Cherry sauce for risalamande

A little extra recipe in my advent calendar. After I shared my mother’s recipe for the best risalamande, loads of you have been asking for a cherry sauce recipe for the risalamande.

We make the cherry sauce from preserved cherries, which are cooked and thickened. Simple and quick—though it can be difficult to find preserved cherries, as most supermarkets mainly sell ready-made cherry sauce, which tastes good too, of course. We like a simple cherry flavor, so there’s no cinnamon, vanilla pod, orange peel or port wine to add once the cherries are cooked, but you are welcome to add these, if you’d like a slightly spiced version.

Last year, we were lucky to find halved, frozen cherries which we slowly cooked with sugar until the berries were juicy and had thickened as described below. We sometimes add some blackberries to the cherry sauce—it gives a slightly darker, more berry-like sauce that tastes great. You can make the cherry sauce before dinner, and just warm it a little when serving the risalamande.

We often have leftover cherry sauce after Christmas Eve, so remember that the cherry sauce can be used in many other desserts, such as with vanilla ice cream, pudding, old-fashioned curd and whey and panna cotta. Try a spoonful of cherry sauce on Greek yoghurt or on the thick, American pancakes, too. Enjoy!