Homemade Cherry Bounce from 2007 Cherry Season
If you visit Door County, Wisconsin during the Thanksgiving time, one drink that you will likely find floating around in miscellaneous bottles is Cherry Bounce. Cherry Bounce is typically a homemade cordial. Depending on where you are from, the liquor could be brandy, cognac, bourbon, etc., but in Wisconsin, Brandy is king. Combine the liquor with the great cherries grown in Door County and a little time, you will be in business.
The drink, when aged, is really smooth and the tart cherry flavor really gets you without being a giant cherry bomb. It was a really good pairing with goat cheese. I was surprised. It was terribly good with chocolate cake and separately with almond ice cream. I was not surprised. My favorite version of this was one that instead of using only brandy, I combined brandy and bourbon in equal parts.
Tart Cherries and Sugar
Cherry Bounce
- 1 qt. tart cherries
- 2 c. sugar
- 375 mL bourbon
- 375 mL brandy
Step One: Combine all ingredients in a sterilized 2 quart jar and cover.
Step Two: Shake daily for a week.
Step Three: Put in dark cabinet in the kitchen and mark the date on the jar.
Step Four: Wait four months.
Step Five: Open, strain out solids and serve over ice.
Liquor, cherries, and sugar
Thanks for sharing the recipe, I’m not much ofa bourbon fan but it might be better with the fermented cherries and sugar.
Bourbon is my favorite spirit, so I feel like adding it where ever I can. In this drink, it just makes it less sweet.
Thanks for this – I’m definitely going to give it a shot. Do you think it makes any difference whether or not the cherries are pitted?
I would not think so. The pits have a kernel inside which can be used to make a dessert sauce (http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/chicago/1769/Turn_your_cherry_pits_into_dessert_and_cocktail_fodder.htm), but they have trace amounts of arsenic. I am pretty sure that without cracking the pits to get the kernels that the flavor (or arsenic levels) that they would add would be small.
Mark -
Making some bounce tonight. Do you pit the cherries?
Wendy,
I did not pit the cherries. It isn’t that I don’t fear arsenic/cyanide, I fear both. I figure as long as I don’t crack the pits, the amounts, however trace, would only make the bounce more delicious. My only other piece of advice is to shake the mixture for a week to dissolve the sugar.
Hope it turns out.
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Just happened upon this blog. And, as I love all things bourbon, this looks quite tasty. I have a question – do you dicard the cherries or can they be eaten?
It is a great drink, but after a few months in the hootch, I have always tossed the cherries. They may be great, but I don’t know.
Ummm, by arsenic, you mean cyanide, right? Two completely different things.
Arsenic=element lethal to plants, would not be in plants.
Amygdalin = breaks down into cyanide, also found in almonds, that gives things a pleasant, well, almond-y flavor.
Quick questions:
Do you ferment the cherries in sugar a few weeks like some say, before adding the liquor, or do you do it all at once? Do you ever add lemon peel, or cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, or allspice, as some do, and Martha Washington seems to do?
Do you break up the pits, to make it more almond-y, or add a bit of almond extract?
Cool recipie. Several years back we made a cherry version of a berry cordial. Equal measures of fruit, sugar, and vodka. The result was good as advertised- use a tablespoon in a glass of champagne-.but its true strength came out the following Christmas . A shot of Godiva liquor with a healthy splash of Amaretto & cherry cordial = the cordial cherry cordial.
That sounds excellent. I love brown liquor and fruit together, so never thought to use vodka to simply get the cherry flavor into liquor form then add it to different brown liquors. I’ve done it for anisette, but never fruit. Great idea.
I am also a burbon fan myself it never dawned on me to infuse ‘the brown’ with fruit. I’ve made the vodka version with rasperry, blueberry, and cherry- all imports to costal Texas- as well as with our local Brazos blackberries which I also add to my mead for excellent effect. Love the blog. Since finding it 3 weeks ago I’ve purchaced Ruhlman; made smoked pork nech rillets w/ roasted pecan & dried cherry; and have a 4lb pork loin to be brined & smoked this weekend.