Cherry Simple Syrup

Sweet, bright red and full of fruit flavor. This cherry simple syrup is the perfect addition to drizzle on your desserts, add into your drinks and use as a flavored sweetener. Make your next beverage or dessert bursting with sweet cherry flavor that will whisk you away to summertime.

What is Cherry Simple Syrup?

This pretty red cherry simple syrup is combination of equal parts cherries, sugar and water. The resulting syrup is very sweet and full of cherry flavor. It’s the perfect addition for a wide array of different dishes and beverages from breakfast to dessert and everything in between.

Simple syrups are great especially for adding to beverages because they dissolve more evenly for a less gritty texture. Fruit flavored simple syrups are equally easy to make as you just add an equal amount in of whatever fruit you want to flavor it as. Some popular flavors include raspberry syrup, mango syrup and blackberry simple syrup.

Here are few reasons why you should consider making this recipe:

• Just 10 minutes. With three super easy ingredients to of which are just sugar and water, you can heat this one up in 10 minutes.
• Super fruity. This is so fruity and sweet. It’s full of bright cherry flavor.
• Put it on all the things. This works well and drinks such as lemonades and Limeade. You can drizzle it in cocktails and mocktails, teas and coffees. And you can put it on all sorts of foods from cheesecakes to French toast to Greek yogurt.

Equipment

• Saucepan
• Masher (optional)
• Wooden Spoon (or any long handle spoon)
• Strainer
• Mason jar or Small Pyrex
• Measuring Cup

Ingredients

• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• 1 cup Cherries (fresh or frozen)

Instructions

Step one

Grab your items for this syrup including cherries, water, sugar, measuring cup, strainer, saucepan, wooden spooner masher and jar with a lid.

Step two

We used frozen cherries for this. However, if you Use fresh cherries Make sure to remove stems and pits as well as wash them.

Take one cup of cherries and put them into the pot.

Step three

Take 1 cup of sugar and put it into the pot.

Step four

Take one cup of water and put it into the pot.

Step Five

Hit your mixture on the stove top at medium heat for around 10 minutes. You should simmer it, but not boil.

Use a wooden spoon or masher to press the cherries and mix them as they heat. This presses out the juices as well as prevents anything from burning.

Remove from the heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove any bits of cherry. Then, place your jar with a lid on in the refrigerator for 2 hours to cool and thicken.

How to Use

This is a super versatile syrup and it can be used in many different ways. Here are a few things you can consider putting it on:

• Refreshing drinks. Add 2 oz of the syrup to make cherry lemonade or cherry limeade and have a sweet flavorful and refreshing drink.
• Cocktails and mocktails. Add this syrup into any cocktail or mocktail that you want to make cherry flavored. This cherry martini or chocolate covered cherry shot are good examples.
• Coffee and tea. Add a few ounces of this into your favorite coffee, latte or tea for a fancy flavored drink.
• Flavorful dessert. Drizzle this across ice cream, cheesecakes, and cookies. Use it to spread between layers on a cake to moisten and sweeten it as well.
• Sweeten up breakfast. Add this as a topping to French toast, waffles, pancakes. Or, mix it in to overnight oats or yogurt.

Variations

• Thicken it up. Especially if you are looking to add this to desserts or other foods you might want it to be a little bit thicker. There are a few ways to accomplish this: add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, do a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water or leave some of the cherries in the syrup and don’t strain them all out.
• Add a little lemon. Lemon juice can actually really brighten up the cherry flavor in this syrup. Add one teaspoon of lemon juice if you’d like.
• Use a different sweetener. While granulated sugar is the typical sweetener of choice in flavored simple syrup you can use other sweeteners such as honey.
• Increase or decrease. The current recipe will make about 1.25 cups of syrup. If you need more or less you can scale the group ingredients up or down.
• Use cherry juice. You could substitute the cherries for about a tablespoon or two of fresh cherry juice.

Top Tips & Storage

Make sure to follow these top tips and storage tricks to get the best syrup possible:

• Simmer, but don’t boil. You want to get a strong simmer going while you heat the syrup. But, you don’t want to get it to a rolling boil. A rolling boil can cause the syrup to burn and can also create some evaporation of the water.
• Smash the cherries. As you heat and as you strain really press on the cherries to get all the juice out.
• Store it well. Make sure to keep this in an airtight container such as a Pyrex with a lid or a mason jar with a slid on. It can be kept in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 weeks.
• Freeze it up. If you won’t be using it in 2 to 4 weeks, then you should freeze it. The best way to do this is to pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Then, once it’s frozen pop the cubes out and put them in a freezer bag.

Other Fruity Syrups

• Raspberry Syrup
• Blackberry Syrup
• Blueberry Syrup

Recipe