sweets: cherries and star anise lemonade

A while ago I had some lovely homemade lemonade at a restaurant in our neighbourhood. The combination of cherries and star anise was suprising and delicious, and I thought to myself: I can make this! So this week, I did :) I made a syrup, so you mix a bit of syrup with water to get a glass of lemonade. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

a kilo cherries
500 grams of sugar
water
star anise

- put the cherries in a pan and add a little water, so that the cherries are not quite covered, and bring to a boil.
- after 5 minutes, remove the pan from heat and blend the cherries so you get as much juice as possible from them. Then pour the juice through a strainer and back into the pan.
- add the sugar and star anise (I used about 8 pieces of star anise, but you can use more or less, depending on what flavour you like) and bring to a boil
- let it simmer until the liquid is becoming thicker. This takes around 20 minutes. Then pour the syrup in sterilized bottles and let it cool. It will become even thicker when it is cooled down.
- and that's it!

Enjoy your homemade lemonade! Although I think it will be an awesome flavour for your cocktails as well :)