Cherry Compote Recipe – Cooking with Nana Ling

Add a burst of colour and sweet-tart flavour to ice cream, muesli, cheesecake, pancakes and other dishes with this easy Cherry Compote recipe.

Too many cherries? It’s an amazing problem to have, but you can occasionally find yourself in this position during cherry season – which happens to coincide with Christmas in Australia.

And this recipe is the perfect way to extend the life of cherries when they’re in abundance.

Add your cherry compote to ice-cream, custard, yoghurt, cheesecake, muesli or whatever you like!

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A Cherry Compote Recipe inspired by the past

This recipe for cherry compote is inspired by recipes shared in Australian newspapers in the early 1900’s.

Ingredients for Cherry Compote

To make this recipe, you’ll need just a few simple ingredients.

That’s right, you’ll need:

• fresh cherries
• caster sugar / superfine sugar
• lemon juice
• cinnamon (optional).

While the cinnamon is optional, I absolutely recommend adding it in. You can’t really taste the cinnamon flavour, bit it adds a lovely depth to the flavour of the cherry compote.

The ingredient measurements can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Preparing the Cherries

Wash the cherries and then remove the stems and pits.

To remove the pits (the tiny stone inside each cherry), you can use a cherry pitter (see pictured below) or alternatively a chopstick or something similar (pushed through the centre of the cherry).

TIP: It’s extremely important to make sure you remove each and every pit. You don’t want anyone to be biting into a soft cherry and instead break a tooth on the stone!

I check each stone comes out, and if I’m unsure I break the cherry in half to check.

I suggest leaving half the cherries whole and breaking the other half into halves – for the best compote results.

How to make Cherry Compote

Once you’ve prepared the cherries, place them into a cooking tray and then pour the sugar over the cherries.

Stand for ¾ of an hour, stirring a few times throughout the resting time.

You’ll see the sugar gradually start to dissolve.

Once that time has elapsed, pour the cherry and sugar mix into a saucepan. Add the lemon juice and cinnamon.

Heat gently to dissolve any remaining sugar. Increase temperature and bring mixture to the boil. Boil for 3 minutes.

Cool the mixture and then place into a glass jar or dish and place in the fridge.

Variations

You can mix things up with this recipe by:

• Changing the spices – adding cardamom, nutmeg or another spice instead of cinnamon.
• Adding some spirits – a dash of brandy, rum or Cointreau will give your compote a kick.
• Mixing in some other berries – substitute some of the cherries with strawberries, raspberries or other berries.

Storage

Store the compote in the fridge for up to one week. You can also freeze this dish for up to 6 months. Freeze in an airtight container or freezer bags.

FAQ

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these: