Sexy Cranberries

Fall, Winter, these are the seasons, which belong to these beautiful shiny fruits found in acid bogs. Cranberries are a good source of vitamin C, they are primary used fresh, dried or processed – Sexy Cranberries.

When using cranberries fresh, they tend to taste rather bitter. Therefore, I have a great tip for you how to sweeten them and use, for instance, as a cake decoration – Lovely Sugared Sexy Cranberries.

Cranberries are often dried out and sweetened, which make them beautiful ingredients for cereals, yoghurts or just like that as a snack. I offer you a 3rd option, where cranberries are being processed into satisfying sauces, marmalades, relishes or jellies. My scrumptious Homemade Cranberry Jelly is extremely smooth and totally worth to try. You can layer it just like that on a fresh bread or a waffle. You can also use it in cake fillings and as the base for juices to create the world known drink called Cosmopolitan. As the harvest usually lasts in the months of Fall, these festive fruits are often related to occasion like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Cranberry sauce makes a perfect side dish to turkey roasts, as well as massive production of dried cranberry cookies. Choose your favourite and cook with me!

Cranberries are suitable for kids from 10 months. Easy on sugar, offer them mixed with yogurt or with a piece of bread.

Total Time: 15 minutes for Lovely Sugared Cranberries (+ an overnight sit) + 1 hour for Scrumptious Cranberry Jelly

Lovely Sugared Cranberries

A day ahead

Incredibly easy. Heat up 50ml of cold water with 50g of raw sugar in a small deep pan on high heat.

Stir until sugar is dissolved, for about 3 minutes. Take off the heat and let it 10 minutes cool down.

Next, throw ½ cup of cranberries in and mix. Once the mixture is cooled down entirely, refrigerate until next day.

Next day

Take the cranberries out and drain in a colander for a couple of minutes.

Place ¼ cup of caster sugar into a small wide bowl and add the cranberries. Coat in sugar and refrigerate until serving. Done.

Homemade Cranberry Jelly

In a medium non sticking deep pan (casserole) place all the ingredients: cranberries, sugar, orange peel and juice, water and rum on medium heat. Put a lid on until it dissolves a bit.

Then, take off the lid and let it simmer like any other marmalade. After 30 minutes, it starts to look like a marmalade, depending on the amount of ingredients. The more, the longer. I used around 300g of cranberries.

Mash them a bit with a potato masher and cook for 5 more minutes. Taste.

Take off the heat and transfer into a fine strainer. By using a solid spatula, press all the cranberries into a bowl. This way you get the beautiful jelly.

Transfer the pure jelly into a large and clean glass jar and close it tight. Let it cool down entirely and store in a cold place or fridge. Do not waste the cranberry pieces, they are delicious with peanut butter or any quark dessert. Yummy.

Makes 2 handfuls of Sugared Cranberries and 1 large glass jar of Cranberry Jelly.