Sugared cranberries are as delicious as they are beautiful and will make your holiday meal even more festive! These little candied cranberries are coated in sugar to make a colorful and sparkly decoration or simply for snacking.
I first made these sugared cranberries to decorate my cranberry meringue pie. I pulled a few cranberries out of the sauce before they popped and rolled them in some sugar simply as a decoration. My son, who is an adventurous eater, asked if he could have the sugared cranberries that were leftover. I thought that they would be super sour and that he was crazy. He loved them and begged me to try one. I was shocked, they were delicious! The sugar on the outside counteracts the tartness, plus they pop when you bite them and have a cool texture!
These sugared cranberries are sure to be a holiday staple in my house from now on!
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🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Cranberries - you want the fresh whole cranberries from the produce department, not dried cranberries.
- Water - (or orange juice.) I like the extra flavor that orange juice brings to the cranberries, but you can easily just use water. Water will give you whiter cranberries.
- Sugar - I like to use organic cane sugar since it's vegan and because it has larger grains and sparkles more than granulated white sugar. You can use any type of granulated sugar that you want. (You will need to add sugar to the water or orange juice, and use more for rolling the cranberries in.)
🔪 Helpful tools
Colander - for draining the cranberries from the syrup. You can also use a slotted spoon.
🥄 Instructions
- To create a light syrup, heat water (or orange juice) and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved completely and it comes to a boil.
- Turn off the heat, add the cranberries and stir them around in the hot sugar syrup until they are coated well.
- Drain the syrup off of the berries. (Place a bowl under the colander to save the syrup for other uses if desired.)
- Pour 1/3 cup of sugar onto a plate. Scoop out the sticky berries and sprinkle them in the sugar. Shake the plate so that the berries roll around and get coated in sugar.
- Place on another plate to dry completely.
👩🏻🍳 Pro tips
- Don't cook the cranberries in the liquid, you just want to let them get well coated in the syrup and get sticky.
- Allow the syrup to drip off of the cranberries before rolling them in the sugar.
❓ How to use sugared cranberries?
Eat them as a snack or use them as an edible decoration for the following...
🥡 Storage
Store your candied cranberries on a plate on the countertop with a tea towel over them. This will keep them dry and sparkly.
❔ How long do they keep?
These sugared cranberries will keep for 2-3 days on the countertop. After a few days, they will start to weep and they will get soggy.
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Sugared Cranberries
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat water (or orange juice) and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved completely and it comes to a boil.
- Turn off the heat and add the cranberries and stir them around in the hot syrup until they are coated well.
- Drain the syrup off of the berries. (Place a bowl under the colander to save the syrup for other uses if desired.)
- Pour 1/3 cup of sugar onto a plate. Scoop out the sticky berries and sprinkle them in the sugar. Shake the plate so that the berries roll around and get coated in sugar.
- Place on another plate to dry completely.
Notes
- Don't cook the cranberries in the liquid, you just want to let them get well coated in the syrup and get sticky.
- Allow the syrup to drip off of the cranberries before rolling them in the sugar.
Nutrition
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Leave a comment and starred review! I would love to hear from you!
You may disregard my last comment with all the questions. I have an old laptop that shows headings such as 'storage', ' how long they keep', etc., but no text appears under these headings. In any case, I had a friend look it up and she shared info with me. Sorry for the trouble!
No problem, I'm glad that you got your answers. (I hate how weird technology can be sometimes! It's a daily battle that I fight!) 🙂
Can these be made in advance? How long will they keep and how should they be stored? Sorry for all the questions...I can't wait to try them! Thank you for your fabulous recipes!
I love all things cranberry! Thank you for so many great cranberry recipes. I think a gooey cranberry center on an oatmeal bar would be so tasty. I think I'll try using your cranberry sauce recipe only thicker for this treat. Thanks for all you do.
That sounds delicious! I hope that you enjoy the recipe.