BOOZE....Homemade Sour Cherry Cordial Concoctions

This past week has been a bit of a tough one...we had the big heat wave, and perhaps aided by that, the old refrigerator that came with the house is down and just about out. First the refrigerator went to the very minimalist of cooling, and now the freezer is acting more like a refrigerator.  Soo... we crammed a bunch of stuff in a mini-refrigerator we had in the garage, and we are eating and cooking our way through the freezer contents. Thankfully we found a new one, but it can't be delivered until Wednesday...UGH!!

Now, for this weeks blog I was so excited that my husband and I were going to make Cherry Cordial... his parents have a bit of an orchard, and are kind enough to share the bounty.  This past week the fruit was SOUR CHERRIES, and we had a bunch fresh and frozen.  Now that the freezer has stopped freezing, we decided to make a bunch of BOOZE with it.  Now, remember I said I was excited to have this as the weeks project for the blog, well, hubby went, pitted all the cherries and made the first batch without me. :-(  He apologized, and reminded me of all the frozen cherries, and a few days later the fridge went and the rest is history.

So.... I'm going to share the first two recipes for the 'cordials'.  We came across some labor intensive ones, but being Mr. and Mrs. Lazy, we went for Super Simple, Easy Peasy! Note: I call these Cordials because that's the name we use.  I saw some call it Cherry Bounce, Cherry Liqueur, Wisniak, etc...

Anywhoo... here's recipe one.

Mr. Lazy Diva's Family Sour Cherry Cordial Recipe

The recipe was about 3 equal parts of the ingredients.

1/3 Sour Cherries (no pits or stems)

1/3 Sugar

1/3 Whiskey (we just bought a cheap bottle and it used the whole thing)

Put all the ingredients in a jar and let sit for three months, DO NOT SHAKE!  (I only emphasize that because he seemed appalled I would even suggest shaking the jar!)  lol! Some recipes you do shake every few days, or at least once. This according to him, is not one of them.  After it's all set you can strain, and put it in bottles and it should keep a few years. 

NOW, With the slow decrease of freeze in the freezer, we took out some more cherries, and together we started this recipe.  Now I don't know why I had Brandy in my head, but I swear I saw a recipe that called for Brandy, so for this second batch, that's what we used. I guess in a few months I'll know how it tastes! 

The Lazy Diva's Sour Cherry Cordial Experimental Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

6 cups of Sour Cherries (no pits or stems)

4 cups of Sugar

8 cups of Brandy (or I suppose any Alcohol)

STEP ONE

Add the Sour Cherries and Sugar to the jar, then stir, and/or SHAKE the jar to mix it all up.

STEP TWO

Close the jar and put in a cold place for 24 hours.

STEP THREE

Add the Brandy and stir or shake it up a bit.  
(At the liquor store hubby reached for the smaller bottle, but I suggested the medium bottle.  SO GLAD I DID!  I thought I'd have left overs for another recipe, no such luck! Guess we should pay attention to ounces, not bottle size in the future!  Plus, I always have to look at a conversion chart.  From this I'm assuming 8 cups is about 1.75 liters?)

STEP FOUR

The Whiskey recipe is on the left, it has not been stirred or shaken.
The Brandy recipe on the right has been shaken really well...not hard to tell apart at this point!

Put aside and let macerate for at least one month.  

THE WAITING GAME IS ON!  

STEP FIVE 

Strain and put in bottles. (Apparently 'Adults' can eat or use cherries in recipes.)

As I mentioned, we hope to try some more of these.  Next up will probably be one of the above with VODKA.  When they're ready we will try them, and put them in nice bottles. Apparently they keep for a few years.  I'll try to give an update and let you know how they all turn out!  My husband is all about home brewing some alcohol this summer, not sure why, but he's got it into his head.  His parents will have plums soon, and apples in the fall, he's got big plans.  PLUS, he found this book called "True Brews" that has all these labor and ingredient heavy recipes for beer, wine, sake, soda, mead, kefir, etc...   So, you may see some of those highlighted in the blog too if one of us becomes ambitious!  (I bought all the ingredients, but I don't know if I have the time or patience for some of them! lol!)

Well, that's the blog...  Thanks for reading!!

UPDATE:  They came out great!  Both batches tasted really nice, I didn't even notice the fact that it was sour cherries.  Also, we tried to do a dessert with the strained cherries, and while good, they were STRONG!  The 2016 batches are currently infusing as I type!