Roasting cherries caramelizes their sugar and intensifies their flavor. This quick and easy recipe pairs with both sweet and savory dishes.
They come out of the oven glisteningly shiny and gorgeously plump. Their juices combine with the sugar into a thick syrupy sauce.
Only 4 ingredients: cherries, liquid (water/liquor), sugar and salt. Roast in oven. Done.
Cherry season has arrived at California farmers markets. Their season is short, from May to August. Let’s take full fresh cherry advantage while we can!
Why this Recipe Works
- Quick & Easy. 10 minutes or less of prep!
- Intensify the cherry flavor. The heat caramelizes their natural sugar, intensifying their flavor and concentrating the texture.
- The syrupy sauce The sugar and juices produce a deliciously thick syrupy sauce.
- Multi-use Recipe. Pair the roast cherries with both sweet and savory dishes. They can be eaten in so many ways, such as over yogurt, on a charcuterie board, in a cocktail or salad and more. See serving suggestions below.
- Versatile! Cherries can be swapped for another stone fruit. This recipe can be used as a general roasting fruit template.
Summer is all about that vibrantly colorful fresh stone fruit bounty overflowing at the farmers markets!
How to Roast Cherries:
Combine cherries, liquid of your choice, sugar and salt, place in the oven and done.
Please see my step-by-step images for easy cooking.
Notes & Variations
To Pit or Not to Pit
This is a personal choice. Made possible by having a pitter. Nonetheless, your choice.
The hardest part about roasting cherries is pitting them them if you don’t own a pitter. It is possible to pit a cherry without a pitter but it’s much easier to do so with one!
To Pit or not to pit – that is the question.
You do you.
Variations
Cherries: can swap for other seasonally fresh fruits. See this (cooked fruits) for inspo.
Water: can swap for a dessert liquor such as Bourbon or Amaretto or melted coconut oil.
Sugar: granulated or brown both works. If avoiding sugar, use honey, maple syrup or date
Salt: we need a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor.
Additions: vanilla and/or spices
Savory: to transform this recipe into savory roast cherries: replace the liquid with olive oil, omit the sugar, add some freshly cracked black pepper and sprinkle some fresh herbs, such as parsley, on top for serving.
Ways to Enjoy these Roasted Cherries
Sweet: Spooned over ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal, cheesecake, crepes, pancakes, waffles, mixed into cocktails or more!
Savory: Served alongside venison, rabbit, lamb, chicken, in a salad or on a charcuterie board.
And check out this Cherry Roasted Chicken!
Cherry-licious Facts:
- The 2 main types of cherries produced in the US are sweet cherries (Prunus avium) and tart or “sour” cherries (Prunus cerasus).
- They’re botanically in the stone fruit family though commonly perceive as berries
- Oregon & Washington harvest 60ish % of the sweet cherry crop (including Cali the # jumps to 90%) and Michigan grows 75ish % of the tart cherry crop.
Roasting cherries elevates their flavor from simple to sublime!
Cooks Tips
- When possible, buy local and organic cherries directly from a farm or farmer’s market. Use any variety of the cherry rainbow!
- No need to pit before roasting! But if you’d like to, a cherry pitter is worth the investment.
- Roasted cherries will keep in the fridge for 3 days.
More Fresh Summer Fruit Desserts?
Check Out: Roasted Strawberries, Poached Rhubarb and Baked Peaches.
If ya tried it, I'd love to hear - leave a comment below and tag me on IG, @danielagerson, so I can see too!
There's a whole lot more seasonal recipes and colorful produce guides waiting for ya on the site.
Let's make waves in the kitchen.
Roasted Cherries
Ingredients
- 1 pint fresh cherries
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- pinch salt
- 1/4 cup water or a dessert liquor
Instructions
- Preheat oven 450 degrees F.
- Place whole, unpitted cherries, in small pan or baking dish.
- Sprinkle the salt, sugar and liquid of your choice.
- Place in the oven and roasted until the cherries start to release their juices and the sugar melts and begins to carmelize, about 15 min.
Notes
- When possible, buy local and organic cherries directly from a farm or farmer’s market. Use any variety of the cherry rainbow!
- No need to pit before roasting! But if you’d like to, a cherry pitter is worth the investment.
- Roasted cherries will keep in the fridge for 3 days.
I’m on vacation (there are 11 of us) so I just whipped up these roasted cherries so that we can have a somewhat healthy option for dessert. I had planned to serve them over ice cream (or just with some heavy whipping cream, for those who don’t want the sweetness of ice cream) but I’m not sure there will be any left by dessert because these are SO AMAZING alongside our appetizer of cheese! Super easy, wonderfully tasty, and perfectly in season. This is my new favorite indulgence!
You are sooooo sweet Rachel!!! I'm so super stoked on your feedback and thanks for the sharing the pic of the finished dish with me :)! Enjoy the rest of the vaca and I'll be wondering if any make it until dessert!
We made these and mixed with some tequila, ice and water for a fantastic cocktail!
YUM!!!! I wishing I had a tequila cocktail with roasted cherries as I read this! So stoked to hear that + thanks for sharing :).
I just bought a flat of dark sweet cherries, but the flavor isn’t what I’d hoped. I’m looking for ways to preserve them that will enhance their flavor. I am wondering if it would be possible to can these after roasting them or if you have any other suggestions for long term preservation with this recipe.
Thanks, Kari.
Yes I do Kari! There's a pickled fruit recipe on here that you can check out and it's def possible to can cherries. Let me know how it goes :).
I made this with amoretto liquor and chocolate devil food cake . Mixed it with Hersey icing mixed some juice in cake and icing and did a layer of cherries in middle. Subbed oil & water for butter & milk. Everyone at party devoured the cake. Thank you for the idea with fresh cherries
Absolute pleasure Hope and thanks so much for sharing! That cake sounds absolutely delicious! Sound like I would have devoured it too :).
Hi,
I attempted to make this with a 50/50 mix of 50% fresh and 50% frozen. This didn't work for me. I doubled the quantity of cherries, so therfore, doubled the other ingredients as well. I left in the oven for approx. 23 minutes. My result? It came out of the oven as cherry soup. No thickening, no sugar caramelized, and not really delish. I used only water for liquid. I wonder if the frozen cherries created more liquid that caused this problem?
Hi Audrey and thanks so much for taking the time to share your feedback. Frozen cherries will indeed release more liquid than fresh leading to a much runnier consistency. I'd rec roasting on the lowest rack of your oven, you can turn the heat up a bit more and add in a pinch of corn syrup if the frozen cherries still release too much liquid. Hope this helps!!
Hi,
I love the idea of roasting cherries. Can they be frozen in small batches after roasting?
Yep! So stoked to hear that Sally and they can be frozen in small batches after roasting :).