Friday, March 11, 2011

If you have the time...

try making your own Cherry Butter. It's so good. All you is need patience and about 4 hours! Well, we all know how much patience I have, but the good thing is you don't really have to do anything but stir every 30 minutes. Not a bad thing. You can get stuff done around the house. I did laundry. Big deal, there will be more tomorrow.

We love cherries, fresh, cooked, in a pie, in a preserve, in a BBQ sauce. So why not try making Cherry Butter. It's not easy to find around here at the store, Apple and Pumpkin seems to be easier to find.I had to be home all day so I figured, why not? I used frozen cherries. Not finding fresh here in the month of March, and no way was I pitting hundreds of them. I'm a bit lazy. Frozen works perfectly. I've used frozen before making Cherry jam. It's fine.

I tried finding a Cherry butter recipe online, not many out there to make, but tons to buy. So instead I found a couple of recipes to give me an idea of what to do, then found some Apple butter recipes to get some more ideas. I wasn't going to can it for long time storage. I'm just keeping it in the refrigerator, it'll be all gone before we even know it anyway!

Basically it's just a couple of ingredients and some spices if you like. All you need is time, time to stir and stir and stir. After about three or four hours at medium-low heat, it gets thick and spreadable. It's done. Be careful to stir at least every thirty minutes and keep the heat low. Your patience will be rewarded well. Cherry butter is a smooth and sweet treat. You taste the fruit, the cherry flavor really comes out when it's slowly cooked down. It's fantastic on toast, pancakes, crackers, or even drizzled on top of some ice cream. Try spreading it on a slice of toasted pound cake, or as a filling for cookies. Endless possibilities, all delicious.






It gets thick by reducing and reducing and reducing. Nothing in it but cherries, some sugar, use more or less what you like, and any spices you want, I used cinnamon and nutmeg. You can add allspice or cloves if you like, or nothing at all. A little squeeze of lemon juice brightens the flavor. And I found out from a friend that I can skip the stove top altogether and just put the whole concoction in the oven at 350°F and let it simmer away for a while. Stir it occasionally. No scorching, no burning. That's my kind of recipe. Definitely next time!

A while back I was in a canning phase, and made a few different types of jam. Cherry Jam was at the top of the list. It's so good. The Cherry Butter is a little different from the jam. They call it butter but there's no butter in it, it's just a spread.  A smooth, silky spread, and to me, a little easier than making jam. And next time it's going in the oven, I like taking the easy way out! And it beats getting splattered :)




Cherry Butter
recipe by Carol @  There's No Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe
yield: more or less, about 2 pints

2 lbs cherries, fresh or frozen, pitted (I used 4 12-ounce bags of frozen dark, pitted cherries)
1 1/2 cups sugar
big squeeze of fresh lemon juice, about 1 tablespoon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 vanilla bean, split

Put the cherries in a large dutch oven on medium-high heat and cook, covered for about an hour. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir, cover, but prop open the lid so the steam can escape. Bring back to a boil; reduce heat to medium, and stir the pot every 30 minutes. After another hour, pour the cherry mixture through a food mill and then return it to the pot. Heat on medium-low for a few more hours until the cherries have reduced and become very thick, stirring every 30 minutes or so. If it starts to stick, lower the heat a little more and keep stirring. Keep the lid on but not tight, so that the steam can escape. When it's reduced and very thick, take it off heat. Pour into sterilized jars and store in the refrigerator. Mine got very thick when it completely cooled in the frig. Don't overcook!

Note: You can also simmer it in the oven at 350°F for a few hours, stirring occasionally, remove when it gets really thick.


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Joining Suzy from Kitchen Bouquet for another Flashback Friday!



Joining Beth at Beth Fish Reads for her fun Weekend Cooking Party. Every weekend. It's open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share!


Joining in on the fun at Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday!



Joining Mary at the Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. Stop by the Little Red House to see more mosaics!
 


and joining Debbie from Dining with Debbie for What's On the Menu Wednesday!

50 comments:

  1. I have never made my own cherry butter, but it sounds fabulous. It looks so good with crackers!
    Have a wonderful day!
    BLessings, Catherine

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  2. I bet it is delicious on pork as well. Yes it is time consuming but really if you're only stirring every 30 minutes or so it shouldn't be a big deal. The color is quite lovely too.

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  3. I have never tasted cherry butter, but it sure looks fantastic. We don<t have that many cherries in our area, so we usually eat them fresh. I am thinking or trying this next summer.
    Rita

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  4. Sounds so good... on the toasted pound cake? Oh, yes! I would like to try the baked method too. I wonder if the flavor is the same.

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  5. I have once made pear butter, but I love your cherry butter more.

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  6. Sounds great! I'd really like to make the jam:@) My rhubarb is just coming up, I'm getting itchy to can something! Have a great weekend:@)

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  7. This sounds amazing, Carol. My favorite jam is cherry jam but the cherry butter sounds equally wonderful.

