Candied Amarena Cherries

Drinking French

These cherries are simple to make, but it does take some time and careful attention. It might actually be easier to make this in a double (or triple) batch, because my candy thermometer doesn't work very well in small amounts of liquid. I believe these are mostly used as a garnish, on either a drink or a decadent chocolate dessert.

I really enjoy a cherry in my old fashioned, so we've been using these since we made them. They hold up pretty well in the drink, and still have a bit of a bite at the end, but mine did fall apart a bit more than I'd like. They didn't start out entirely whole, though.

If you try it, let me know how you use them!

I found this recipe here: https://emilyfabulous.com/amarena-cherry-recipe/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with heather
[00:08]: today we are going to be making candied
[00:11]: amerina cherries from david leibovitz's
[00:14]: drinking french and i'm really excited
[00:16]: about these because these are supposed
[00:17]: to be
[00:17]: like the italian uh candy cherries
[00:21]: that we use in our drinks that i really
[00:24]: love but that are
[00:25]: very expensive um so i think they're the
[00:28]: luxardo cherries
[00:30]: uh i think they're like 18 for a little
[00:33]: jar of them and these are much cheaper
[00:35]: um you will need
[00:38]: jarred sour cherries in a
[00:42]: syrup so you want it to have you know
[00:44]: some sugar in it
[00:45]: but they are sour cherries i found these
[00:48]: at wegmans he says most well-stocked
[00:52]: grocery stores would have it that
[00:54]: that stock sort of um more european
[00:56]: ingredients
[00:58]: and trader joe's carries also jarred
[01:01]: sour cherries so
[01:05]: hopefully you'll be able to find those
[01:06]: if you want them so i've measured them
[01:08]: you want the cherries and the syrup here
[01:13]: and i'm just going to put these in a pot
[01:16]: that is uh deeper than it is wide
[01:22]: and we're going to add some sugar
[01:25]: because we're going to candy these
[01:27]: obviously and i
[01:29]: am going to get we're not going to stir
[01:30]: this
[01:33]: we're not going to stir this very much
[01:34]: but i'm just going to stir
[01:36]: the sugar into it at this point
[01:39]: and really these are the all of the
[01:41]: ingredients
[01:43]: and uh you're just going to
[01:48]: boil this until it hits about 225
[01:51]: degrees
[01:52]: uh fahrenheit or 107 degrees celsius so
[01:57]: this is a candy thermometer if you don't
[01:58]: have one
[01:60]: um i would use my meat thermometer and
[02:03]: just check it occasionally
[02:05]: um what else does he say just sort of
[02:08]: you want them to be syrupy but not
[02:09]: caramelized
[02:10]: um deep
[02:14]: deep dark red and slightly shriveled so
[02:18]: i'm going to put my you want this to be
[02:22]: in is that as far going as it goes
[02:26]: let's see
[02:30]: oh that's too far so it's really hard
[02:34]: with not much uh of the liquid because
[02:37]: so you'll have to sort of
[02:39]: make sure you twirl and and swirl it
[02:42]: and and tilt it to make sure you're
[02:44]: getting a good reading when it gets
[02:46]: closer to that but right now we're just
[02:48]: going to
[02:49]: try to boil it
[02:52]: so i'm going to have it on sort of a
[02:53]: medium-high heat we're going to bring it
[02:55]: up to a boil
[02:56]: and then we're going to drop it down
[02:58]: lower so it's sort of just at a boil
[03:01]: until it hits that temperature yeah just
[03:03]: a low boil and we're gonna cook it until
[03:05]: it hits the right temperature
[03:07]: uh and we'll let you know how long that
[03:08]: takes when we're done
[03:11]: uh but we're gonna bring it up to a boil
[03:12]: right now
[03:15]: we're just gonna wait for that so we're
[03:18]: up to a really good boil now i'm gonna
[03:20]: drop it down
[03:20]: so we sort of have it at uh
[03:24]: just a low boil
[03:29]: and my candy thermometer
[03:34]: has a few little breaks in the in the
[03:37]: part that measures the the red part that
[03:41]: goes up to measure the temperature and
[03:42]: so i'm not entirely sure
[03:45]: where we're at with the temperature
[03:48]: because
[03:50]: so i'm gonna get uh my meat thermometer
[03:52]: and
[03:58]: [Music]
[03:59]: um
[04:02]: just kind of i'm just going to kind of
[04:03]: verify where we are right this minute
[04:05]: with it
[04:08]: and yeah we're we're already at like
[04:11]: 2 12.
[04:15]: so which is
[04:20]: about where the top line
