Perfect Homemade glacé cherries

the saga of the glacé cherries

I can’t imagine it being Rosh Hashanah without taiglach.

Rosh Hashanah without that mountain of crispy little balls of fried dough, studded with shiny glacé cherries and walnuts, and drenched in a honey syrup with just a touch of ginger, would be like saying “New Year” without the “Happy.”

I learned to make taiglach when I moved from the town where I grew up, which was full of Jews, to Central Florida, where we were few in number. There were no Jewish bakeries, so no taiglach.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Now, truth be told, I’ve never liked those slimy, goopy, artificial looking and tasting glacé cherries that come in those little plastic cups. But they simply have to be in taiglach. I mean, Tradition! Right!?

Then came the year when I couldn’t find them anywhere. Truth be told, the ingredients in the store bought ones should never be consumed by a human, but still I was up in arms over this crisis.

Every manager of every supermarket told me the same thing—We’ll have them for the holidays.

Hello! Whose holidays? Clearly not mine!

And then it occurred to me that perhaps I could actually make them from scratch. Indeed, finding a recipe for glacé cherries was quite simple. They were easy to make and tasted sooooo much better than the ones sold for fruitcake in those little plastic tubs. Now, making the cherries is an integral part of making taiglach for me.

I have made them with fresh cherries, but I think they come out best when made with maraschino cherries—the results are more consistent and they’re much prettier, with their glossy red color.

The trick to having these come out amazingly delicious is to start with the highest quality maraschino cherries, ones without corn syrup, artificial flavor, colors, or preservatives. You can make these yourself, but I rarely do. The maraschino cherries made by “Stonewall Kitchen, Tillen Farms”, are my favorite—reasonably priced, all natural, with just the right flavor and bite. Other cherries from that brand work too, but the color is not as red.

Try making these once and I promise you’ll never want to buy candied cherries again.

Perfect Homemade Glacé Cherries

This recipe isn’t unique. Making glacé cherries is a fairly standard process. Where it varies is in the cherries that you use. Fresh, or maraschino? Usually, when making anything, I opt for the freshest, most natural and unadulterated ingredients I can find, but for these, I actually prefer the ones made from jarred maraschino cherries. The key is to find some that are all natural, without artificial color, flavor, or preservatives. These are my favorite because they taste great and are affordable. Whole Foods also makes them under their 365 label, and those are pretty good, too. Or, you could go for that lovely little ceramic crock of expensive Italian ones…

You will need: a small saucepan and a candy thermometer.

Ingredients:

• 1, 13.5 oz jar of Tillen Farms or other all-natural maraschino cherries, drained, juice reserved.

• ¾ cup granulated sugar

• ⅓ cup juice from the cherries (save the remaining juice for cocktails!)

Method:

• Combine the cherry juice with the sugar in a small saucepan.

• Place the pot on the stove top, turn on the heat, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Do not stir—just swirl the pot a bit to help the sugar dissolve.

• Once the sugar is dissolved, add the cherries to the pot. Allow them to simmer gently.

• Place your candy thermometer into the pot and keep a close eye. It should take about15 minutes to reach the soft ball stage. It can seem like it’s taking forever to climb those last couple of degrees, and them all of a sudden, you’re there. In other words, don’t put them up and walk away. If you overcook the syrup, even by a degree or two, your cherries will be hard rather than soft and chewy. When the syrup reaches 237°, remove the pot from the heat.

• Immediately place the individual cherries on a silpat or a piece of parchment to cool to room temperature, then store them in a container in the fridge until you’re ready to use them. You can add them to the taiglach whole, or cut in half.

Did you make it? Was it fabulous?