I have always loved dried cranberries. Craisins are popular and yummy. What I do not love about the store bought ones is the amount of sugar on them. So I did some looking around at recipes as I wanted to make my own Craisins. All the ones I looked at called for you to cook them to make them pop or to spend an inordinate amount of time chopping them. As a mother of 2 under two that was not happening.
So I decided to give it a go with my ninja blender. It worked great. I dumped a bag of the fresh cranberries in, pulsed twice and viola! I had chopped cranberries. I then added 6 Tbsp of Truvia to the cranberries.
I then spread them on parchment lined baking sheets and put them in the oven on low for several hours.
It worked like a charm.
- 1-12 oz Bag of fresh Cranberries
- 6 TbspTuvia (or 1 cup of sugar. However I did not experiment with the regular sugar option.)
Preheat oven to 170. Put cranberries in blender or food processor and pulse a few times. Place chopped cranberries in a bowl and mix in your sweetener.
Grab two small or one large baking sheet and line with parchment paper. Spread cranberries on pan. The thinner the layer the faster they will dry.
I let mine dry for between 3-5 hours depending on the size of the batch and how dry I wanted them. I also stirred them about once every hour.
These are perfect for munching or to be used in all those Christmas cookies that call for cranberries. Enjoy your DIY Copycat Craisins!
This post was written by Iassica, military mom with two little girls! She’s a contributor on TheThriftyCouple.com.
Sarah@TheOrthodoxMama
I had no idea it was so easy to make dried cranberries! Do you know what temperature you baked them on? I’d love to try!
Erin @ Stay At Home Yogi
What a great idea! I’m a huge cranberry fan too, but hate the high sugar content. Can’t wait to try this!
Lou
How do you store them if you only prepare the once a year
Merbs
Craisins have fat in them. Don’t know why. Did you miss it?
Joan
“…pulsed twice and viola!”
Viola, really? Please don’t homeschool.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voilà
Cassie
I apologize for my typo. I probably said it in my head and typed it out as I heard it. I also stink at foreign languages to the point that even when I learn, my oral anatomy struggles with the accented characters, so even if I learn, because my mouth will not contort in the way a native’s does, it still comes out wrong. I am incapable of even saying that word properly, let alone spell it, but it is still a fun word to attempt. Additionally, I type about 70 words per minute and so it is super easy to make a mistake, be a stay-at-home-mom with 6 kids next to me as I type, so also easily distracted to easily miss a typo, even if well educated. However, I do not speak French as English is my first language and French is no where near my top 10 languages. I don’t believe a knowledge of French is necessary for anyone to provide successful education to an American child, it’s probably a cool extra skill to have, but certainly not necessary. Considering that a tiny percentage of American teachers (including secondary) are able to speak French, this requirement would disqualify almost the entire American educational system. However, I do appreciate your love of the French and your passion for sharing that with the world. France is high on my bucket list. One day when that dream comes to fruition, I probably will learn a few French words and perhaps voilà so I can learn to say it properly when I step off of the airplane as that would be a cool moment to properly use it. 🙂
Christina
You are a very gracious lady, Cassie! Some people are very rude. We all make mistakes and would do well to remember that before rudely correcting people. You handled that comment with such grace and I admire you. I, on the other hand, look forward to the day they get a taste of their own attitude and learn to show a little more grace to people. LOL You’re doing a great job! I’m planning on making dried cranberries today. Thank you for the recipe!
E
What a rude and weird comment to make on a blog post about dried cranberries. I certainly hope you are never around children as you seem to be quite hateful, wouldn’t want that rubbing off on impressionable kids.