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  8. I'm impressed! Sounds really good - love cherry anything. If YOU have the patience I should be able to handle it!

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  9. Yum, I do love cherries and will save this recipe till July when local cherries are ripe.

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  10. Thanks for stopping by, these cherry butter look amazing! Love cherries, gloria

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  11. I don't know if I've ever had cherry butter. This looks so delicious!

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  12. Carol, this cherry butter looks fabulous. I have to try more things like this.

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  13. Wow -- making cherry butter is not something a so called "lazy person" does, Cheryl! This looks like a lot of work but the end result must taste so good!

    PS: The food in Sydney was good but very expensive! A cup of regular coffee at a fast food place was $4!

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  14. Carol, you will never get me to admit that I've been buying cherry butter from a local market, when I could've been making my own.

    Say, how did you do that?

    Your cherry butter certainly looks like a jar of pure happiness. I want to make this, and I'm wondering if the Amaretto in my pantry should be let out to mingle with your butter. Hmm

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  15. Carol, I absolutely love cherries and your cherry butter looks SO yummy!! I'm with you, I'd be using frozen too! Thank you for stopping by my blog. Have a lovely weekend!

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  16. Given my intense love of pumpkin butter, I do wonder why I've never thought to go the cherry route. I bet this would be great on a PB+J!

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  17. Ohhhhhhhh. We love fruit butters and this one sounds wonderful. You can bet that I'd use the oven the method -- so much easier and less messy.

    I stir fruit butters into my yogurt or my oatmeal in the mornings. Heaven.

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  18. I've never heard of cherry butter before, it sounds amazing!

    -----------------------------------
    My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

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  19. Cherries are one of my all-time favorite fruits...this sounds wonderful. I've always been afraid to try making jam, but I want to try and get over it -- maybe this summer :)

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  20. Cherries haven't started appearing in the Greek market yet, but when they will i will sure make this sweet treat!

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  21. I usually make jam with my bread baking machine, so this might be a good way to make this cherry butter. Sounds delicious.

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  22. Carol, you are a genius. This sounds delicious and a wonderful change from apple butter and other jams. I like that there isn't the large amount of sugar found in jams and jellies. I like the emphasis on the fruit's flavor. You can be sure I'll be trying this.

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  23. I didn't know you can make jam in a bread machine?

    Very nice change from Apple Butter! Definitely less sugar, and I think next time I would use even less.
    Thanks for the comments!

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  24. I have never heard of cherry butter, but I love all things cherry so am sure I'd love this as well. I'm so glad I can use frozen cherries since fresh aren't available at the moment. I can't wait to try this. Thank you so much!

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  25. OMG I love cherries but they are hugely expensive in Malaysia as they are imported. Plus, they're usually packed and stored at the wrong temp so when they get here they're tasteless. I shall gorge when in Europe!

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  26. Oh, that looks delicious!! I didn't know it was relatively easy to make fruit butter :) I'll be awaiting end of summer before attempting this!

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  27. Yum! It sounds delicious! I have 15 pounds of cherries in the freezer, so this would be perfect. Thanks for the recipe!

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  28. I have never heard of cherry butter but it sounds yummy. I've made my own apple butter before and I love cherries so I think I'll give it a try. Thanks

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  29. Oh my gosh, that looks so yummy! I love pear butter, but never thought about cherry butter -- I'll have to try it during cherry season.

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  30. Carol, this sounds wonderful and it is something I wouldn't think to do on my own. When cherries start to come in here, I'll definitely give this a try. I hope you have a great weekend. Blessings...Mary

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  31. That looks wonderful. I never thought of cherry butter, but why not?

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  32. This would be my favorite to make...except I don't eat sugar. I buy cherry jam with no sugar and it is so fresh and good! What a great recipe and pretty mosaic! Now it makes me want PB & J for dinner! heehee! ♥

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  33. Looks so very tasty! Thank you for sharing the recipe! Cathy

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  34. Oh, that looks so delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  35. Your patience seems to be rewarded. Looks yummy. V

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  36. Mmmmm, that looks delish! I've had apple butter before but never cherry butter!

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  37. Great stuff. Kids will love it.

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  38. I'm going to make this asap. yum

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  39. It sounds delicious! I'll have to bookmark and save it for when cherries are in season!

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  40. Hi there this is my first time joining in with Monday Mosaic and I am now hopping around from Italy viewing all the wonderful blogs that join in. thanks for the idea of something different to do with our cherries later this year.

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  41. I've never tried cherry butter. It sounds yum and I'm dying to try it now.

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  42. It looks like it's worth the four hours! I love apple butter so I am sure I would love cherry butter too.

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  43. this sounds heavenly. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  44. I think that even I could do this one, Carol! I can only imagine how good this must taste. I've had apple butter a lot down south and we love cherries. I am going to save this recipe and give it a try when I get a real stove. Thanks!!

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  45. Mmmm, cherry jam is one of my favorites, I make it every year. But cherry butter....might be added to the list!

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