Just before T-Day, armed with coupons and having compared store prices I headed out to the store offering the best prices on Clementines and cranberries. I purchased twelve bags of fresh cranberries and two crates of Clementines. Clementines are a member of the Mandarin Orange family and my mission was to put up half-pint jars of segments and make Clementine Orange Dust which I use as a spice in baking and cooking. The cranberries I generally freeze as is to use throughout the year in various ways but I also wanted to attempt to dehydrate them into "craisins". We recently identified a spot on our land that we think would be conducive to growing cranberries and if I can make acceptable dried cranberries we'll invest in planting some bushes.
First up: Cranberries.
Having done research on the web it appeared the best way to prepare the cranberries for the dehydrator was to poach them in a syrup made from a ratio of a 3/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water. I wanted enough of this syrup to cover the cranberries (two 12 oz bags) so I multiplied that by 6 which was 4 1/2 cups of sugar to 6 cups of water. I put the sugar and water in a large, heavy, non-reactive pot and brought it just to a boil. Then I dumped in the cranberries and allowed them to boil for 1 minute, then immediately removed them from the heat. This allowed the skins to burst but didn't allow the berries to overcook. The cranberries then steeped in the syrup for 30 minutes. (Whether you choose to sweeten the cranberries or not it's important to either slice them in half or blanch them in water to burst the skins. If you just stick them in the dehydrator whole you'll end up with hard red marbles.) Steeping allows the syrup to penetrate the berries and sweeten them.
After 30 minutes I removed the cranberries with a slotted spoon to a colander and allowed them to drain while reserving the now rich red cranberry syrup in the pot for another use.
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| Simple syrup after steeping cranberries |
