Considering how much I like cherries I don’t get the chance to eat very many of them. I have never had much success with a supermarket cherry preferring to take my chances at the farmers’ market where I might be lucky to nab a punnet if I am early enough. The cherries used for this spontaneous dessert were earned by my own fair hand. I was meandering through the market, deliberating how many doughnuts were too many for breakfast, when I was called to help one of the stall holders who couldn’t fill enough punnets to keep up with demand. My reward for much scooping was a big punnet of cherries all to myself.
Ingredients
You will need (for two):
- 300g cherries, de-stoned
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- Juice 1 lime
- 2 slices brioche
- Butter
- Demerara sugar
Method
I quite like de-stoning cherries. I find it a therapeutic thing to do and once you get into the swing of things it takes no time at all. I have to admit that my fingers were stained for days afterwards which is not something I’ve ever encountered with cherries before.
Put the de-stoned cherries into a bowl with the caster sugar and lime juice and then leave to macerate overnight.
Remove the cherries from the fridge an hour or so before you want to eat them so that they are at room temperature.
Lightly toast the brioche and then spread generously with butter. Sprinkle over a little demerara sugar and then put under a grill so that the sugar lightly caramelises. Remove from the grill and top with the cherries.
For an impromptu dessert I was pretty pleased with this. The cherries create their own sweet and sour juice which soaks into the sweet bread. It’s crunchy at the edges and gooey in the middle. The lime freshens everything up and the cherries were a lovely shade of deep crimson which looked great on top of the sugar topped bread. Perhaps it was because these were free cherries, maybe it was because I had to work for them but there was something a bit more special about this sweet treat than normal.
This “impromptu” dessert is bound to get rave reviews!
Lime soaked cherries sounds delicious. Such a great colour too.
It turns out I have frozen brioche and cherries…the lime is a great additon Caroline! I usually use lemon or even orange.
I wish I can get my hands on cherries, its expensive and we can’t find the nice ones.
I am loving this sweet dish, the flavors and most of all, the attractive pieces of cherries on top.
These soaked cherries look delicious on that waffle!
Wow! This looks so good & tasty! Love those juicy cherries & what a yummy treat !
A perfect dessert bursting with flavour – I want a bite 😀
Cheers
CCU
Looks lovely and really colourful. Such a brilliantly messy dish to make, look how red your fingers are! 🙂
I love the sound of the lime soaked cherries and it looks yummy!
Looks yummy and I’m definitely with you on the taste of anything you’ve grown/worked for/got for free being sweeter!
Never thought in mixing lime with cherries…great idea Caroline…and yes, look delicious with brioche…nice dessert.
Have a wonderful week ahead 😀
This looks delicious! the colour of those cherries is so appetising!
this. is. just. bloody. LUSH!
Great story, you must be well known at the market! Love the look of this cherry dessert.
Oh wow do delicious! Those cherries look excellent.
cherries are getting so expensive around here again, and i find that to be tragic. i LOVE them, so i’m intrigued by what you’ve made here!
I sooooo wish I was eating this right now – looks and sounds wonderful Caroline!
A fantastic impromptu dessert! Brioche goes so well with fruit!
OMG…lindo color yo quiero llegue pronto el verano para tener cerezas… hermosa receta,hugs,hugs.
I did actually see cherries at Coles the other day and I was thinking ‘ are we there yet?’I guess we are. I meant to dunk a bunch of them in chocolate last year and eat them. Thanks for the reminder! Love your take on cherries and will be incorporating this into Christmas breaky!
What a delicious idea!
This is such a great brunch dish. I am a great user of lime at the moment and I am sure these cherries must taste so nice, the lime cutting the sweetness of the caramelised brioche. yum