Maraschino Cherry Cookies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Are maraschino cherries good baking? ›

These cherries are commonly used as a garnish in drinks, ice cream sundaes and embellishment in decorated cakes. They can also be used in cookies, muffins and cold cake fillings such as black forest cakes and as a topping in pineapple upsidedown cake.

CHERRIES, WATER, CORN SYRUP, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, MALIC ACID, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, POTASSIUM SORBATE (PRESERVATIVE), SODIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVATIVE), RED 40, SULFUR DIOXIDE (PRESERVATIVE).

So, yes, maraschino cherries are crafted from real cherries.

After the cherries are bleached, they're soaked in another solution with sugar, red food dye, and bitter almond oil for about four weeks. This treatment provides them with bright red color and sweet taste.

I still call them sour cherries. These are our JAM around the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen because these are the cherries you want to bake with. They have less sugar than sweet cherries and that's a good thing because their high acidity brings a bright, vivid flavor while their sugars will concentrate as you cook them.

Does a maraschino cherry stay in your stomach for seven years? Uhm, no. That's another one of those weird urban myths you don't need to worry about any more. You digest maraschinos just as you would any other fruit or candy.

You should not feed any kind of cherry to a dog. There are many different types of cherries out there, including bing, rainier, black and maraschino. Although maraschino cherries don't have a pit, they contain a lot of sugar, which isn't suitable for dogs.

They are pricey because Luxardo uses marasca cherries, a particular type of cherry that's only grown in northeastern Italy. It's an uncommon variety and is therefore more expensive. Luxardo also uses high-quality ingredients and an age-old candying process, which pushes up the cost.

Any discoloration or changes in cherry shape means you should also use caution. As long as jars are tightly sealed in a cool, dry environment, maraschino cherries will remain edible for one to two months at room temperature (via Still Tasty). Those stored in continued refrigeration last six to twelve months.

An urban myth prevented me early on from eating them – word got around they were preserved in formaldehyde and could not be digested. Not quite, as it turns out. The cherries are actually preserved in sodium metabisulfate, calcium chloride and citric acid and subsequently dyed those alarming shades of red and green.

Can you drink maraschino cherry juice? ›

It is important to note that Maraschino cherry juice is high in sugar, so it should be consumed in moderation.

Made with no thickening agents or preservatives, a jar still has a shelf life of 3 years. This can contains approximately 50-55 cherries. These world-famous gourmet co*cktail cherries are also available in 6.6-lb (approximately 480 cherries) or 12-lb cans (approximately 890 cherries).

Bright red maraschino cherries are colored with red dye #40 (E129 in Europe), as is Peychaud's Bitters and other food and beverage ingredients. Some websites claim that this dye and others are linked to cancer, but this dye is not considered “toxic” nor banned as a food additive in the US or EU.

A maraschino cherry (/ˌmærəˈskiːnoʊ, -ˈʃiː-/ MARR-ə-SKEE-noh, -⁠SHEE-) is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties.

While there's no “wrong” decision when it comes to which variety to use, the best cherries for cake are probably the sweeter ones (Morello, Bing, or Rainier). For reference, Morello tends to be the most popular choice when it comes to cherry pie filling.

Surprisingly, there's more than one way to make maraschino cherries a grenadine substitution. The simplest one, of course, is by utilizing the liquid they're soaked in. It's most often sugar syrup, so if you like a bold sweetness, this is the ideal choice.

But while the colorful maraschino cherries can be used in co*cktails, such as the whiskey sour, they differ from co*cktail cherries, which are neither bleached nor dyed. They are preserved in alcohol, retain their dark color and aren't quite as sweet — they have a much more natural flavor.

In broad terms, co*cktail cherries can be divided into three categories: sweet, sour, and brandied. Generally speaking, Maraschino cherries are sweet and Amarenas are sour. The traditional European method for creating maraschino cherries is to preserve Marasca cherries in maraschino liqueur (think Luxardo Maraschino).