Sugared Cranberries are a statement dish for your holiday menu. Serve them with a cheese board or as a cocktail garnish! Your friends will ohh and ahh over this easy recipe.
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Thanksgiving! It’s tomorrow! Are you so excited?
I sure am. It’s one of my favorite holidays. Arguably my favorite holiday, actually.
It’s just so nice to be around the table with family and friends enjoying food together.
I had one more recipe I wanted to share before tomorrow, so I am squeezing it in today.
Meet sugared cranberries.
They’re a perfect last-minute recipe you can bring to your Thanksgiving or Christmas party as a snack, put out with a cheese board or use to garnish cocktails.
Sugared cranberries would look perfect as a garnish for my Yule Mule Cocktail or my Poinsettia Champagne Cocktail.
The recipe for sugared cranberries is so simple. Sugared cranberries are coated in simple syrup, then dusted in granulated sugar.
You only need two ingredients, the ones in the name: sugar and cranberries. (Well, three, if you count the water used in the simple syrup!)
I just love how they glisten in the bowl.
I made sugared cranberries a few weeks ago when I attended the Saveur Blog Awards in Cincinnati.*
One of our afternoon activities was putting together a cheese board for a food styling workshop, so I picked up sugar and cranberries and got to work.
My pals Lauren and Mackenzie from The World in a Pocket shared an Airbnb with me, and they helped me make sugared cranberries.
Together we navigated our way through a VERY sparse kitchen. I actually made my sugared cranberries in a colander! So if we can do that, you can make these at your house.
How to make sugared cranberries
You’ll need a small saucepan, if you need to make your own simple syrup. You can use store-bought or even use some you have on hand.
Then you’re going to stir the cranberries into the syrup to coat them, and then you’ll drain off the syrup with a fine-mesh strainer.
Keep it for cocktails if you like! And if you do, you’ll need a glass food storage container or mason jar.
Then you’ll lay your cranberries out to dry. I use a wire baking rack but you can lay wax paper down on a cookie sheet. Just be warned they will be sticky! Let them sit for about an hour.
Once they’re dry, toss them into a bowl, and dust them with sugar.
I used granulated sugar for these because it’s what I had on hand, but you can also use organic cane sugar. The grain of the sugar is going to give them that snowy, sugary look.
And then they are ready to eat! Someone told me they taste like natural Sour Patch Kids. I thought it was so funny, but so true!
Hope you love these as much as I do!
Happy baking, and happy Thanksgiving to you! // susannah
*I mentioned the Saveur Blog Awards above. My blog was a finalist in the Best Entertaining Blog category, and although it did not win, I am so humbled to have had this experience. I got to visit lovely Cincinnati with some of the other finalists, and I had the best time. Thank you so much for nominating Feast + West and for voting for me! It means the world.
Sugared Cranberries
Sugared Cranberries are a sweet and sparkly way to decorate cheese boards, cocktails and holiday menus.
Ingredients
- 3.5 cups cranberries (approx. 7 ounces)
- 1/2 cup simple syrup
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine cranberries and simple syrup. Stir to coat all the cranberries.
- With a fine mesh strainer, drain off any excess simple syrup into a mason jar. Discard or reserve for cocktails if desired.
- Lay the coated cranberries out to dry on a wire baking rack for one hour.
- Put cranberries in a bowl and coat with granulated sugar.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: Around 1/2 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 106Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 24gProtein: 0g
Anna says
Cranberry is my big love: it evokes the best memories of my childhood in the North: I picked these berries in the woods with my grandparents. It was really lovely up there!
I like the way cranberries go with cheese and meat. I even have my own recipe of cranberry sauce (thinking about posting it btw).
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Susannah! These sugared cranberries look delicious. I imagine their sweet and sour taste…
Susannah says
Hi Anna! I am so glad you shared this story. That sounds like so much fun! A precious memory. Cranberry sauce is the absolute best, so you should totally share your recipe! Thanks so much for stopping by to comment. 🙂