Yes. This is as delicious as it sounds.
It came about simply enough: I got a sack of precious, rare sour cherries from the CSA. I wanted to use them in something simple but glorious, something that would show off their brilliance and not cover it up. Something, since it was midsummer hot, that did not require turning on the oven.
I found what I was looking for on Epicurious: “Warm Skillet Sour Cherries with Vanilla Ice Cream.” It sounded simple enough. It was written in such a way that it even made the making of caramel – something that has long frightened me, despite several successes with it – sound not too daunting for a weeknight dessert. The recipe was from Gourmet magazine, and readers had awarded it 4-1/2 stars. So I went for it.
Arne and I pitted the cherries together while watching “So You Think You Can Dance.” It went pretty quickly that way. (I love my Cherry-It multiple cherry pitter
; Arne prefers the old-fashioned one-at-a-time style
.)
; Arne prefers the old-fashioned one-at-a-time style.)
We took our bowl of glorious garnet orbs (look at them, it’s like they glow from inside!) to the kitchen. I got out a stainless-steel pan – it’s important not to use a dark-colored pan, so you can gauge the brownness of the caramel – and got to work.
I’m not going to post the recipe, because I didn’t change a thing. I have posted some photos of the caramel process, though. You really do go straight from dry (well, in this case, almost dry) sugar to liquid caramel. It’s an amazing thing. Like making a cracker or roasting a chicken, it gives a sense of satisfaction out of proportion to its actual difficulty. There’s something elemental about it.
I will note that my caramel did not harden when I put the cherries in, as the Epicurious recipe suggests it will, so I skipped the part of the cooking where it’s supposed to soften again. Maybe I didn’t let the caramel cook long enough before I added the cherries – but it sure didn’t taste like I’d done anything wrong. This dessert is divine. Sour cherries sweetened but not at all overwhelmed by a cherry-flavored caramel sauce so good I nearly wept when it was gone. Really, try this if you ever get your hands on a pound of fresh tart cherries. Or just use frozen ones.
You’ll be glad you did.
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