HUGE bag of cherries to use...

[SheWillBeLoved]

Bloody hell, god knows what I'm going to do with a massive...huge bag of cherries, but for £1, I couldn't walk past them!

Any nice things to do with them, besides the obvious cherry pie? I have enough to probably make 5 pies

Chocloate brownies are lovely with fresh cherries in!

Clafoutis

I reckon also that if you smush them and push them through a sieve, cook the juice with a bit of sugar, mix in whipped cream and freeze (beating it every couple of hours for the first 4 or 5 hours) you might end up with some very nice ice cream.

Jam? This recipe is quite faffy, though, but I'm sure there are others.

Clafoutis is lovely - have already made it once this cherry season.

Traditionally you leave the stones in

it's those damn markets! They were trying to flog off the last of their fruit as I walked past yesterday too... it's so tempting when it's eight punnets of raspberries for a pound!!!

Kiwibella - they definitely saw me coming I now have enough cherries to last a month if I eat them every day, 3 bunches of very ripe banana's, 2 punnets of ripe strawberries, and 4 of the biggest tomatoes I have ever laid eyes on

Thanks for the ideas everyone definitely going to give them all a try, shame to waste them!

I often freeze fruit if I don't have time to eat it. Nice to use the frozen fruit in jugs of Pimms or use to make smoothies!

cherry brandy!

Half fill a jar or bottle with cherries. Pour in sugar up to same level. Fill to top with brandy. Leave for at least a month...but you'll really appreciate it around christmas . It is delish and cheep as you can use the cheepest brandy you can find. If you bother to stone the cherries they make a great ice cream topping.

crumble?

was going to suggest cherry brandy or vodka, but MoonFace beat me to it

Yum to cherry vodka, what a fab idea.

You could make your own kirsch (as my DH's granny does!) for sophisticated summer evening drinks.

Or add them to baked fruit. I do halved peaches with a sprinking of brown sugar, butter, orange zest and juice. They are total heaven and I bet some stoned cherries would add nicely to it.

Duck with cherries, cherry frangipan for pud and cherry vodka to wash it all down with.......mmmmm

just eat them

i can eat an awful lot of cherries

There must be some sort of spicy cherry chutney that you could make that would go with meat (sort of a variant on mango chutney).
If there isn't I may invent one...

buy a cherry stoner, stone them, freeze them, bring them out at christmas and feel SMUG as a smug beast from smugsville "oh, you mean you don't take advantage of seasonal gluts in YOUR freezer (you peasant)?" etc.

I had some strawberries & cherries the other day that needed using up...made some strawberry & cherry muffins, were yummy I had mainly strawberries in them but sure would be good with just cherries too.

From memory, I think recipe was...
10oz plain flour
3tsp baking powder
5oz sugar
1 egg
8 fl oz milk
3 fl oz vegetable oil (or you can use melted butter)
6oz fruit (strawberries, cherries, other berries)

Sieve dry ingredients into one bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another. Add wet to dry, mix only enough to incorporate all flour etc (dont over mix). Into 12 muffin cases (mine actually made 12 muffins plus 2 fairy cake size, think because fruit was quite juicy) and cook for 20-25mins, 200C

I love making muffins to use up ripe fruit at the moment...have loads of ripe bananas in freezer (DP bought some when we already had some so couldn't eat them all) for when the urge to make some muffins strikes!!

Spicy cherry chutney

Here it is

4oz demerara? sugar
6oz cider vinegar
3oz chopped onions or shallots
Orange zest
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1 lb stonned cherries

Optional chilli kick , add1/2 chopped red chillis

Dissolve sugar in vinegar on a simmer.
Add chopped onions( you can blanch them first if you want a milder taste)
Add rest of ingredients and simmer until the sauce has boiled down.
Bottle in steralized jars

Freaky but I am in the process of making this right now. Cherry tree is heavy with fruit and this is my fav way of using cherries.
It tastes fantastic with with christmas ham sandwiches.

Yum - thank you Zanz1bar, it looks amazing.
I bet it would be good eaten with goats' cheese too...

Cherry coridal

1kg fresh cherries
600 ml cold water
350g caster sugar

1. chop cherries in half and remove stone.
2. Put in a pan with the cold water.
3. Bring to boil and simmer over a gentle heat for 15 mins until soft.
4. Cool for 10 mins then put in food processor and blend.
5. Mash through a sieve into a clean pan, press the pulp to get all the juice. Add sugar to the pan and heat over a low heat until sugar dissolved.
6. Simmer for 5 mins. Pour into sterilized jars and store in a cool place.

To use put add water to cordial!

(Not my recipe - in a book we have but looks yummy!)