The process of making homemade liqueurs from spring fruit is reminiscent of one of Aesop’s fables—the story of the ant and the grasshopper. Like the diligent ants, we gather and prepare the fruit that will yield this precious drink, ready to be savored on chilly winter evenings. Making this liqueur requires patience—and five weeks of sun.
Homemade cherry liqueur will keep for a year, even outside the refrigerator.
Cherry Liqueur (Liker Cheri)
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) cherries
- 1 liter (about 4¼ cups) brandy
- 350 g (about 1½ cups) sugar
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
Instructions:
- Wash and dry the cherries thoroughly.
- Remove the stems and pits. If you have a cherry pitter, use it; otherwise, place each cherry on the mouth of a bottle and push the pit out with a chopstick or straw, letting the pit fall into the bottle.
- In a large jar with a tight-fitting lid, add the cherries. Press them gently with your hands to release their juices.
- Using a small hammer, crack open a few of the cherry pits and add them to the jar as well.
- Pour in the brandy and seal the jar.
- Let the mixture “ferment” in a sunny spot for one month.
- After this time, strain the liquid through cheesecloth or a very fine sieve, pressing the cherries well to extract all their juice.
- Return the strained liquid to the jar (without the fruit and pits) and add the sugar, cinnamon stick, and cloves.
- Leave the jar in the sun for one more week to allow the sugar to dissolve completely, then transfer the liqueur to a bottle.
- The liqueur will keep for about a year.
Source: newsit.gr