Easily Make Dried Cranberries at Home

There are many benefits for eating cranberries. They provide antioxidants and can even help ward off bladder infections. Buying dried cranberries in the grocery store isn't all that expensive but the major problem with buying dried cranberries is that there is sugar added. Look in your local grocery store and you will almost always find every single brand of dried cranberries labeled as "sweetened dried cranberries". Seldom will you see "unsweetened dried cranberries sold in a regular grocery store, you will most likely have to head out to a specialty health food store to get them unsweetened.

You can make your own cranberries at home by either dehydrating them or using your oven. By making your own dried cranberries at home, you are in control as to the amount of sugar you add to them or if you do not wish to add sugar at all. To make your own dried cranberries you will need: - a bag of fresh cranberries (fresh is best but frozen can be used) - a large saucepan - Water - Sugar or a sugar substitute (optional) - a food strainer - a food dehydrator or an oven The first step in preparing your cranberries to be dried is to wash them thoroughly place the berries into an empty saucepan. If you choose to sweeten your berries then do so now with your choice of granulated sugar, a sugar substitute like Splenda or my personal favorite is Stevia; which is made from the Stevia Plant found in nature and not a chemically engineered sugar. You will first dissolve your sugar choice in a cup of water. The amount of sugar will depend on how sweet you prefer your berries to be and the type of sweetener used. Pour the sugar mixture over your berries that are in the saucepan. Next you will boil the cranberries in water. If you sweetened your cranberries, there should be some of the sugar water mixture in the pan still but you may need to add more water to the pan if the water is not covering the cranberries. If you did not choose to sweeten your berries, then you will also need to add water to the pan so that the water is covering the berries. Set the saucepan on high enough heat to boil the water. The reason why you need to boil the berries is to blanch them which causes the cranberries to burst as the outer skin will split. This step is important because if the cranberries do not split they will not dry properly. Keep the cranberries in the boiling water until you can easily identify that the skin on all of them have split. Drain all the water out using a strainer and lay out some paper towels over a baking sheet. You can let the berries sit in the strainer a few minutes to cool off and then place them on top of the paper towel and pat them try. If using a food dehydrator then set your dehydrator on 120 degrees and begin layering the cranberries spread out on a single layer. The cranberries will take approximately 12-24 hours to dry in a food dehydrator. Be sure to stir the berries every 2 hours to help them dry evenly. You know they are down when they are chewy yet leather in texture. If using an oven, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a cookie sheet and place 2-3 layers of paper towels directly on the cookie sheet followed by the very top layer to be parchment paper. Next take your berries and lay them over the parchment paper so that they form a single layer. Once the oven has preheated a few minutes, lower the heat to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and then place your cookie sheet into the oven on the middle rack. It will take approximately 8 hours to dry them. Test them after 8 hours, they should have a leathery texture and be chewy. Enjoy your dried cranberries!