Sparkling Cranberries

 

For me, one of the best parts of the holiday season is the arrival of winter fruit. Personal favorites include persimmons, pomegranates and of course the classic cranberry. I'm always so excited to see them appear at the super market, it's just another thing to look forward to when I start seeing scarves and mittens. The only sad thing is that some people never see the true potential of cranberries and are stuck at slathering cranberry sauce on their turkey at Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, there will never be anything wrong with a good cranberry sauce but there are so many more things you can do with them all throughout the holidays, cranberries are no longer just for Thanksgiving people! In an attempt to save my fellow holiday revelers out of the berry-slump I went on a search for something to do with your cranberries this year that is easy but still looks impressive enough to bring to the holiday shindig Christmas Eve. With that I present to you Sparking Cranberries.

The recipe I made is adapted from this one here at 101 Cookbooks. I wanted to make this as an edible centerpiece for my family's Thanksgiving dinner and didn't realize how much time it took to do it her way, which would have required me to stick the berries in the fridge overnight and I wasn't having any of that. So consider this the time saver's version. I also halved the amount of sugar and water because two cups seemed like a bit much for my purpose. Her's might look more professional than mine but hey, beauty is on the inside right? And I think they tasted just fine and don't look half bad. I want to have a bowl of these sitting around the house at all times this season, they're just so dang cute/delicious! The sugar coating counter-acts the tartness of the cranberry perfectly, they taste just as good as they look!   

Cranberry fun fact: you can tell a cranberry is good when it bounces.

Sparkling Cranberries

2 cup fresh cranberries

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

(See how simple!)

Put sugar and water in a sauce pan and make a simple syrup by simmering the water/sugar for a few minutes. Remove the syrup from heat and let cool, if you try and pour the syrup over the cranberries before it is cool the berries will burst so don't skip this step! Let the cranberries sit in the syrup for a minute or two, make sure they are well coated. Next remove the berries from the syrup and place them aside to dry off a bit, it's best to place them on something like a cookie sheet so they are spread out in a single layer. You want them to dry off enough so they don't get the sugar too wet and cause clumps. Put down some sugar and in small batches roll your cranberries! If you want them more sugary go ahead and give them a second coat. Don't be afraid to, I did!