Dried Sweetened Cranberries

[rexsreine]

Thanks, Kevin. There's a local coffee place that has ordered for me, so I'll check that out after the holiday rush is over.

Ginny

[theislandgirl]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

I made up 15 cups of these last night since I am finding so many ways to use them. After they were dried I vacuum sealed most of them to be stored in the freezer and pantry.

I tried a couple of variations to the general recipe but the one I liked the best was using monin White Chocolate syrup. Talk about a gourmet taste. Yummmmm !! I can't wait to use them in a cookie.

So, I guess the cranberries are on sale?! Good plan, actually. Think I will see what I can rummage up in the next few days (we don't have a social life )...

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by theislandgirl

So, I guess the cranberries are on sale?! Good plan, actually.

Around here cranberries show up a little before Thanksgiving and disappear right after Christmas. I have never been able to find them any other time of the year. I bought 30 bags the other day and dried 15 of them and froze the rest for use later.

[theislandgirl]

Good reminder! I am on my way (not having a social life) to buy up a boatload now...Merry Christmas and the very BEST New Year to you and yours, Kevin.

[retroworx]

Hi Kevin:

Hope you are relaxing and recovering form the holidays!

I just finished cutting up 6 bags of cranberries (what a chore!) for drying and I was wondering if you had a conversion estimate for volume on the fresh cranberries to dried. I want to be able to input some stats into ****** for 1/4 cup of the dried cranberries and was wondering if using stats for 1 cup of fresh would seem about right to you.

i.e.: does 1 cup of fresh cranberries dry down to 1/4 cup?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Susan

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by retroworx

i.e.: does 1 cup of fresh cranberries dry down to 1/4 cup?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Susan

As a rule susan, I found the smaller you cut the cranberries the less the volume.

Ie. When I cut them in quarters, I got 1 cup dried from 3 cups fresh. When I cut them in half, I got 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cup dried from 3 cups fresh.
Also I found if you heat them less it will give you more volume.

[retroworx]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

As a rule susan, I found the smaller you cut the cranberries the less the volume.

Ie. When I cut them in quarters, I got 1 cup dried from 3 cups fresh. When I cut them in half, I got 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cup dried from 3 cups fresh.
Also I found if you heat them less it will give you more volume.

Thanks for the estimates, Kevin.

BTW, you're clearly more patient than I am -- I started out cutting into quarters and petered out halfway and settled for halves

Thanks again,

Susan

[Midnight]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

I tried a couple of variations to the general recipe but the one I liked the best was using monin White Chocolate syrup. Talk about a gourmet taste. Yummmmm !! I can't wait to use them in a cookie.

Kevin , I have Divinci White chocolate, what would be a good ratio of erythritol to use with it? Say 1/2 cup sf syrup to 1/2 cup?

Care to share your variations, even if you didn't like the outcome? Did you try anything with orange? I did a Divinci cherry and Torani black cherry mix and it came out good.
I tried marinating the berries last year but never took it the extra step of drying them. What a difference. I love dried cranberries in my salads so thanks Kevin for opening a whole new area for a lot of us.

Midnight

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by Midnight

Say 1/2 cup sf syrup to 1/2 cup?

If I were going to try that I would most likely use powdered erythritol.

The flavors I have tried so far have all been monin.

Blackberry,
White Chocolate,
Raspberry,
Caramel,
and Hazelnut mixed with chopped pecans and cranberries.

[Itsanewme]

I just made these today with a bag of cranberries I had leftover from Christmas...they turned out fabulous! The only thing I did differently was to boil the cranberries in raspberry syrup for 5 minutes instead of cutting them up. Then I crushed them with the back of a spoon. It saved me from having to cut them up and the berries soaked up the syrup.

Thanks for a great recipe! I can't wait to toss some in my salad tomorrow.

Mary

[That Girl]

kevin, i am about to try this recipe, i just wanted to ask you about the cooking time. somewhere, and i can't for the life of me, find where, i read you increased the temp to 350, is that correct? how about the time? thanks

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by That Girl

kevin, i am about to try this recipe, i just wanted to ask you about the cooking time. somewhere, and i can't for the life of me, find where, i read you increased the temp to 350, is that correct? how about the time? thanks

Bella, here is were you saw it.

