Dried Cherries substitute

Best substitute

Dried cranberries

Use the same amount as the dried cherries you are replacing

Best for granola and trail mix

Close match

Dried cherries are in a recipe for chew, concentrated sweetness and a sour edge that keeps rich or sweet things from tasting flat, which is why they turn up in granola, scones, wild rice and grain salads. Dried cranberries are the closest swap at 1:1 and the only one that keeps the tartness, so they are the answer nine times out of ten. Raisins, golden raisins or sultanas also work at 1:1 but are purely sweet, so add a teaspoon of lemon juice or a little grated orange zest to the dish to make up the missing acidity. Chopped dried apricots or dried sour cherries from a Middle Eastern grocer are both good. Fresh or frozen cherries are not a substitute in baking, because they carry far too much water and will make a scone dough wet and a granola soggy.

Other dried cherries substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Raisins, sultanas or golden raisins
Different taste
Use the same amount plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice or ½ teaspoon grated citrus zest per cup of fruit
Always in the cupboard and structurally perfect, but they change the balance of the dish because they are sweet with no sourness at all.
What changes
A wild rice salad made with raisins tastes noticeably sweeter and softer-edged, and cookies lose the sharp counterpoint that made the cherry version interesting. Golden raisins are the better choice of the three, being slightly tangier and lighter in flavour. The lemon juice or zest is not optional if you want the dish to taste balanced.
Best for
oatmeal cookies, granola, scones and soda bread, rice and couscous dishes
Currants are the closest of the raisin family in size to dried cherries and slightly tarter than sultanas.
3Dried sour cherries or dried Morello cherries
Close match
Use the same amount
If your recipe says dried tart cherries and you have found dried sour cherries, they are the same thing under a different label, so buy them without hesitating.
What changes
They are common and inexpensive in Middle Eastern, Turkish and Eastern European groceries, sometimes sold unsweetened, in which case they are considerably sharper and firmer than the sweetened American kind. Soak unsweetened ones in warm water for ten minutes before baking with them, or they will pull moisture out of the crumb.
Best for
any recipe calling for dried cherries, pilafs and stuffed vegetables, biscotti and rugelach, granola
Taste one first; unsweetened varieties may need a little extra sugar in the recipe.
4Chopped dried apricots or dried plums
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount chopped to cherry size
Both work well and both have real acidity, which puts them ahead of raisins.
What changes
Dried apricots are tangy and floral and stay softer than cherries, so they are noticeably more tender in a scone and give bigger flashes of orange colour. Dried plums, or prunes, are darker, deeper and much sweeter, closer to a fig in character, and they suit spiced baking and pork or duck dishes better than a light salad. Chop either to roughly the size of a cherry so the distribution stays even.
Best for
scones and biscotti, stuffings and pilafs, granola, cheese boards
Dried apricots are stickier; dust the chopped pieces with a little flour so they do not clump.
5Dried blueberries, dried strawberries or freeze-dried cherries
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Dried blueberries are the nearest in size and chew and are mildly tart, though much less sharp than cherries and easy to lose in a busy granola.
What changes
Dried strawberries are sweeter and softer. Freeze-dried cherries are a different animal: they are dry and crisp rather than chewy, they dissolve in a wet batter, and they crush to a powder that is superb for flavouring frosting or shortbread but wrong anywhere you wanted a chewy bite. Read the packet before you buy.
Best for
granola and muesli, trail mix, flavouring frosting and shortbread with freeze-dried, muffins
Freeze-dried fruit turns soggy in a moist batter; fold it in at the last moment or use it as a topping.
6Frozen cherries dried out in a low oven (when you have no dried fruit at all)
Close match
1 lb frozen pitted cherries yields roughly 1 cup once dried
The honest note here is that this takes hours, not minutes, so only start it if you are planning ahead.
What changes
Thaw and blot pitted cherries, halve them, spread them cut side up on a lined tray and dry them at the lowest oven setting, around 200 F or 90 C, for three to five hours until leathery and no longer sticky, turning once. What you get is genuinely dried cherries, slightly softer and more caramelised than shop-bought. Do not try to shortcut it at a higher temperature; they will roast and then burn.
Best for
granola, baking, trail mix
Store them in the fridge and use within a couple of weeks, since home-dried fruit is not as dry as commercial fruit.

