Glacé cherry

An open Canadian baking textbook describes how glace cherries are made. The cherries are blanched and often bleached, mainly to give them a uniform color and allow different shades to be offered. They are then boiled in a sugar syrup made of 30 percent glucose and 70 percent sucrose, with the sugar concentration raised in stages from about 14 percent to nearly 70 percent.

The glucose prevents crystallization in the finished product, and the sugar content is responsible for preservation. The result is a chewy, translucent fruit that keeps well without refrigeration.

Bakers use glace cherries in fruit cakes, scones, shortbread, cookies and as a decoration on top of cakes and desserts, often chopped before folding into batter. Rinsing and drying them first can help keep them from sinking in a cake. They are sweeter and firmer than fresh cherries.