Home Recipes Cocktails and Other Drinks Homemade Maraschino Cherries

Homemade Maraschino Cherries

Name: Homemade Maraschino Cherries
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 12 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 3 cups red cherries washed and pitted; 1 1/2 cups maraschino liqueur I recommend Luxardo; 1 cinnamon stick optional

(1 vote)
21 Comments3 minutes
January 23, 2023
Andi GleesonJump to Recipe

Cocktails and Other Drinks Desserts

Stop what you are doing right now, and make these homemade maraschino cherries. Seriously, what could be more important than syrupy, luscious, red maraschino cherries? Working? Taking care of your children? Writing your dissertation? All of that can wait. This is important! Plus, it doesn’t take very long once you’ve acquired the supplies, and then you can get back to your other responsibilities.

You won't believe how easy it is to make your own maraschino cherries at home!

First, you are going to need some cherries and a cherry pitter (affiliate link). Yes, it is worth buying a cherry pitter just for this (I did), but I’m sure you will need to pit cherries and olives lots of times in the future to get your money’s worth.

Next, you need some maraschino liqueur like Luxardo. Finally, a cinnamon stick would be nice, but it’s entirely optional. What else? There is nothing else!

All you need to do is pit your cherries and put them in a glass jar or bowl with a tight-fitting lid. Then, simmer your liqueur with or without a cinnamon stick. When it cools a little, pour it over your cherries. THAT’S IT. Keep those babies in your refrigerator a couple weeks (if they last that long).

Homemade Maraschino Cherries - So easy. So good!

As it turns out, simmering Luxardo makes your kitchen smell deliciously boozy. I so wanted a Manhattan when I was making these, but it was noon on a Thursday, so I restrained myself. You can bet I’ll be enjoying one this weekend though! Next week I will bring you a new cocktail recipe featuring these homemade maraschino cherries. If you can’t wait, you should try my Cherrytastic Manhattan.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries

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5 from 1 review

Print Recipe

You only need a couple ingredients to make your own wonderful maraschino cherries.

Total Time: 12 minutes
Yield: 4

Ingredients

3 cups red cherries washed and pitted
1 1/2 cups maraschino liqueur I recommend Luxardo
1 cinnamon stick optional

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Instructions

Place your pitted cherries in a quart-sized glass jar or bowl with a tight-fitting lid.
Add liqueur and cinnamon stick to a small sauce pan, and bring to a low boil. Simmer for 3 minutes and turn off heat. Allow to cool for about 2 minutes.
Pour liqueur over cherries, seal container, and place in your refrigerator. Flavor will be best if you wait at least 24 hours to eat them, and they can be safely stored for at least two weeks.

Notes

I’m not sure if all of the alcohol is cooked off during simmering, but I’m thinking not. I would NOT recommend giving these to children.

Author: Andi
Prep Time: 5
Cook Time: 7

Andi Gleeson

Andi Gleeson is a passionate blogger and mom based in San Francisco who focuses on easy and delicious dinner recipes.

21 comments

For anyone who’s wondering, in 3 minutes you’ll cook off very little of the alcohol. You can’t really cook out all of it anyway. Taste your mixture, you’ll still be able to taste alcohol (unless you accidentally bought maraschino syrup instead of liqueur…).

I think I’ll warm the liqueur rather than boil it to keep some extra zing!

Sounds good to me!! Thanks :)

I love this! I pinned it to my ‘cocktail hour’ board and I will be making these.

Thanks, Ginny! I think you will love them!

These look pretty amazing. Perfect for an adult sundae!

Thanks so much! I think I would put about 5 on my sundae ;)

Dear Andi, Thank you for sharing…I never this is how you made maraschino cherries. So easy! Blessings, Catherine

Thank you for your visit, Catherine! I didn’t know they were so easy to make either until I started looking for recipes. Please stop by Friday to see a new cocktail recipe using these cherries!

These are gorgeous!! I happen to have a cherry pitter. yay!

Thanks, Sandra! I need to get some more cherries while they are still available.

I love maraschino cherries. Seriously, my favorite part of an ice cream sundae. I love the cherry on top! Pinning this, Andi! Thanks for sharing this recipe. :)

Thanks, Julie! You should definitely try making these. I think you would love the cooking aroma too :)

Andi these look delicious and I love how easy they are to make. And mmmm. A boozy smelly kitchen. lol Pinning! Thanks for linking up to our “Best Of The Weekend” party!!

Thanks, Claire! Nothing better than a boozy kitchen ;)

Wow! I didnt realize that they were that easy to make! I need to get a cherry pitter stat! :) Thanks Andi.

Thanks, Krista! The cherry pitting was actually pretty fun, so now I want to put cherries in everything while they are still available ;)

Hopping over from the Strut Your Stuff Saturday Link Party to say that I love this idea! I can’t bring myself to eat regular maraschino cherries after I read how they are made…yuck! Pinning for future reference. :)

Thank you so much, Samantha! Sorry for the delayed response, but this weekend has been a little nutty. These cherries are definitely better than the bright red store-bought kind, so I hope you get a chance to try the recipe. Thanks again for your visit and comment!

Dagnabit–our neighbors brought us three bags of cherries and we couldn’t eat them fast enough so I had to toss what was left today :-( If only I had known! Had heard and read it was easy to make these, but have never known details. Thanks for filling me in :-) Hope your summer is going well. Hoping to be around again for a while now, but seems there’s always somewhere to run off to with someone. Never a dull!

Liz, you are breaking my heart! I didn’t make these until yesterday, so I wasn’t holding out on you. Maybe they will bring you more cherries soon like the repeat banana performance. When do your girls start school? First day here is around August 19th or whatever the Monday is.

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