7 Fun Things to Do With Cherries (Besides Pie)

Cherry pie is good but there are so many more ways you can turn cherries into delicious treats! Go beyond basic cherry pie recipes with these tasty and unusual things to do with cherries that will delight your tastebuds all season long.

What Can I Do With a Lot of Cherries?

If you’re looking at more cherries than you can eat fresh, here’s a few ways to enjoy them:

• Eat them fresh. 75-80% of sweet cherries never make it past this stage because they’re perfect just the way they are.
• Freeze them whole. Remove the pits first and then freeze them on a tray first so they don’t clump into one giant cherry brick
• Can or preserve them. Cherry jam, in particular, is a nice change from the usual grape or strawberry. Or can a batch of cherry pie filling.
• Dehydrate them for a shelf-stable snack that lasts months, not days
• Bake with them. There are loads of recipes for muffins, clafoutis, a crumble, or a crisp.
• Get creative and try them pickled, brandied, or turned into a shrub for drinks.

A pound of fresh cherries yields roughly 3 cups pitted, so a 30-pound box (yes, that happened to me) works out to somewhere around 90 cups. Don’t panic. You have options.

This post has been significantly updated with additional information for preserving and using fresh cherries. July, 2026.

When is cherry season?

Generally speaking, the sweet cherry season in the United States runs from about May through August. What’s nice about this is that they’re ready to harvest at different times in different areas of the country, basically from south to north.

For instance, parts of California may begin harvesting at the end of April/beginning of May, and about the time that harvest is ending, it’s beginning in Washington State. We benefit by being able to purchase fresh cherries in grocery stores for a longer period of time.

This is the time frame you’ll need if you want to can cherry pie filling or build your food storage by canning Bing cherries.

Sweet vs. Sour Cherries: Does It Matter Which You Use?

Most of the recipes here call for sweet cherries, like Bing or Rainier, and that’s what you’ll find fresh at the grocery store or farmers market during most of the season.

Sour cherries (Montmorency is the most common variety) are tarter, softer, and mostly show up already processed. You can find canned, frozen, or dried versions. If a recipe calls for sweet cherries and they’re out of season, you can use sour, but you’ll actually want to add a bit more sugar, since sour cherries need it to balance out. The brandied jam recipe here works with either; just adjust sugar to taste as you go.

What can I do with so many cherries?

Juicy and perfectly ripe, my family welcomed these cherries. But there was A LOT of them! Soon we were researching new and creative recipes for things to make with cherries so we could enjoy them now and months later as sweet preserves.

Sugar-Free Maraschino Cherries

My daughter requested homemade maraschino cherries, and since we all love those on our ice cream sundaes, she went to work making a healthy version with no sugar added. As these cherries marinated in the sweetened vodka mixture, I discovered the richly flavored vodka was perfect for a little nip now and then, like, whenever I opened the refrigerator door!

These maraschino cherries are not the artificially bright red cherries from the grocery store but will definitely be an adult-friendly mix in with vanilla ice cream or eaten on their own.

• 5 ½ cups (1.5lbs) Fresh Cherries, pitted with stems removed
• 1 ¾ cups Water
• 1 cup Vodka
• 1 tbs Stevia Extract
• 1 tbs Natural Cherry Flavor
• ½ tsp Almond Extract

DIRECTIONS:

Our first task was to pit all of these cherries. Rather than do this by hand, I purchased a cherry pitter that can handle six cherries at once. With as many cherries as we had, we needed to get through this task quickly, and this little gadget lived up to our expectations.

Here are more details about this particular recipe and complete instructions.

Russian Pickled Cherries

In our research to find different ways to use cherries, we came across this very unusual recipe. However, it takes a whole month or so to let the cherries pickle, so be patient. It’s worth it; so different and tasty!

•  4 cups sweet cherries. I prefer dark stems removed, but pits left intact.
• 2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 cardamom pods, lightly crushed with the side of a knife or a heavy pan to expose the seeds
• half of a cinnamon stick
• 8 scrapes of whole nutmeg on a rasp grater or fine microplane
• 2 whole allspice berries
• Optional, but tasty, 2 t. kirsch (cherry brandy)

DIRECTIONS:

Go to Foodie With Family for complete instructions. If you make these, my hunch is that you’ll be glad you did.

Homemade Cherry Ripe Bites

Once more, my creative and Google-savvy daughter tracked down another winning recipe. We still have a few of these left in the freezer, and every once in a while, the cold chocolate/cherry combination is just the perfect treat.

