“Hang on to that leftover hot syrup and leave it in the pan; that’s the most important part of the Boozy Cherry Molasses!” says Rebecca, the author of the blog “Foodie with Family: Eating high on the hog in Amish country” where I found this recipe.
Well I’m sold, I thought.
Boozy Cherry Molasses
Yield: Between 1 1/2 and 2 (8 ounce) jars (yeah…except I ended up with one tiny half baby’s bottle of apple sauce-sized jar of the stuff. It’s pungent, though!)
Ingredients:
- Remaining hot cherry syrup from making Rum-Soaked Preserved Cherries
Per Jar (optional – it’s not boozy if you leave it out, but I left it out. Where did my inner alcoholic go?):
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Golden Rum
- 1 teaspoon Kirsh (or other cherry liqueur)
All you do is put the leftover cherry syrup back on the stove over medium-high heat and let it come back to a boil. Then reduce the heat to a gentle boil and let the syrup reduce by about half. You can make it as thick as you want, really.
For so little molasses it hardly seemed worth it to can. Actually, I couldn’t since the jar would be so empty, so I just poured the molasses into a clean, used baby’s apple sauce jar, let it cool, and stuck it in the fridge. If I’d been a baby and this had been my apple sauce I would have been a) the happiest baby ever b) permanently high on sugar. The reason I got so little molasses out of the recipe was because I canned the rum syrup in one 250mL jar from the last recipe with sour cherries. If I hadn’t done this I may have actually had enough for an entire shelf stable bottle of boozy molasses. I’m not sorry. I’m quite happy with my bottle of less-reduced ruby nectar.
I also skipped the booze, as I mentioned above, since it would have been about 1/2 tsp only that I could add without overwhelming the small amount of molasses. And then every time I had a tiny amount I’d taste rum. Not exactly what I crave on my toast – morning booze. If you do add the booze, add it to the jar and then pour in the molasses. Process in a canner or store in the fridge when cool. Be safe with not touching rims and sterilizing everything, and processing for 15 minutes and all. these are obviously not thorough instructions, but expect you’ve read through a few more of my recipes or followed Rebecca’s clear instructions here.
Eat this on toast, on ice cream, on cakes, with cheese, with charcuterie, meats (like a mint jelly with lamb but better…), with a spoon, etc.
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