Cooking with Cherries

Stir some stoned cherries into thick plain yoghurt, and you will never buy fruit yoghurt again. For an even more delicious cherry and yoghurt combination, one day I blended a handful of highly scented red damask rose petals with a couple of teaspoons of granulated sugar, stirred the result into thick plain yoghurt, and served it with cherries on the stem. Blend some ripe stoned cherries with skimmed milk, and float a scoop of frozen plain yoghurt, or vanilla ice cream, on top for a very superior milk-shake. Fill a plain sponge with whipped cream, into which you have folded ripe stoned cherries, and dust with icing sugar for a tea-time treat. Cherries are delicious in crepes, and with pancakes for breakfast, stirred into maple syrup. Try cherries, too, in lovely dark red sorbets. And try a cherry and almond crumble, just the thing to serve after a summer dinner of mainly cold dishes.