[04:24]: is mostly so
[04:27]: we're just gonna let this go maybe this
[04:29]: won't take that long i kind of expected
[04:30]: it um
[04:31]: like when you make fudge or other sort
[04:32]: of candies like this that boils
[04:34]: sometimes it takes
[04:36]: that last few degrees kind of take a
[04:38]: long time
[04:40]: but uh maybe this won't take quite so
[04:41]: long
[04:43]: [Music]
[04:45]: at this point it's been more than 30
[04:46]: minutes
[04:48]: like 35
[04:52]: ish minutes and my candy thermometer is
[04:55]: almost useless because there's not
[04:57]: enough liquid
[04:58]: to actually reach the bulb to show me
[05:02]: what the temperature is and with my
[05:04]: induction cooktop
[05:06]: when i sort of tilt the pan enough for
[05:08]: it to
[05:09]: tell me the temperature um
[05:12]: it cools down a bit
[05:16]: my stove doesn't continue to work unlike
[05:18]: the gas one would
[05:19]: so it kind of loses heat for a bit
[05:22]: anyway
[05:23]: 30 minutes we're only about 115 ish
[05:27]: so but the cherries are definitely
[05:30]: looking
[05:31]: darker than they were and starting to
[05:33]: look a little bit shriveled so
[05:39]: and this one now says we're at 220 so we
[05:42]: might be
[05:44]: getting there
[05:49]: so i do recommend
[05:52]: having the other kind of thermometer if
[05:54]: you don't have a really tiny pot for
[05:56]: this
[05:58]: or you make a double batch
[06:01]: double batch would be great but then i
[06:04]: need a larger
[06:05]: container okay
[06:08]: it is now about
[06:11]: 40 minutes since we started boiling this
[06:14]: and you can see that it's starting to
[06:16]: get a little bit
[06:17]: foamy and the the bubbles are sort of
[06:20]: smaller
[06:21]: uh and i think if i tilt it i may be
[06:24]: able to tell on this thermometer but the
[06:27]: other thermometer says
[06:28]: we are right about where we want to be
[06:30]: at 225 degrees
[06:39]: this one's not really telling me uh
[06:42]: but you can see that the liquid looks
[06:44]: really dark
[06:45]: the cherries look really dark and
[06:48]: uh much darker than they were
[06:52]: and they're starting to look tripled so
[06:54]: we're gonna call these done
[06:56]: and transfer them into this clean jar
[06:58]: and we're gonna let them
[06:60]: cool on the counter until they're barely
[07:02]: warm and then we're going to just store
[07:04]: them in the refrigerator
[07:05]: he says they'll last for up to a year
[07:09]: in the refrigerator so i'm sure we'll
[07:12]: use them before then
[07:13]: and uh in just a bit we will we'll make
[07:16]: a drink we'll use them in the drink
[07:18]: we'll taste them we'll let you know what
[07:20]: we think if they're a good replacement
[07:22]: for the
[07:22]: other candied italian cherries
[07:33]: on this episode of cooking the books
[07:34]: with heather you watched me make
[07:36]: candied amarina cherries from david
[07:39]: leibovitz's drinking french book
[07:42]: and i love a cherry in my cocktail i
[07:46]: don't know what
[07:46]: else we're going to use those for but we
[07:48]: started using these in our cocktails
[07:51]: you see i have an old-fashioned with
[07:52]: just one of the cherries here in the
[07:54]: bottom
[07:55]: i love having a little bit of cherry at
[07:57]: the end of the drink
[07:58]: i just like it
[08:02]: so i felt like these were really easy to
[08:05]: make if you can find the sour
[08:06]: the jarred sour cherries um it's just
[08:10]: those
[08:10]: and sugar and then thyme they took quite
[08:13]: a while to make
[08:15]: the syrup is really thick on mine i
[08:18]: don't think i
[08:18]: overcooked them i did keep testing the
[08:22]: temperature and i got right about
[08:24]: exactly what he says to get to is 225
[08:28]: but i do find them to be a little bit
[08:30]: the syrup's a little bit thick
[08:32]: definitely thicker than other um
[08:35]: cocktail cherries
[08:36]: but also the cherries themselves sort of
[08:40]: broke down a little bit more so you
[08:42]: don't get quite the bite that you get
[08:44]: from
[08:45]: either a luxardo or another maraschino
[08:48]: type cherry
[08:49]: but they're still delicious and i'm
[08:51]: looking forward to figuring out
[08:53]: something else to do with them besides
[08:55]: just enjoying them in my drinks
[08:56]: but if you enjoyed watching me make this
[08:59]: please give me a thumbs up
[09:00]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[09:02]: and watch me make something else
[09:03]: next week
[09:08]: you