The Cherry on Top: 7 Recipes

If decadence had an avatar, it would be the cherry

Cherries, Ready to Eat © 2026 TDWolsey

CHERRIES ARE ELEGANCE. But when combined with other flavors and ingredients, they might be the closest thing one can find to the food of the gods. I might say cherries are ambrosia, but that would be a disservice to cherries.

I grew up in a suburb, but behind our backyard was a cherry orchard. In fact, the elementary school I attended was named after cherry orchards. Now, so many years later, I have a *finca*, an orchard, where I grow olives, but in the same river valley, there are cherry trees. Right now, they are in season, and if decadence had an avatar, it would be the cherry.

I don’t have any cherry trees now, but plenty of my neighbors do. Soy muy afortunado. I don’t think I have to translate that for you; you get it! Cherries, cerezas in Spanish and cireres in Català, are in season now, and I’m in heaven.

I could live on nothing but freshly picked cherries for a month, okay, two months. But there are so many things you can do with that luscious fruit. There is a reason that the cherry on top is a metaphor for the polishing touch, the way to make something great become truly elegant.

Cherries, as I mentioned, are a taste treat like no other. If you have ever plucked one right off the tree — lucky you. But cherries and chocolate, cherries and vanilla, cherries in a pie, cherries macerated in Cointreau, with cinnamon, with goat cheese, with citrus, with almonds. It seems I can’t stop making taste pairings with the simultaneously humble and elegant cherry. Let me show you. We’ll make cocktails, some desserts, and a savory dish all featuring cherries.

Cherries Macerated in Cointreau — It’s The Pits

If you want to make macerated cherries, the first order of business is to remove those pits. Not all recipes require that the pits be sacked, but for cherries soaked in liquor, the first step is to remove the pits, so the Cointreau really penetrates the fruit.

Cherry pits contain compounds that can release cyanide when crushed or chewed, so recipes often remove them both for safety and convenience. If you do leave the pits in the fruit, be sure your guests know.

Make sure to wash your cherries, then the pitting begins. There are fancy tools for removing pits from cherries, but I remove the stem, set the cherry stem-side up on the top of a wine bottle, and use a chopstick to push the pit out.

Put the cherries in a jar, packing them loosely. When the jar is nearly full (leave some headroom), put in a teaspoon of sugar, pour in the Cointreau, and tighten the lid. Other alcohols to try include Grand Marnier, triple sec, bourbon, or rum.

Roll the jar carefully to dissolve the sugar. Store the jar for at least 10 days in the fridge. When they’re ready, you’ll have a treat to garnish ice cream, a cocktail, or your favorite dessert. In fact, later in this article, we’ll make a cherry margarita.

Cherry & Brie Crostini (Left) and Coca amb Cireres (Right) © 2026 TDWolsey

For now, make a couple of crostini with Brie and macerated cherries while you explore the other recipes below. To make the crostini, toast a slice of baguette or two, drizzle with good-quality Spanish olive oil, top with Brie cheese and macerated cherries sliced in half. Nibble on those and check out the rest of the cherry recipes.

Coca amb Cireres

Cherries are not just for cocktails. Every year in Reus and the surrounding areas of Catalunya, you will find this sweet bread with cherries in all the bakeries. And, if you’re lucky, you may have a friend make one for you (like the one in the photo). The coca is anticipated this time of year when the cherries are ripe. It’s traditionally part of the feast of Corpus Christi.

Fresh from the oven, coca amb cireres is a seasonal treats that announces the arrival of summer in Catalunya. The bread is sweet and airy, somewhere between a brioche and a coffee cake. The crumb soaks up the juices from the cherries as it bakes. It marks the start of summer when friends and family gather on balconies and in the plaza.

It’s a treat you can make at home to transport yourself to Catalunya for breakfast or for merienda, an afternoon snack. I found this recipe for you in English, so you can try it out.

Cherries Jubilee

There would be an outcry if I left off cherries jubilee from this collection of recipes. Originally created or at least named by a French chef for the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, it’s easy to make and delicious over ice cream. You can flambé the cherries to burn off the alcohol (be careful), but if you prefer not to have an open fire in your kitchen, you can just simmer the sauce a little longer. Serious Eats has a recipe that you can use with several types of cherries.

If Chocolate and Cherries Eloped

How did chocolate, which hails from the Americas, and cherries, originally natives of the fertile areas around the Caspian and Black Seas, find each other? Never mind, because they did, and we’re that much better off because of it. Jamie Oliver’s recipe for cherry brownies is easy to make; just remember, if you are in the United States, convert metric to imperial measures.

Cherries Go Savory

If you read my articles regularly, you might remember a classic Spanish tapa called *Solomillo al Whisky*. Glam up your pork loin for spring with cherries. You’ll find plenty of recipes that use frozen cherries or jarred cherry sauces or jam, but we have fresh cherries. Le Chef’s Wife has the perfect pork loin with cherries.

Traverse Bay Farms are cherry experts in Michigan. They created a handy, interactive recipe finder that helps you select recipes by type of cherry (sweet, tart, dried, or juice in concentrate) and by purpose (savory, sweet and baking, drinks and beverages, and cheese and snacks). If you are looking for more ideas, this website is a good place to start.

Roast Pork Tenderloin with Cherries © 2026 TDWolsey

Cherry-Cherry Margarita

It’s a late spring fiesta, and you’re hosting a barbecue in the backyard. The perfect cocktail, bright enough for spring and tangy enough to complement the steak on the grill, is the margarita cherry-cherry. Why cherry-cherry?

We’re going to add cherries three ways (but a third cherry just seemed over the top). Here’s how to make it. First, remember those macerated cherries in Cointreau we made above? That now cherry-enhanced Cointreau is not going to waste. We’ll make simple syrup with muddled cherries, and add tequila, cherry Cointreau, and lime. Here are the steps for one margarita.

1. Muddle 3 or 4 cherries and remove the pits. Add them to this recipe for simple syrup. You can adjust the quantities depending on how much syrup you will use. Let the syrup cool, then refrigerate.
2. Later, when the syrup is chilled, add ice to a shaker.
3. Muddle 3 pitted fresh or macerated cherries in a shaker. Add 1 and ½ ounces of reposado tequila, 1 ounce of cherry-infused Cointreau, ½ ounce or more of cherry-infused simple syrup. Add 1 ounce of lime juice (the juice of about 1 lime) and shake. To convert to metric, 1 ounce is about 30 ml.
4. Strain into a double Old-Fashioned glass filled with ice. If you want to line the rim with salt, rub a slice of lime on the rim and swirl the rim of the glass in the salt first. Sea salt or kosher salt works better than iodized salt. Garnish with a cherry.

Need Help Getting into The Swing of Things?

You may have heard that life is just a bowl of cherries, but did you know that Ethel Merman sang this phrase in a Broadway play named George White’s Scandals of 1931? You can hear Ethel’s famous voice here while you decide what cherry recipe to make next.

Ethel Merman — “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” 1958 TV — YouTube or on Spotify.