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.Â
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:Â 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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To make these slightly vanilla, would I use the vanilla bean seeds or pod?
Hi Ash! You can use both! Cut a slit into half a vanilla bean pod. Put it in the sugar syrup. Allow it to steep with the cranberries. When you strain the cranberries, remove the pod and put it in with your syrup to use in drinks. Keep us posted!
Hello Traci, few years ago I worked as a Cheese Monger at a large local grocer.
I made more cheese boards than I could possibly count. 75% of those orders requested sugared cranberries/grapes. At the holidays I had one assistant just making the berries/grapes. If Brie was requested I made wreaths with the berries mint leaves and thin orange rind twists. They are beautiful!raf
HAPPY HOLLYDAZE!!!!!!
Your brie wreath sounds lovely! Thank you for sharing your tip and idea! Happy Hollydaze BertaAnne!
Can I use this method for raspberries & blueberries?
Hi Peggi! I’m afraid raspberries wouldn’t hold up. I’m thinking blueberries *may work, but since I’ve not tried it, I just don’t know.
Hello, speaking from experience, blueberries will work if you work quick and use the firmest,cold, berries you can find. While working as a Cheese Monger I found many ways to use fruits, especially on cheese boards.raf
Thank you for sharing BertaAnne!
These are one of may favorite holiday garnishes and it’s great to have the simple syrup on hand for cocktails and baking as well. The rice storage tip is key!
Thank you Jean! Aren’t they SO fun!?
Just finished doing my cranberries for a cake topping. My berries are beautiful. Definitely giving this 5 stars.
Do you place the cranberries on top of the rice to store them?
Hi Sue! They don’t need to be touching. I simply put the rice in a little pinch bowl and set it in the storage container with the Sugared crans.
Can you use these to decorate hurricane with candles.
Hey Priscilla, thank you for your note… while I’ve not tried it, this link may be able to answer your question: https://www.pinterest.com/doximom55/decorating-with-cranberries/ Pinterest saves the day!
I have a silly question. Store them with raw rice ? Does it matter brown or white ?
Thanks!
Hey Chelsy! I use white rice, but have never tried brown. Because the bran has been stripped off white rice, it may absorb moisture better. If you experiment, I’d love to know what you find! :D
Hi,
Just started to read your blog. The pictures are beautiful. Tomorrow I’m going to make your Dutch Baby. I don’t mean to be critical – just was reading the above recipe and wanted to tell you that there is a small typo. You wrote Place instead of Plate. No big deal, but I did have to read it a couple of times.
Can’t wait to peruse the rest of your site.
Hi Ann. So sorry about that. Thank you for your note! I hope you enjoy the Dutch Baby!
I just made these to take as hostess gifts for Thanksgiving. They.are.so.good! I’m happy I had a few leftover; been popping them like candy! Saved the syrup and will be making those drinks for a birthday party on Satuday. Thanks for the great idea!
Hooray Stacey! Thank you for letting us know your success! I hope the hostess loves them as much as we do… Let us know too, how The Big Sister turns out! Happy Thanksgiving my dear! :D