Quick and easy 3 Ingredients Sugared Cranberries make a beautiful garnish on cakes, pies, or cocktails and make a delicious sweet treat for your holiday celebrations. They’re sweet-tart, pop em’ in your mouth delicious! Plan ahead: while these sparkling cranberries only take about 15 minutes to make, they’ll need about an hour to dry before tossing and coating with sugar.
A Festive Holiday Treat
Three ingredients y’all for these easy sugared cranberries (aka candied cranberries, frosted cranberry or sparkling cranberries). Whatever you call em’, they’re easy to make and fun to share for November and December festivities.
A quick, hands-on time of about 15 minutes recipe that’s so impressive during the holidays.
And just look at that color!
Make a 1/2 batch, full, double or triple based on needs. Your family and guests will love them.
At a Glance: How to Make Sugared Cranberries
- First, make a simple syrup ( sugar water ) by mixing one cup sugar and one cup water in a sauce pot over medium heat.
- Second, place the fresh cranberries in the simple syrup and steep.
- Next, drain the cranberries and allow to dry for an hour.
- Last, toss the candied cranberries in sugar.
Be sure to hold on to that simple syrup. It’s perfect for cocktails!
Good To Know Tips
How do they Taste? Candied cranberries are sweet and sour, but balanced. The cranberry pops under the pressure of a bite, an exhilarating sensation, I might add, and then sweetness kicks in, leaving a bold experience of both sweet and sour. Can cranberry sauce do that?
Make a 1/2 batch, full, double, or triple, based on needs. Your family and guests will love them.
Storage Tips: You’re probably wondering how long do sugared cranberries last? If you store them properly in an airtight container, they can last up to three – four days. Store sugar coated cranberries at room temperature. The fresher the cranberries, the longer they’ll last. After a few days, you may notice the sugar ‘weaping.’ At this point and if the candied cranberries are still firm, you can simply toss them in sugar again to give them a refresher.
Refrigeration: These sparkling cranberries do not need to be refrigerated. Simply store at room temperature.
Freezer Friendly? I’ve had the same question about frozen sugared cranberries and so I tested it. After freezing they looked perfect straight from the freezer, but as they thawed, the sugar melted and the cranberries turned to mush.
So, I don’t recommend freezing sugared cranberries. Fresh works best for this application.
For the Sparkly Sugar Coating: In the pictures I use cane sugar. For an example of sugared cranberries made with granulated sugar, take a look at the video on the recipe card below. It can be used as well! I like cane sugar because it’s a larger grain of sugar and a bit more sparkly. But granulated sugar is more like a snowy coating of sugar. They’ll be beautiful either way!
Sugared Cranberries for Garnish with Cocktails
Sugared Cranberries for Cocktails are festive and a lovely addition to holiday libations. They’re sparkly and make festivities feel extra special.
To enjoy these candy cranberries as a garnish, simply slip a few through stainless steel cocktail picks and set on the rim of a cocktail glass.
Traci’s Tips
- Plan ahead: While this sugared cranberries recipe requires very little hands-on time to prepare, they need one hour to dry out.
- Don’t throw out that sugar syrup! It’s fabulous in cocktails or to brush on tops of cakes.
- Double Batch: Make a full batch, double (pictured) or triple based on needs.
How to Enjoy Sugared Cranberries
- Pop em’ in your mouth.
- Garnish a cocktail. May I suggest The Big Sister, Winter Punch or this Cranberry Orange Gin Smash.
- Top gingerbread cake slices or cupcakes.
- Top sweet potato mash.
- Scatter them on top of all your holiday pies like these gluten free Mini Pumpkin Pies, Bourbon Pecan Pie or Vegan Bourbon Pecan Pie (clearly I like bourbon).
- They’re festive as an offering on a cheese board or appetizer table.
Watch a Video Below to See How Simple These Are to Make!
3 Ingredients Sparkling Sugared Cranberries
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) Water
- 3/4 cup (175 grams) Organic Cane Sugar, divided
- 1 cup (115 grams) Fresh Cranberries
- Scraped Vanilla Bean, *optional
Instructions
- In a small sauce-pot, whisk water and 1/2 cup (135 grams) of sugar to combine. Bring just to a simmer and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add a scraped vanilla bean pod if desired*. Remove from heat and stir in the cranberries so that they are coated evenly with the sugar syrup. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes.
