A North Carolina staple since 1917, young and old love Cheerwine for it’s delightfully different cherry flavored taste. It has a bit more carbonation than other soft drinks and is best served the way it’s always been packaged — in a cold glass bottle.
Beyond its appeal as a refreshing soft drink, Cheerwine is right at home in the world of cooking as well. Through a variety of Cheerwine cakes, ice cream, sherbets, and even barbecue sauce, you can find plenty of ways to incorporate the soda into a recipe. Cola cakes have been around for sometime, but Cheerwine may be the only one that is mass-produced both in pound cake form and in doughnut form.
We propose adding another dish into the Cheerwine-as-ingredient canon: Cheerwine cherry cobbler. Using fresh cherries and cooking them in Cheerwine cola to concentrate the sweetness and flavor, we top the mixture with a crunchy crust and bake it in the oven. You’ll love it even more with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Yield: 6 to 9 servings.
For the filling:
1 to 2 pounds fresh cherries, pits and stems removed
2 (12 ounce) Cheerwine sodas — regular, not diet
½ teaspoon cocoa
½ teaspoon almond extract
For the topping:
1 cup self-rising flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ stick unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350º.
Place cherries in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Remove stems and pits. Split the cherries for best results.
Place cherries in a small sauce pot over medium heat. Add 2 bottles of Cheerwine soda. Add cocoa and stir well. Let simmer until syrup has reduced to about one cup liquid. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract.
Generously butter a 2 quart casserole-baking dish. Pour the cooked cherry mixture into the casserole dish.
Place flour and cornstarch in a sifter, and sift into a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar. Add granulated sugar. Whisk dry ingredients together.
Add one whole egg to center of dry ingredients. Break egg with a fork and continue to stir until ingredients are mixed well and crumbly. Use your fingers and break apart any large lumps that may have formed. Spread the topping evenly over the cherries. Melt the butter and drizzle over the topping.
Bake at 350º degrees for about 30 minutes or until crust tests done with a toothpick. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Serve warm, topped with ice cream or whipped topping if desired.
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