Fast Food Copy Cat: Cherry Berry Chiller

Sometimes people unintentionally plant seeds in my brain. I have a sweet friend who is mildly obsessed with McDonald’s Cherry Berry Chiller and gets it on the daily. She mentioned it to me a total of 15 times last time I saw her.  So…now I’ve been obsessing. In my mind.

If you know me at all, you know I am not that into fast food, so I thought I’d make one myself. You know what? I think this is the first thing that I couldn’t just Google and make. So, I went to McD’s website and found that their chiller is made with such lovely ingredients as flavor concentrates, citric acid and xanthan gum. Sounds yummy, huh? Don’t even get me started on the calorie and sugar count. I could go on all day…

But I won’t. I will, however, present you with a fresh, homemade and all (OK, mostly) natural Cherry Berry Chiller! Get into it, y’all.

Copy Cat Cherry Berry Chiller

Serves 2

1 cup frozen sweet red cherries
1/4 cup raspberry simple syrup (below)
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp juice from a jar of maraschino cherries
1 cup apple juice
Ice

Toss all this stuff in a blender & blend it up.

Raspberry Simple Syrup
1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Combine all in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and smash berries with a fork. Strain out the seeds and cool to room temperature.

FYI~this is also great with rum or vodka added to it! (Obviously!)

“hungry monster” is Renee from http://attackofthehungrymonster.blogspot.com/, a cooking and (occasional) crafting site.  She’s a self-taught home chef who likes to put her own spin on classic recipes.  Go visit her blog and say hi.