Cherries for Baking | Cook's Illustrated (2024)

FAQs

Which cherries are best for baking? ›

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.

Prunus fruits like plums, apricots, nectarines

Plums, apricots and nectarines are all excellent choices for replacements. Plums have a similar sweetness and can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. Apricots also have a delicate sweetness, making them ideal for baked goods.

It may be easiest just to add extra sultanas and chopped dried pears instead of the cherries, maybe using 50g extra of each to match the 100g glace cherries. Another alternative would be to use 100g dried apricots.

Answer. Yes! Not only is it a super fruit from a nutritional standpoint, but cherries also hold up well against heat which makes it's one of the best fruits to bake/cook/grill with. When it comes to baking or cooking with cherries, dark-sweet cherries should always be your go-to.

Cherries: I prefer this pie with fresh cherries. If you use frozen cherries, thaw them first, and drain of extra liquid. I highly recommend using fresh cherries, but you can use 4 cups of canned or bottled cherries, drained with about 1/3 cup of cherry juice reserved for adding to the cherry filling.

Maraschino cherries are typically used in baked goods for: Decoration: mainly as embellishment in cakes and pastries. Flavor: can be used in fillings to provide a sweet flavor. Color: provide a bright red color to toppings and fillings.

One pound of stemmed, unpitted cherries equals three cups. One pound of stemmed, pitted cherries equals 2 1/2 cups.

Glacé Cherries (aka Candied Cherries) are fresh cherries that have been reduced in a sugar syrup until they are 'candied'. Candied fruits have been around since the 14th century, and it's no wonder the tradition is still popular today.

Maraschino cherries, also known as co*cktail cherries, are preserved, sweetened, and artificially colored to become bright red cherries. That's why they have a different taste and composition (no pits) than natural cherries.

The first factor that influences the price of candied fruit is the raw material, that is, the fresh fruit used to make it. The price of fruit depends on several factors, such as season, supply and demand, quality, origin and transportation.

What are the best cherries to bake with? ›

Sour pie cherries can be broken into two main categories: Morello and Amarelle. Morello cherries have dark red flesh. Amarelle cherries have yellow to clear flesh and are the most popular. Montmorency, a variety of Amarelle cherry, makes up 95% of the sour pie cherries sold in North America.

Morello cherries are juicy sour cherries with dark red skins, a pie baker's best friend, so some people call them “pie cherries.” Although exceptionally flavorful, they're too tart to eat raw, but they're great in most baked goods and are often canned in juice or syrup.

Best Cherries to Use for Cherry Pie

I usually choose a mix of rainier cherries and dark sweet cherries, but opted for all dark sweet cherries in the pictured pie. You can use all Rainier or all dark sweet. If using sour cherries, add a little more sugar as referenced in the recipe note below.

Bing: Sweet and full of flavor, tend to have a deeper more intense flavor. Rainier: Higher in sugar but with a tart, crisper taste.

If the recipe calls for canned sour cherries and you wish to use fresh sweet cherries, reduce the amount of sugar and add a little lemon juice to taste. This works very well for cherry pie, cherry sauce for ice cream or cherry topping for cheesecake.

Tart cherries are bright red in color while sweet cherries tend to be darker red and sometimes even purple. Sweet cherries are also larger than tart cherries. Now, you probably already guessed another difference, the taste! Sweet cherries are obviously sweeter, as they contain more naturally occurring sugars.