Stop Throwing Away Cherry Pits And Use Them To Flavor Whipped Cream

Cherries are among the most cherished fruit harvests, offering bite-sized bursts of sweet and tangy richness as vibrant as their crimson flesh. Like peaches, plums, and apricots, cherries are classified as stone fruit and characterized by that pesky pit that always seems to hold onto those last sweet bits of flavor. Instead of declaring defeat and chucking the fleshy cherry pits into the trash, you can repurpose them as a flavoring agent for whipped cream. Using cherry pits to flavor whipped cream is a simple, passive process that doesn't require any heat yet reaps the tasty benefits of the small remnants of flesh as well as the nutty essence of the pit's seed.

Since cherries are acidic, heating them in cream runs the risk of curdling, so you'll use a cold infusion process to flavor the cream. Similar to the method for making cold brew coffee, cold infusion flavoring is an overnight process executed by adding cherry pits to a container of heavy cream and letting it sit in the fridge. The overnight infusion will give the cream a slightly pink hue and wonderful tasting notes of fresh cherry. The seed at the center of the pit, known as the noyaux, also imparts a nuttiness that you can enhance by including a drop of almond extract when you add the sugar, right before whipping the mixture into an airy, fluffy garnish.

Cherry-flavored whipped cream requires a ratio of ¼ cup of pits for every 1 cup of cream. If you're an avid cherry pie maker, you might have a cherry pitter appliance, but there are other surprisingly simple ways to pit a cherry. You can use the handle of a large chopping knife to smack each cherry like you would a garlic clove, thereby loosening the flesh from the seed. Another clever hack is to use the tip of a paper clip by inserting the clip into the same hole that the stem grew out of, creating a channel for the pit's easy exit.

If you're making a small batch of whipped cream, a hand emulsifier is the ideal appliance for the job. You can strain the cherry-infused cream into a tall and narrow container so that the liquid covers the entirety of the whirring apparatus. Once you've whipped the cream for a couple of minutes, gradually whisk in the sugar so the emulsifier can blend it into the aerated cream. Otherwise, the heavy sugar might remain at the bottom of the container without being fully integrated. Cherry whipped cream is a delicious upgrade to any dessert, whether it's a chocolate milkshake or, you guessed it, a slice of cherry pie!