Sugared Cranberries (3 Ingredient)

With the holidays fast approaching, these sugared cranberries make a beautiful yet simple garnish for your table. Holidays are wonderful, but sometimes also overwhelming. If you’re like me, you are the one who most often hosts for the big holiday meals like Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I love to have a beautiful table and food but in all honesty it is a lot of work for one person. A simple recipe such as these sugared cranberries, take very little time but add such a beautiful touch to just about any dish for the holidays. You can add them to desserts like pies, cakes or squares, or use them as decorations on a cake platter or charcuterie board. However you decide to use them, these sweet and tart tasty little morsels will be a real crowd pleaser.

With only three ingredients and just over an hour of your time you can have these tiny flavor bombs ready for your holiday table. They use fresh cranberries, regular granulated sugar and water that’s it! If you want to get adventurous and you have some on hand, you can make them with vanilla sugar as well. But they definitely don’t require that and they are delicious and crunchy with regular sugar.

Sugared Cranberries

These super easy 3 ingredient sugared cranberries make a great addition to any holiday table. They are sweet and tart and can be used to decorate a charcuterie board or any holiday dish.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

resting time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 1.5 cups

Equipment

• 1 sheet pan *parchment lined
• 1 metal cooling rack

Ingredients

  

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1.5 cups fresh cranberries (not frozen)

Instructions

 

• Combine 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar in a medium saucepan
• Stir and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer on low for 3-4 minutes
• Add cranberries and stir to coat completely in the syrup, remove from heat and let them sit, stirring for an additional minute
• Remove the cranberries with a slotted spoon and transfer to a wire rack over a parchment lined baking sheet (do not let them touch while drying)
• Let the cranberries sit for 1 hour
• In a bowl with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar roll the cranberries to coat them in small batches (otherwise they will stick together), then transfer them back to the cooling rack or a clean sheet of parchment to dry further.

Notes

I like to choose the largest cranberries from the bag of fresh ones I get.  These make the best and uniform decoration.

If you want more than 1.5 cups this recipe can be doubled easily.

I like to let the coated cranberries dry out on the rack for at least a few more hours so the coating is completely set and dry, but they are ready to eat/use after one hour.

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