Homemade Cocktail Cherries

By Martha Stewart  Updated on June 1, 2017

Prep Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 7 days 20 mins

Yield: 1 pint

Ingredients

• 1 cup tart cherry juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 split vanilla bean and seeds
• ¼ cup Luxardo maraschino liqueur
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 2 cups pitted fresh sour cherries (or drained sour cherries in light syrup)

Directions

• Boil cherry juice and sugar over medium-high heat with vanilla bean and seeds until reduced by half, about 8 minutes. Stir in Luxardo and bay leaf.
• Pour mixture over cherries.
• Cool, seal, and refrigerate at least 1 week.

Cook’s Notes

Partner up a jar with a bottle of nice whiskey (we like Nikka Coffey Grain; $65, astorwines.com) — for a gift that only gets better with age, just like you-know-who.

Originally appeared: Martha Stewart Living, June 2017