Easy delicious cherry recipes for cherry season and beyond using fresh, frozen, and canned cherries!
Cherry season takes me by surprise every year ~ in California it starts in April, and goes through August, depending on where you are. June is really high season for this uniquely delicious fruit. These cherry recipes will work with fresh, frozen, or canned fruit, so no one has to lose out.
cherry faqs
Store fresh cherries wrapped in paper towels or in a paper bag, in the refrigerator. Don’t wash them before storing they should be dry, not wet.
I love my inexpensive cherry pitter, it does the job quickly and easily. 
Wash them, remove the stems, and then pit them. Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet lines with waxed or parchment paper (to prevent sticking.) Put the tray in the freezer until the cherries are hard. Then transfer the cherries to heavy duty zip lock freezer bags, pushing out any extra air as you zip them up. Label the bags and use within a year.
Sweet cherries are the most common type of cherry you’ll see in your supermarket. There are 2 main varieties: Bing and Ranier (which are yellow.) They have a sweet flavor and these are the ones we eat out of hand.
Sour cherries are a special variety grown in the upper Midwest. They are, as you might expect, sour, but this makes them delicious when baked into pies, etc. If you don’t live in the Midwest you can find them frozen or canned.
Cherry Almond Crisp Dump Cake
Whoever said ‘easy as pie’ obviously never made this crisp! This cherry recipe is super convenient because it starts with a cake mix.
Fresh Cherry Lemonade Popsicles
I dare you to find something more refreshing, these popsicles are bursting with fresh fruit flavor.
Sweet Cherry Almond Bars
When you’re done gorging on fresh cherries, bake them up into these juicy almond bars. Almonds, almond meal, and almond extract make this a cherry and almond lover’s dream.
Fresh Cherry Dessert Sauce
This luscious sauce ice cream, cheesecake, pound cake, chocolate cake, even oatmeal!
Whitefish with Cherry Salsa
One bite and you’ll wonder why you never thought of this!
Cherry Chocolate Bourbon Soda
This luscious cocktail from Katie at the Kitchen Door starts with a bright homemade cherry soda, which would be delicious on its own.
Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes with Cherry Compote
Don’t know about you, but I’d leap out of bed for these pancakes from The Beach House Kitchen.
Sour Cherry Almond Bars
The cherries are nice and tart, the almond scented crumble dough is chewy and butterscotch-y!
Rainier Cherry Almond Tart
This easy almond scented tart can be a simple dessert, or a very elegant sidekick to a cup of good coffee.
Cherry Salad with Quinoa and Fennel
The sweet and savory combination of Naturally Ella’s salad sounds delicious.
Spiced Cocktail Cherries
These spiced cherries are so good you’ll want to snack on them without the booze!
Cherry Gazpacho
Cherries are paired with tomatoes in this rustic Spanish soup from Williams Sonoma.
Roasted Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches
Love these ice cream sandwiches from The Bojon Gourmet…the cherries for the ice cream are first roasted in sugar and bourbon, and the fudgey brownie cookies are gluten free.
Cherry Smoothie
Dinner at the Zoo knocked it out of the park with that color!!
Thanks for pinning!
What a delicious round up of cherry recipes Sue! Thanks so much for including mine!
Sue, your beautiful photography combined with your user friendly, yet imaginative recipes never cease to inspire. You have shown us life can be more than a bowl of cherries. Brava! Ellen Easton, Red Wagon Press
I made the Cerry Almond Bars and they never congealed. But it was so delicious!! The recipe is great!! Did I use too much fruit maybe?? I want to try again!!
Hey Lynn ~ it sounds like your cherries were very juicy. The cornstarch should take care of thickening them. Maybe use a touch more next time.
There’s nothing better than summer cherries, what a delicious round up!
Just have to tell you, I own a home-baking business, with a stall at a local Farmers market here in Vancouver. I made your Cherry Almond bars to sell at last week’s market, and were they ever a hit! Completely sold out, and people were looking for them again this week. I think they will become part of our regular rotation for sure!
This is so great, Vancouver is such a fabulous place and I’m thrilled to be a small part of the ‘foodie’ scene!!
Wow! Who would’ve known you can do so many awesome things with cherries. I don’t think I would like them in a salad but I would definitely have them in a smoothie. Or that Cherry Chocolate Bourbon Soda! I’ve never had one before
So excited about all the gorgeous cherries! A fabulous group of recipes Sue! Thanks so much for including mine!
I bought a litre of pure cherry juice from an organic cherry farm. Do you have any suggestions on how I might use this? thanks.
I have a confession to make. I made your cherry salsa and fish recipe and it was, as promised amazingly delicious! The next day, I wanted to make a sandwich with some leftover shredded pork roast. As I was getting the pork from the fridge, I spied the little container of leftover cherry salsa. I thought, ‘why not?’ and spooned the salsa on top of the pork. OMG! The rich pork and tart, spicy cherry salsa was a marriage made in heaven! I love it when a recipe turns into a doubleheader! Keep those wonderful recipes coming and I’ll try to keep up! 🙂
That’s a great idea, Lynn, in fact my husband really wanted me to do the cherry salsa with pork instead of fish, I guess he was on to something…now I’ve got to go make another batch of salsa so I can try it 😉
I have cherries in my fridge now and see so many wonderful recipes to try. Love produce this time of year!