It’s Cherries Jubilee Day today. It is a dessert made with cherries and fruit liqueur, which is flambéed and served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream.. On this day we are encouraged to eat cherries jubilee. A way to do that is to host a adult dessert party.
What is Cherries Jubilee?
Cherries jubilee is a dessert dish made with cherries and liqueur (typically Kirshwasser), which is subsequently flambéed, and commonly served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream.
The recipe is generally credited to Auguste Escoffier, who prepared the dish for one of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations, though it is unclear whether it was for the Golden Jubilee of 1887 or the Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
There have been many variations on the idea of flambéed fruit since Escoffier’s time, the most famous being Bananas Foster. Other variations include Mangos Diablo (mangos flambéed in tequila) and Pêches Louis (peaches flamed in whiskey).
Cherries Jubilee Recipe
Ingredients
½ cup white sugar
2 tablespoons corn-starch
¼ cup water
¼ cup orange juice
500g dark, sweet cherries, rinsed and pitted (or use frozen pitted cherries)
½ teaspoon finely grated orange zest
¼ teaspoon cherry extract
¼ cup brandy
3 cups vanilla ice cream
Directions
1. Whisk together the sugar and corn-starch in a wide saucepan. Stir in the water and orange juice; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking until thickened. Stir in the cherries and orange zest, return to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. While the cherries are cooking, spoon the ice cream into serving bowls.
2. Remove the cherries from the heat, and stir in the cherry extract. Pour in the brandy, and ignite with a long lighter. Gently shake the pan until the blue flame has extinguished itself. Spoon the cherries over the bowls of ice cream.
The flames may get quite high when flambéing, so be carful.
