{Recipe} Nanking Cherry Pancake Syrup

While checking on a large cherry tree at my Uncle & Aunt’s house that I had partially covered with my Dad I noticed the birds were eating the nanking cherries so I grabbed a container and filled it up!  Since they are such a small fruit it’s best to juice them and make something with the juice.  A few years ago I froze the juice and we sweetened it and drank it but this time I wanted to make a pancake syrup since I had just run out of maple syrup and didn’t want to go buy more  😉

What beautiful little cherries!

I washed the cherries and removed all the stems and leaves.  The cherries were placed in a dutch oven with filtered water and a little organic sugar.  The whole mess was brought up to a boil and then I allowed it to steep overnight in the fridge.  The pits give off a nice almond flavor so I wanted that to permeate the juice before I removed the pits.

My chinoise setup.

I poured the cherries into a chinoise lined with a jelly bag.  I was thinking the juice would just come out but I ended up pressing out the pulp too.  The cherry puree went back into the dutch oven with a few teaspoons of lemon zest and a pinch of sea salt.  I boiled the syrup and added a teaspoon of butter since it was foamy and poured it into a sterile jar.  Who wants to come over for pancakes or french toast?  Yum!
 

Get the griddle ready!

{Recipe} Nanking Cherry Pancake Syrup
(approximate amounts)
3 quarts cherries, washed
1 quart filtered water
1/4-1/2 cup organic sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
Pinch of sea salt
1 tsp butter

Place cherries, water and sugar in a dutch oven and bring up to a boil.  Simmer until cherries are soft.  Remove from heat, cool and refrigerate overnight.  Strain the juice to remove the pits and discard them.  Put cherry puree back into the dutch oven and bring up to a boil.  Add the lemon zest, sea salt and butter and stir until the foam goes away.  Pour into a sterile jar.  Cool and store in fridge.

 This syrup would also make a great base for ice cream, could be cooked down into a butter, made into jam, stirred into yogurt… the possibilities are endless.