• 1/2 pounds pitted, fresh cherries
• 2 T. dry-roasted strawberry powder* or 2 T. goji berries
• 3/4 c. coconut flakes
• 1 T. coconut oil, melted
• 6 ounces dark chocolate, melted

*You’ll notice that dry-roasted strawberry powder is called for in this recipe. This, apparently, is something to be found on the grocery store shelves in Australia, where this recipe originates. Fortunately, we have freeze-dried strawberries, which we put in a blender for a few seconds to make our own powder. If you don’t have freeze-dried strawberries, you can dehydrate your own and then blend them to powder. Either way, this is a healthy, sugar-free recipe, which also happens to be a nicely sweet treat.

DIRECTIONS:

Get complete

Brandied Cherry Jam

This recipe allowed us to put our favorite Dutch oven to use.

•  5 cups sweet or sour cherries, pitted
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, approximately 1 large lemon
• 2-3 tablespoons cherry brandy, such as Kirsch 

DIRECTIONS:

We combined the cherries and sugar in our Dutch oven and then stirred over low heat until the sugar dissolved in the juice of the cherries and the cherries themselves were fully softened.

This jam was straightforward to make and was the perfect topping for a slightly boozy topping over vanilla ice cream. The original recipe for this jam can be found at Savory Simple.

Cherry Chocolate Muffins

There’s a funny story behind these muffins, and it has to do with The Great British Baking Show. Are you familiar with this series? My family fell in love with the quirky, everyday bakers, the even quirkier hosts and judges.

Strangely, the biggest fan of the show is my husband! In fact, he said, “I don’t know why, but I could sit and watch that show all day long!”

As a result, when his birthday came around, our daughter bought him Paul Hollywood’s cookbook, How to Bake. Then she challenged her dad to begin baking, which he has! He now bakes Paul’s recipes for challah, White Cobb Loaf, and wholemeal bread.

With all those many pounds of fresh cherries from Northwest Cherry Growers, we wanted to make a couple of baked recipes that were out of the ordinary. The Cherry Chocolate Muffins turned out to be one of our favorite baked goodies in a long while. Very rich and buttery.

• 200 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 150 g caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 200 g strong white bread flour
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• Splash of milk
• 150 g of good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 470 g jar pitted morello cherries, drained

DIRECTIONS:

As a U.S. baker using our standard measuring units, you’ll need to convert grams into ounces using this Cooking Ingredients Conversion website. In addition, be sure to jot down the U.S. measurements in your cookbook, so you can skip this time-consuming step next time around.

Caster sugar is simply granulated sugar that has been ground to a super-fine consistency in a blender. Here are instructions for making your own caster sugar.

If you want to be 100% in compliance with Paul’s recipe and cannot find a jar of morello cherries, you can buy them on Amazon. Instead, we just used pitted fresh cherries and really liked the results.

For complete instructions, and because copying and pasting someone’s baking instructions isn’t kosher, you’ll find Paul’s recipe for Cherry Chocolate Muffins in his cookbook.

Clafoutis Monique

A second recipe from How to Bake by Paul Hollywood introduced our family to a fancy French word, Clafoutis. I can tell you this, it’s not pronounced kluh-foo’-tiss.

A clafoutis is an egg-based recipe that would be perfect for a brunch. Of all the recipes we made with our shipment of cherries, this one was our least favorite, but I think it’s because we used too large of a baking dish and the final result was on the thin side. Nevertheless, it’s worth making for a slightly sweet, elegant dish.

• Large knob of unsalted butter for greasing
• 75 g plain flour
• 75 g caster sugar
• 300 ml full-fat milk
• 2 medium eggs, separated
• 2 T. kirsch
• 400 g ripe black cherries, pitted
• Powdered sugar for dusting

The next time you are looking for a special dish to bring to a potluck or breakfast/brunch, a clafoutis is eye-catching and just exotic enough to enhance your reputation as a chef par excellence.

You’ll find Paul’s recipe for Clafoutis Monique in his cookbook.

BONUS: Dehydrate Them for Shelf-Stable Snacking

If you’ve got a food dehydrator already, cherries are an easy project. Pit them, halve them, and dehydrate at 135°F for roughly 8-10 hours, until they’re leathery and no longer sticky in the middle.

Dried cherries keep for up to a year in an airtight container, and they’re a good stand-in for raisins in trail mix, oatmeal, or baked goods. If you’re overloaded with cherries, this is a good way to preserve them for several months.