Kevin - the dried cranberries

[That Girl]

thanks kevin, also, how long did you marinate the cranberries? sorry to bother ya!

[Kevinpa]

After I got the process down to a rhythm bella I didn't time the marinate. I put the cranberries and syrup in a quart size jar with a lid and put it in the frige and kept flipping the jar until the syrup coated the berries well.

[That Girl]

ok, thanks.. i have been marinating them for about an hour, i guess i will pop them in the oven now. thanks..

[Tweaker Geek]

bumping for Shirl

[tinatina]

do the cranberries absorb all of the syrup?

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by tinatina

do the cranberries absorb all of the syrup?

sometimes it does and others it didnt....but what doesnt, dries out in the oven.

[tinatina]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

sometimes it does and others it didnt....but what doesnt, dries out in the oven.

must be why they turned to charcoal.

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by tinatina

must be why they turned to charcoal.

if they turned to charcoal your oven is way too hot.

[metqa]

I haven't made this yet, but I want to.

Question, if the berrys don't soak up all the syrup, do you drain them through a seive or just pour it syrup and all in the pan?

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by metqa

I haven't made this yet, but I want to.

Question, if the berrys don't soak up all the syrup, do you drain them through a seive or just pour it syrup and all in the pan?

It depends on the berries whether they soak up all the syrup or not. I have had some that had excess syrup and other that had none. Either way I bake them syrup and berries if there is some.

[metqa]

Thanks!

[metqa]

Oops I mixed the Diabetisweet in with the syrup I guess we'll see how they turn out. over night soak Finished. It's oven time!

[metqa]

I made these and they are cool. It didn't come out perfect hunky dory of course but It's not bad for a first try.

My cranberries were all different sizes. I did 250 for 2 hours. it was impossible to stir them cause it was a big gooey mess ( I strained off the syrup so it was just berries) By the end of the time, some had turned crunchy and others were still plump and juicy wet! I couldn't put it back in because some would turn to charcoal, but others were too wet and might mold. So I peeled off the ones closest to the edges and turned the edges of the foil up on themselves like a pouch and pinched it shut. I popped it back into the oven two times for 5 min each, and then let it sit atop the stove. when it had cooled, most of the really wet ones had released more misture and rehydrated the really dry ones. It still could use a bit more drying but at least now it won't be Juicey'n Crunch berries!

[Kevinpa]

I ran out of my supply of these and wanted to make a few recipes that call for them so I had to make more. Reading over this thread i saw several people had difficulties making them so I decided to rethink the process and came up with a new technique of making them that turned out to be quicker and easier....IMO.

One of the original problems was getting the cranberries to soak in the liquid so I used this method and it worked really well.

First I made cranberry sauce using the following recipe:

In a non-stick pan, boil for 5 min

1 cup water or monin or davinci
1/4 cup granular erythritol
1 splenda quick pack or equivilent sweetzfree
2 T. not/Sugar

then reduce heat and simmer until the sauce is very thick (spreadable).

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Spread the sauce in a non-stick foil lined pan very thin and bake for approx 1 hour until the top takes on a fruit roll-up texture.
Pull off as large of pieces as you can and flip onto another sheet of foil and bake it on this side for an additional hour or until the top takes on a fruit roll-up texture.

remove from oven and let cool and dry...about 1 hour.

Cut into small pieces of your liking with kitchen shears.

Here is what it looked like when done.

[retroworx]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

First I made cranberry sauce using the following recipe:

In a non-stick pan, boil for 5 min

1 cup water or monin or davinci
1/4 cup granular erythritol
1 splenda quick pack or equivilent sweetzfree
2 T. not/Sugar

Hi Kevin:

Good to see you around!

I'd like to try this method. Question for you -- is that 1 bag of cranberries with the ingredients you listed?

Thanks!

[Kevinpa]

Yes it is....Sorry.

[retroworx]

Originally Posted by Kevinpa

Yes it is....Sorry.

No problem! Thanks for the new method -- I still have bags of cranberries in the freezer from the last time.

[Kevinpa]

BTW, a piece of this makes for a nice fruity snack too. Fruit Jerky....lol