If cherries, dried have turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use them with confidence and how to choose them, cook them, store them, what to substitute, and 39 recipes to try them in.

What is cherries, dried?

Dried cherries are fresh cherries with most of the water pulled out, leaving a chewy, intensely flavored little jewel of fruit. Drying concentrates the sugars and the cherry's natural acidity, so a spoonful packs far more punch than the same weight of fresh.

They come in two camps, and the difference matters. Tart cherries, usually the Montmorency variety, dry into a bright, almost sour bite and are often sweetened to balance it.

Sweet cherries, like Bing, dry darker and mellower, closer to a raisin in sweetness.

Reach for tart when you want the dried fruit to cut through richness, and sweet when you want it to read as candy.

How to Use Dried Cherries

The easy answer is to use them anywhere you'd use raisins or dried cranberries, then enjoy the upgrade in flavor. They scatter through cookies and bars, lending chew and pockets of concentrated fruit.

You'll find them doing exactly that in Chewy Chocolate-Cherry Cookies and Holiday Cherry & Rum Biscotti, and folded into a yeasted loaf like Cherry Walnut Yeast Bread.

Cherry and chocolate is the pairing to remember. The fruit's tartness slices through dark chocolate's richness, which is why it works so well in Chocolate Hazelnut & Cherry Bark and in snacky Cherry & Chocolate Energy Bars.

Don't box them into desserts, though. Dried cherries are wonderful in savory cooking, where their sweet-tart edge balances fat and salt.

Toss a handful into a grain salad or a leafy one like Arugula, Apple & Cheddar Salad with Maple Candied Pecans. They also melt into pan sauces and chutneys for pork or duck, and they even turn up in Cherry Burgers.

Cooking and Pairing

For baking, the question of plumping comes up often. If the dough or batter is wet, like cookie dough or muffin batter, you can usually add the cherries dry and let them soften as they bake.

In a drier dough, or any time you want them juicy, soak them first. Cover the cherries with warm water or juice for 10 to 15 minutes, then drain and pat them dry before folding them in.

That soak does two things: it keeps the cherries from pulling moisture out of your batter, and it stops them sinking like little stones to the bottom of a cake.

Flavorwise they have a lot of friends. Toasted nuts like almonds and pecans love them, as do warm spices, vanilla, and a little citrus zest. On the savory side, lean into rosemary and balsamic vinegar against rich meats.

One caution: dried cherries are sweeter and more acidic than they look, so if you're stirring them into something already sweet, pull back the sugar a touch to keep the dish in balance.

Substitutes

Out of dried cherries? Dried cranberries are the closest swap, matching the size and the chewy, tart-sweet character almost exactly; use them measure for measure.

Raisins or chopped dried apricots work when you mainly want chew and sweetness, though both are sweeter and miss the cherry tartness. To get some of that tang back, add a small squeeze of lemon.

For the cherry flavor specifically, a few snipped dried sour cherries from another package come closest. In a cooked sauce, even a spoonful of cherry preserves can stand in, just cut the other sugar in the recipe.

Buying and Storing Dried Cherries

You'll find them in the dried-fruit or baking aisle, sold both sweetened and unsweetened. Check the label: many tart cherries are sweetened with sugar or apple juice, and some are coated in oil to keep them from clumping, which is worth knowing if you want them plain.

Look for cherries that still feel soft and pliable through the bag. Rock-hard ones are old and will need a long soak to come back.

Store an opened package in an airtight container somewhere cool and dark, where it keeps for 6 to 12 months. For longer storage, the refrigerator or freezer extends that well past a year and keeps them from drying out further.

If they do firm up over time, a short soak in warm water revives them. And if you ever see fuzzy mold or smell fermentation, toss the batch; dried fruit can spoil once moisture sneaks back in.

Quick facts

Where to find cherries, dried: Cherries, dried is usually found in the snacks section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

樱桃，干

British (UK) term

Cherries, dried

en français

cerises, séchées

en español

cerezas, se secaron

Recipes using cherries, dried

There are 39 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 39 recipes