- Strain, reserving the syrup for cocktails or mocktails, if desired (you can add the vanilla bean pod to the reserved syrup). Transfer the cranberries to a large piece of parchment paper on a large wire cooling rack. Separate the cranberries so they’re not touching. Allow to dry out at room temperature for 45 minutes to one hour. When dry, they’ll be shiny, not wet. They should still be sticky enough so that the sugar sticks when rolled in sugar.
- Place the remaining sugar on a plate and transfer the cranberries to the plate, rolling the cranberries in the sugar to coat. This is sticky, but as the cranberries get coated, they wont stick to your hands as much.
- Enjoy right away or, to store, place the cranberries in a lidded container with a little pinch bowl of rice ( a couple of teaspoons ). The rice helps keep the cranberries fresh by absorbing any moisture in the air. Sugar loves water and will pull it right out of the air making your cranberries soggy quicker than if not using the rice. The cranberries will stay fresh for two days or up to four depending on how fresh the cranberries are. Store at room temperature. After two-three days, you may notice the cranberries "weeping." To freshen them up again, simply toss them with more sugar.
Video
Notes
*With Vanilla: If you have a vanilla bean pod that you previously used the beans from, you can use the pod in this recipe. Place a scraped vanilla bean in with the simple syrup and while steeping the cranberries.
With Orange: Add orange peel to the simple syrup with a squeeze of orange juice and steep the cranberries with the orange peel.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
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Did you mean to say “powdered sugar”? Cane sugar is granulated sugar.
Hi Amy! There is no powdered sugar in this recipe. You can use organic cane sugar, which has a larger grain/crystal size than granulated sugar, or you can choose granulated sugar, which has a finer grain/crystal size. Did you try the recipe?
Followed the recipe exactly, and my cranberries were not sticky at all after an hour plus. Sugar would not stick to the cranberries.Total waste of time.
Hi Nancy! Another reader wrote a note below. She experienced this too, so she made a new syrup, recoated the cranberries, allowed them to dry and rolled them in sugar. Although I’ve not experienced this, I’m thinking differing ambient humidity and temperature has an impact on how long dried the cranberries take to dry. They still need to be sticky when you roll them in the sugar, but not ‘wet’ from the sugar syrup.
I’m making these in the middle of February for my grandson. I see all these great ideas for beautiful holiday presentations and here I am, making these for my 17 yo grandson to munch on for his 2 hour bus ride back from a basketball game (along with some pumpkin muffins). He’s LOVES these things and I get favorite grandma status with the whole team(he’ll share them). I used thawed cranberries and they worked just fine! Thanks for a great recipe!!
Hi Sherri! What a sweet treat for him and the team! Thank you for sharing your tip about thawed cranberries, and five star review!
Thank you!!
I can’t wait to make but I have a quick question. Can I use frozen cranberries?
Hi Amy! So excited! I’ve not tried it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I worry the cranberries wouldn’t hold their shape. If you experiment, keep us posted!
Store in the fridge or at room temp?
Hi Marisa! Thank you for your note – room temperature! I’ll update the recipe.
traci, these sugared cranberries are a winter holiday delight every year! i so enjoy making them and it makes me happy to decorate desserts with them. when i bring them (a bowl full) to a gathering it’s always a welcome surprise! thank you for sharing the recipe and i wish a joy filled holiday to you and your family!
loved this recipe and will use every holiday
the only catch is my berries were totally dry and not sticky after an hour
I had to remake the syrup and took them out with a slotted spoon, let them rest only a few minutes before rolling in the sugar. All recipes say to dry longer but this adjustment worked great ( and saved time !)
Hi Kate! Interesting that the berries wern’t sticky after an hour. So glad your adjustment worked. Drying the cranberries removes excess moisture which is important for storage. Can you tell us how long your cranberries lasted in storage?
Great recipe! I’m using it on skewers for cocktails tomorrow. I never made these before but they look frosted & taste delicious! Thank you Traci
Best news ever! Thank you for your note and review. The cocktails will be extra sparkly!
I make these every year for Thanksgiving! They’ve become a family tradition 😁 I finally remembered to put orange peel in the simple syrup—also I like to add vanilla (preferably vanilla bean paste, but extract works fine too) and orange zest to my sugar. I just made them a few days ago for a potluck and added Fiori di Sicilia to the sugar as well…AMAZING!!!!! It’s a pricey extract (King Arthur makes the best) but man was it worth it. Everyone loved them!
Thank you for sharing your note and tips, Asha! The orange peel is a perfect addition!