A cherry plum, as the name suggests, is a fruit that is a hybrid between a cherry and a plum. The fruits are larger than a standard cherry, but smaller than a standard plum, with a medium-length stem that resembles a cherry. The fruit can range in color from yellow-pink to deep red. It has dense, juicy flesh and a small pit at the center that resembles a cherry pit. These little fruits taste much more like plums than they do like cherries, but they have a rich sweetness to them and their small size makes them very snackable if you want to eat them out of hand. You can also use them for baking, removing the pits by popping them out with a (large) cherry pitter or by using a small paring knife. The fruits can be used with the thin skins still attached, much as the skin of cherries does not need to be removed before baking. The fruits can be substituted into recipes that use both plums and cherries, such as cobblers and clafoutis. They can also be used whole or halved in cakes.
The cherry plum hybrids, which are often seen at farmers markets and at some commercial grocery stores, are not the same as the “cherry plums” that appear on some species of flowering plum trees. Those plums, while somewhat similar in appearance, are much more tart than the hybrid fruit and are better suited to making jam and other applications where you can add a lot of sugar, rather than for eating out of hand or in a simple baked dessert.
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