepan and pour the Bourbon over it. Gently heat to dissolve the sugar then bring up to hot but not boiling
• Add the pitted cherries and cook for 5 minutes
• Take off the heat and transfer the cherries to a sterilised jar, wedging the cinnamon into the middle as you fill it
• Ensure that the cherries are well packed and fill the jar to the top with the bourbon syrup, making sure that all of the cherries are completely submerged

• Seal and leave to cool down then store in the fridge

When treats like these spiced bourbon cherries are this simple to make, I say life is sweet.

If you are planning on using the cherries purely to garnish co*cktails, feel free to omit the cinnamon to make the flavour more universal.

How to Remove Cherry Stones without a Pitter

If you don’t happen to own a cherry pitter, fear not. The Flavor Bender has an innovative way to remove those pesky cherry stones using a piping nozzle (and a divine recipe for Kahlua Cherry Ice Cream – sigh, sigh, sigh). Hop over to see what Dini does.

Once bottled these Cinnamon Bourbon Cherries will keep for several months, making them the perfect late autumn treat or edible gift.

Bonus: the flavour of these cherries will keep on developing the longer they are left.

Spiced bourbon cherries don’t need much in the way of company (just me and a spoon). A slice of plain cake to soak up that intoxicating liquid and a little splodge of cream will set your dessert repertoire on fire.

It feels good to know that I have my secret love tenderly tucked away in a little jar ready for the autumn. And with a pot of Amaretto Pears also sitting primly in my fridge, I feel I’m doing fruit justice right now. Of course, my mind is now in overdrive concocting more fruit-alcohol marriages to make before the summer is out. If you have a good combination, let me know – I have plenty more jars to fill.

Have you made these cinnamon bourbon cherries? Let me see by tagging #littlesugarsnaps on Instagram when you upload your picture.

More cherry recipes:

• Small Batch Amaretto Cherry Jam
• Gluten Free Cherry Almond Traybake with Roasted Cherries
• Balsamic Roasted Cherries

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