If you’d rather turn your extra cherries into something a little different than dried snacking cherries, they also work in homemade fruit leather. Just blend them with a milder fruit like apple or peach first, since cherries are sticky enough on their own to slow down drying time.

How to Freeze Cherries So They Last

Freezing is the fastest way to deal with too many cherries at once, and it’s the method I suggest first if you’re short on time.

1. Wash and pit them. The same cherry pitter that got you through the maraschino cherry recipe comes into play here.
2. Freeze on a tray first. Spread pitted cherries in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze for a couple of hours before bagging them. Skip this step and you’ll end up chiseling one giant cherry block out of a freezer bag come January.
3. Bag and label. Once frozen solid, transfer to a freezer bag or vacuum-sealed bag, press out the air, and label with the date.
4. Use within 8-12 months for best quality. They’ll technically stay safe to eat longer than that, but the texture starts to go soft and the flavor fades.

Frozen cherries work beautifully in the muffin and clafoutis recipes above. No need to thaw first for baking, just add a few extra minutes to the bake time.

How to Can Whole Cherries

One more way to preserve cherries is canning. It’s more involved than dehydrating and freezing, but it’s a very forgiving projectr, easy enough for a beginner.

What you’ll need: canning jars, a water-bath canner, a stack of kitchen towels (more than you think), and a strainer for rinsing.

Wash and stem the cherries. This is a great job to hand off to kids. Stemming doesn’t take any real skill, just patience.

Prick each cherry with the point of a knife if you’re not pitting them. It keeps the skins from splitting in the canner and lets the syrup soak in.

Pack the cherries into jars, leaving about an inch of headspace at the top.

Make a sugar syrup of water and sugar. These ratios make roughly enough for 4 quart jars:

For heavy syrup (better suited to tart or sour cherries): 5 cups water to 3¼ cups sugar Bring the water and sugar to a boil, then simmer until the sugar fully dissolves.

Prefer less sugar? Swap in unsweetened apple juice for the syrup instead. A reader tip says this gives you a lightly sweet jar of cherries and a jar of cherry-apple juice to drink once you open it.

For light syrup, (a good default for sweet cherries): 5¾ cups water to 1½ cups sugar

Medium syrup (the NCHFP’s actual recommendation for sweet cherries, and the sweetest most people find they need): 5¼ cups water to 2¼ cups sugar

Cover the cherries with syrup. Leave about one inch of headspace. Wipe the jar rims clean and seal with lids and rings.

Process in a water bath for 30 minutes. Pull the jars out, set them on a towel, and listen for the lids to ping as they seal over the next 24 hours.

Label and store. Once sealed and cooled, they’re ready for the pantry shelf.

How long do canned cherries last? Properly sealed, water-bath canned cherries keep for 12-18 months in a cool, dark pantry. Always check the seal before eating from storage — a lid that’s popped up in the center rather than staying flat means it didn’t seal properly, and that jar should go in the fridge and get used soon rather than trusted for long-term storage.

If you’re canning the Brandied Cherry Jam above instead of whole cherries, the same 12-18 month window applies once it’s properly sealed. A batch of refrigerator jam that skips the canning step is a different story — use that within 3-4 weeks.

Want More Useful Info From Survival Mom?

How Long Do Homemade Cherry Preserves Last?

If you’re canning any of these recipes, the brandied cherry jam especially, follow instructions in canning cookbooks, the USDA website, or the Ball canning book/website.

• Properly water-bath canned jam in sterilized jars with a good seal lasts 12-18 months in a cool, dark pantry.
• Refrigerator jam (no canning, just cooked and chilled) is a different animal, use it within 3-4 weeks unless you freeze it
• Check the seal before eating anything from storage. A canning lid that’s popped up in the center, rather than sucked down flat, didn’t seal properly. When in doubt, refrigerate and use soon instead of trusting a questionable seal.
• The pickled cherries (the one that takes a full month to cure) will keep for several months refrigerated once they’re done pickling, thanks to the vinegar.

If you’ve never canned before, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has free, reliable guidelines — worth a quick read before your first batch, since proper canning technique is what keeps “shelf-stable” from turning into “science experiment.”

We used up those 30 pounds of ruby jewels!

When I first opened that huge box of cherries, I was a little dismayed.

How on earth were we going to put them to good use?

However, it didn’t take long to find a fantastic variety of recipes.

What are your favorite things to make with cherries? Let me know in the comments!

This article was originally published on September 11, 2017, and has been updated most recently, July, 2026.