cranberries - what do do with them?

HariboJunkie

doraexplorer wrote: »

thanks very much , got that Cranberry Confit going just now thanks to haribo junkie. never had red wine vineger so have used red wine instead??? hope that will work ok .

thanks again e1

I didn't have red wine vinegar either so just used white wine vinegar and a bit of red wine. (forgot that bit).

doraexplorer

well mine looks nice and cranberries have now all burst. smells of red wine. looks good so heres hoping everyone enjoys its xmas day now.

rosh12

Hi there, to cut a long story short, I have a lovely recipe for Christmas muffins (taken from Nigella's Christmas book), but I have a LOT of fresh cranberries, whereas the recipe calls for dried.

I have found other cranberry muffin recipes online, using fresh berries, so do you think I can just subsitute the same weight of dried berries for fresh ones?

:xmassmile

THANKS!!!

Debt_Free_Chick

No - I don't think you can as fresh will have a higher water/moisture content. And the flavour won't be as intense. In fact, raw/fresh cranberries are pretty much inedible (to me), but I can eat dried ones out of the packet!

You could try drying them in a low oven, but that sounds like a lot of effort!

SnowyOwl_2

I remember the shock I got when I looked at the ingredients list on the back of a packet of dried cranberries - there is more sugar in them than cranberry:eek:! For that reason I'd have thought fresh ones would be nowhere near sweet enough to substitute with.

Penelope_Penguin

We have an existing thread with lots of recipes using fresh cranberries. I'll add your question to keep ideas together

Penny. x

Debt_Free_Chick

SnowyOwl wrote: »

I remember the shock I got when I looked at the ingredients list on the back of a packet of dried cranberries - there is more sugar in them than cranberry:eek:! For that reason I'd have thought fresh ones would be nowhere near sweet enough to substitute with.

Yup - fresh are bitter little blighters. Try one when you're making your cranberry sauce :eek:

I also found them pretty tasteless, but the drying/cooking seems to bring out the flavour .... although even then, any "flavour" seems to be a sharpness to me, so I always add some OJ (fresh or carton) to my sauce. And wine ... or port .....

greenbee

I buy fresh cranberries, freeze them, and then juice them as needed (you need to chop first, then juice, so I usually put them in the blender, then the juicer). You can either add the juice to apple juice for normal drinking, or if you have bladder/kidney infections, you can dilute the juice with water (no sugar) to help with the problem!

Barneysmom

I bought some fresh cranberries but my mom has been ill with the flu so hasn't come to us over the break.
Question is, what do I do with them, I can't eat them all myself, DH won't eat them.
Could I make a jelly/sauce and freeze in smaller portions?

Gingernutmeg

Yes, cranberry sauce freezes really well, I normally make mine in advance for Christmas and stick it in the freezer. There's loads of recipes on the internet (and if they're Ocean Spray, there's usually a recipe on the bag ). Or, you could make muffins or a cake with them? They'd freeze too.