What is Dried Cherries?

Dried Cherries is Dried cherries are pitted cherries dehydrated to a chewy raisin-like fruit, usually made from tart Montmorency cherries and lightly sweetened, and sold as dried tart cherries or dried sour cherries alongside the sweeter dried Bing type.

Cooking tips

Any dried fruit that goes into a batter pulls moisture out of it, which is why cherry scones can come out dry. Soak the fruit ten minutes in warm water, orange juice or tea, then drain and pat dry before folding it in, and the crumb around each piece stays tender.
Dried cherries brown and harden fast on the surface of a cookie or a granola tray. Push exposed pieces down into the dough, or stir granola in the last ten minutes so the fruit is buried rather than sitting on top going bitter.
In savoury cooking, dried cherries are doing the job of an acid as much as a fruit. In wild rice, pilaf, stuffing or a grain salad, if you swap in raisins you should also add a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar to the dressing, or the dish tastes cloying.
Do not substitute fresh or frozen cherries by weight for dried. Dried fruit is roughly a quarter the weight of the fresh fruit it came from, and it brings water into a recipe rather than none. If you only have fresh cherries, cook them down into a compote and treat the recipe differently.
Sweetened dried cherries and unsweetened ones are quite different. Taste one before you start; if it makes you wince, add a tablespoon of sugar to the recipe or soak the fruit in sweetened juice first.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the dried cherries out?

In most recipes, yes, without any technical problem, since dried fruit is not doing structural work. Granola, oatmeal cookies, scones and grain salads will all hold together fine without them. What you lose is chew and a tart counterpoint, so the dish tastes flatter and one-dimensional. If you leave them out of something sweet, add a little lemon zest or a squeeze of juice to compensate for the missing acidity, and in a salad consider toasted nuts to restore some texture.

Are dried cranberries a good substitute for dried cherries?

They are the best substitute there is, at 1:1 and with no other adjustment. Both are chewy, red and tart, and both behave identically in baking, granola and salads. Dried cranberries are marginally sweeter and more astringent with a slightly tougher skin, and they are usually cheaper and far easier to find, which is why plenty of recipes list them as interchangeable.

What is the difference between dried tart cherries and dried sweet cherries?

Dried tart cherries, made from Montmorency or other sour varieties, are bright, sharp and sweetened during drying, and they are what most recipes mean by dried cherries. Dried sweet cherries, made from Bing types, are darker, mellower and taste more like a raisin than a sour cherry. They substitute for each other 1:1, but if a recipe specifically wants tartness, use the tart kind or add a squeeze of lemon.

Can I use fresh cherries instead of dried cherries?

Not as a direct swap. Fresh cherries are about three quarters water, so they make dough wet, granola soggy and salad dressings watery, and they have none of the concentrated intensity that a small amount of dried fruit provides. If fresh cherries are all you have, either dry them slowly in a low oven for a few hours, or cook them into a compote and use the recipe differently.

How much dried fruit does a typical recipe need?

A batch of scones or muffins usually takes 1/2 to 3/4 cup, a batch of granola around 1 cup stirred in after baking, and a grain or wild rice salad for four about 1/2 cup. Because dried fruit is intense, going much over these amounts makes the dish taste like candy rather than like the thing it is meant to be.

Related substitutes

More fruits substitutes

Dried Cherries substitute

Other dried cherries substitutes

2Raisins, sultanas or golden raisins

3Dried sour cherries or dried Morello cherries

4Chopped dried apricots or dried plums

5Dried blueberries, dried strawberries or freeze-dried cherries

6Frozen cherries dried out in a low oven (when you have no dried fruit at all)