Simple Savory & Satisfying: Homemade Dried Cranberries

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Homemade Dried Cranberries

Homemade craisins (dried cranberries) are so incredibly easy to make--they just occupy your oven for a day. I go a little cranberry crazy in the winter and I've already used them to make a cranberry brie grilled cheese sandwich (seriously, sooo good!) and Cranberry Bliss Bars. I chased Eric away from them before he devoured them all, and I'm contemplating making a chicken breast stuffed with ricotta, spinach and cranberries.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
Wash cranberries then place them in a sauce pot. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil in a second pot then pour boiling water over cranberries. Let the cranberries soak for about 10 minutes. They will pop (split open) during this time.

Drain the cranberries and gentle dry them. Check to make sure all the cranberries popped. If any of them did not, pierce them with a paring knife.

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved to make a simple syrup. Add cranberries to the simple syrup and stir until all the cranberries are well coated (you can skip this step, but your craisins will be very, very tart).

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread the cranberries out on the cookie sheet in a single layer and place in the oven.

Bake cranberries for 6 to 8 hours. Since cranberries come in different sizes, the smaller one will dry out quicker than the larger ones so at about 5 or 6 hours, I start checking on the cranberries every hour and removing the ones that are shrivelled but are still somewhat soft.

Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.