Cocktail cherry: what is it and how to cook?

In the English-speaking environment you can hear this idiom - “the chery on top”. In our understanding, this is the “final touch” of something, most often it is a cherry in a cocktail. It is about the cocktail cherry that will be discussed in this article.You will be presented with a brief history, recipes for making cherries at home, as well as its industrial production and use.

Cherry cocktail or maraschino - natural berries in sugar syrup. The first mentions of cooking are rooted in the XIX century. Previously, such a cherry was used exclusively for cocktails. Today it is popular not only as a supplement to cocktail drinks, but also in the preparation of various desserts.

The unusual name comes from the tree "Maraska" - it was his fruit were the raw material for the preparation of exquisite cocktail decorations. This variety is different from the usual garden cherry - small berries, sourish in taste, with a pronounced bitterness, almost no sweetness. Her appearance gave Europeans complete delight, so the question of transportation often popped up - she could not do without proper preservation (pickling or pickling).

The next peak of the popularity of cherry rose in America in the XIX century, when not a single alcohol in bars could do without this attractive berry. The stages of its preparation included soaking in alcohol, treatment with solutions of acids and salts, and soaking in sugar syrup.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the comic book was published in the newspaper The New York Times. A young lady settled in the room of one of the most expensive hotel houses. She made an order for the Manhattan cocktail. Less than 5 minutes, and she began to order it one by one, until the number reached a dozen. The administration was perplexed and could not believe that such amount of alcohol could fit in a girl, so she sent one of the employees to check a strange circumstance.

Each manufacturer uses its own technology for making cherries.

Company Dr. Oetker produces it in the following way.

• The first step is to place fresh berries in sulfur oxide and calcium oxide for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Thanks to this procedure, the natural color of the berries changes to beige, and the flesh becomes much denser.
• Next, cherries are removed pits from the pulp with the help of special equipment.
• The berries are soaked in sodium chloride hydrochloric acid, transferred to water for a long time to get rid of substances that affect discoloration.
• For greater compaction of the pulp structure of the billet is placed for 2 weeks in a solution of sodium hydrosulfite.
• After all the basic procedures, the cherry is sent to sugar syrup, which is tinted with food coloring, flavored with various extracts, for example, almond or mint.

Cocktail cherry has several cooking options. One of them is with the use of alcohol, where there are such strong drinks as whiskey, liqueur or brandy. Another method is non-alcoholic, where nectars, juices and fruit syrups are used instead of alcoholic beverages.

For a classic recipe, 0.4 ml is required. Maraschino (dry fruit liqueur). To make the product more budget and original, you can replace part of the liqueur with inexpensive alcohol, for example, rum or whiskey (75 ml of liquor and 350 ml of selected beverage). It is also appropriate to add sugar syrup to the cherries, if further it will be used for baking, but the classic version does not include this ingredient.

First you need to get rid of the bones. This can be done by retaining the stalk, taking a bone from the back side, or use a device for removing bones, if the stalk is not needed. Then the berries are placed in a sterilized container with the addition of a pinch of salt, filled with alcohol. Next, close the container and shake. Infused cherries clean in the cold for a period of 2 weeks, and preferably for a month.

This cherry is perfectly combined with all kinds of pastries and desserts. In terms of taste, it is not worse than the alcoholic version, and it prepares many times faster. As an aroma, almond extract is used, but if it is absent you can add 100 ml. Amaretto, as in the process of heating the sugar syrup alcohol will evaporate.

You will need:

• 0.4 kg sweet cherry or cherry;
• 1.5 glasses of water;
• 1⁄2 glasses of grape juice;
• one cup of sugar;
• juice from 3 whole lemons;
• salt to taste;
• Badian - 1 pc .;
• a teaspoon of almond extract.

Mixed juice and water with spices are put on the fire and heated to boiling. When water boils, you must add sugar, and then dissolve it with continuous stirring. The mixture is required to boil for about 8-10 minutes until the characteristic cherry smell. Next, the syrup with the berries is cooled, add the natural extract of almonds, poured into a container, close and clean in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

To recreate such a cherry at home, it is not necessary to look for a cocktail variety, but rather take any other large cherry berries or cherries. In the absence of food, time or desire to cook, you can always find cherries in any store on the shelves of canned goods.

