Today is Eric’s birthday and Lorraine asked me to get a cheesecake for dessert. I was going to buy a can of cherry pie filling in case anyone wanted sauce on their cheesecake … but there was a good price on fresh cherries so I changed plans.

A search produced a lot of recipes for cherry sauce, but most were far sweeter than I want. My tastes have changed; I prefer desserts that are less sweet

Natasha’s Kitchen has a Cherry Sauce that was exactly what I want!

NOTE: Although I found Natasha’s recipe in a DuckDuckGo search, I have browsed her site in the past and recommend it as a great source for recipes and ideas.

Cherry Sauce

This recipe is Natasha’s — I changed proportions and added commentary regarding how I made it. Her notes go beyond what I did, including adjustments for canned cherries. I recommend reading her notes.

• 1/3 cup water
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3 cups pitted cherries

Place the water in a medium saucepan. Stir in the cornstarch, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Until it boils, the solids will drop out and burn on the bottom of the pan — stir! The mixture will change from milky to translucent.

Add the cherries and stir constantly. Reduce heat to low and continue to stir for a total of 6 minutes.

The original recipe said 6 to 10 minutes, but my stove must be hotter, as 6 minutes was plenty. The sauce will be thick and chunky.

Cool in the pan, then refrigerate until needed.

Pitting Cherries

The teacher asked a small boy, “How do you spell Philadelphia?”

“filladollfea”

“That’s not correct.”

“I know, but you asked me how I spell Philadelphia, and that’s how I spell it.”

This introduces you to my primer on cherry pitting. This is how I do it, and if you have a different method? Good for you! This one works for me.

With fresh cherries, I start at the stem end by cutting all around the cherry, as if bisecting it.

I turn the cherry 90 degrees and do it again, so the cherry is in 4 quarters held together by the pit. The green lines illustrate the cuts.

I twist the cherry so two of the quarters tear off. I twist the remainder so 1 quarter tears off, then using a finger nail, pull the pit out of the last quarter. This goes faster than you might expect, especially with practice. It also produces almost no waste, unlike commercial pitting tools.

The original recipe called for 6 apples — the first time I made it, I used 4 and filled a large saucepan to the brim. Over time I have reduced the number of apples to 2, as it makes a LOT.

I also changed how I process the lemon, removing the pith as I find it makes the result bitter. See the Note.

Double Cranberry-Apple Sauce

2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled & diced
12 oz pkg fresh cranberries
1 large lemon, zested, pith removed, sliced & seeded
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries

Stir together apple, cranberries, zest, lemon, sugar, and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often.

Reduce heat; simmer, stirring often, 15 minutes or until cranberries pop and mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in dried cranberries. Cool. Cover and chill until ready to use.
Mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.

Note: I use a vegetable peeler to remove the zest, then chop it. Using a sharp knife I cut off both ends, remove most of the pith, then slice the lemon in 4 seconds vertically, then slice it in 1/8″ slices.

Note: The number of apples can be doubled.