Storage is allowed only in tightly packed containers, observing the temperature regime - 0-25 degrees. Humidity should not exceed 75%.

Cherry serves in cookery not only as a beautiful accent for a cocktail. It is also a great addition to any dessert. Cocktail cherry serves as a beautiful decor.

She is able to decorate the following dishes:

• tart;
• tartlets;
• cake;
• jelly;
• treifl;
• brownies;
• yogurt;
• mousse.

This list of desserts, in the design of which the cocktail cherry fits, can be continued for a long time.

Also, there is not a single cocktail that would do without such an elegant addition. It is more difficult to say what this sugar fruit would not combine with, for example, it still makes an excellent pair of coffee. Cocktail cherry can serve not only as a decorating element, but also the main ingredient of many desserts.

For cooking will need:

• 12 cherries with a sprig;
• 100 gr. dark or bitter chocolate;
• 15 gr. chocolate white.

Bitter chocolate is brought to a liquid state in a water bath. For the formation of candy use special forms, which pour melted chocolate (literally a teaspoon). Then cherry is placed on the chocolate, which is poured with a chocolate layer, completely filling the forms.

For the preparation of such a dessert will need:

• Cocktail cherry - 15 pcs .;
• butter - 120 g;
• high-grade flour - 400 gr .;
• cane sugar - 50 g .;
• chicken egg - 1 pc .;
• egg yolks - 5 pcs .;
• whole cow milk - 125 ml;
• baking powder - 2 teaspoons;
• refined powder - 150 gr.

The softened butter is ground with sugar and refined powder to a lightened mass. Next, egg and egg yolks, sifted flour, warm milk (approximately 36 degrees) and cherries are introduced into butter pounded with sugar. All ingredients are kneaded until smooth, and then transferred to a cake pan. In the oven preheated to 180 degrees, the semi-finished product is sent to cooking for about 1 hour. Ready cooled cake can be sprinkled with powdered sugar or decorate with whipped cream and cherries.

For the test will need:

• one orange;
• orange candied fruit - 0.1 kg.;
• cocoa powder - tablespoon;
• ground cinnamon - a teaspoon;
• candied lemons - 0.1 kg.;
• butter - 0.2 kg .;
• honey - 0.35 l .;
• cow milk whole - 0.12 l .;
• wheat flour of the highest grade - 0.5 kg .;
• baking powder - 0.012 kg .;
• cane sugar - 0.12 kg.;
• gingerbread spice mix - a tablespoon;
• hazelnut nut - 0.1 kg.;
• 2 chicken eggs.

To decorate:

• cocktail cherry - 0,030 kg .;
• Almond inlay - 0.050 kg.

Sugar, butter and honey are heated to form a homogeneous liquid. The resulting mixture is cooled in a dish prepared for the test. Meanwhile, the orange is treated with boiling water, after which the orange layer of the zest is peeled off. Cherry fruits are cut into two parts.

When the mixture of honey / sugar and oil has cooled, add orange zest, cinnamon, chicken eggs, and then combine everything into a total mass. Sifted cocoa, baking powder, wheat flour mixed with honey mass. Then milk is added to the resulting dough and brought to condition.

To bake the gingerbread you need to prepare a rectangular or square shape, spreading parchment paper in it. The dough is poured onto paper and spread evenly using a confectionary spatula / spoon moistened with water. Cocktail cherry with almond decoration in the middle is laid out on a flat surface, without going on board, observing a small interval. The pattern should be done so that it was possible to divide the product into square pieces.

In a preheated 180 degree oven bake the cake for half an hour. After baking, the dough is checked for readiness by introducing a wooden skewer in several places (there should be a raw dough on it). If the gingerbread cake is ready, you can leave it to cool within one hour. After cooling, it is equated at the edges, cut into portioned squares. This pastry is suitable for use during the week.

Learn more about how to make a cocktail cherry, you will learn from the following video.