Sugared Cranberries make a fabulous garnish for pies, cocktails, holiday sides or on top of a cake. They also make a welcomed and delicious gift or snack! See blog post for more tips. For variations see recipe notes. *You'll need about half a 12 ounce bag to make this recipe (to yield about 1 cup). For two cups, this recipe doubles easily.
Recipe by Traci York on November 29, 2021
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT5M
Total time: PT75M
Rating
4.73 stars (22 reviews)
Keywords
Sugared Cranberries
Ingredients
1/2 cup (120 grams) Water
3/4 cup (175 grams) Organic Cane Sugar (divided)
1 cup (115 grams) Fresh Cranberries
Scraped Vanilla Bean (*optional)
Categories
Garnish
Treat
Cuisine
American
Steps
In a small sauce-pot, whisk water and 1/2 cup (135 grams) of sugar to combine. Bring just to a simmer and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add a scraped vanilla bean pod if desired*. Remove from heat and stir in the cranberries so that they are coated evenly with the sugar syrup. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes.
Strain, reserving the syrup for cocktails or mocktails, if desired (you can add the vanilla bean pod to the reserved syrup). Transfer the cranberries to a large piece of parchment paper on a large wire cooling rack. Separate the cranberries so they’re not touching. Allow to dry out at room temperature for 45 minutes to one hour. When dry, they’ll be shiny, not wet. They should still be sticky enough so that the sugar sticks when rolled in sugar.
Place the remaining sugar on a plate and transfer the cranberries to the plate, rolling the cranberries in the sugar to coat. This is sticky, but as the cranberries get coated, they wont stick to your hands as much.
Enjoy right away or, to store, place the cranberries in a lidded container with a little pinch bowl of rice ( a couple of teaspoons ). The rice helps keep the cranberries fresh by absorbing any moisture in the air. Sugar loves water and will pull it right out of the air making your cranberries soggy quicker than if not using the rice. The cranberries will stay fresh for two days or up to four depending on how fresh the cranberries are. Store at room temperature. After two-three days, you may notice the cranberries "weeping." To freshen them up again, simply toss them with more sugar.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 627 kcal
Carbohydrates: 162 g
Protein: 1 g
Fat: 1 g
Saturated Fat: 1 g
Sodium: 10 mg
Sugar: 154 g
Reviews
Amy on 2025-12-24 (4 stars): Did you mean to say “powdered sugar”? Cane sugar is granulated sugar.
Nancy on 2024-12-25 (1 stars): Followed the recipe exactly, and my cranberries were not sticky at all after an hour plus. Sugar would not stick to the cranberries.Total waste of time.
Sherri on 2024-02-15 (5 stars): I’m making these in the middle of February for my grandson. I see all these great ideas for beautiful holiday presentations and here I am, making these for my 17 yo grandson to munch on for his 2 hour bus ride back from a basketball game (along with some pumpkin muffins). He’s LOVES these things and I get favorite grandma status with the whole team(he’ll share them). I used thawed cranberries and they worked just fine! Thanks for a great recipe!!
Allison Grundy on 2023-12-17 (5 stars): Thank you!!
Marisa on 2023-12-13 (5 stars): Store in the fridge or at room temp?
CHARLOTTE FRIEDMAN on 2023-12-04 (5 stars): traci, these sugared cranberries are a winter holiday delight every year! i so enjoy making them and it makes me happy to decorate desserts with them. when i bring them (a bowl full) to a gathering it's always a welcome surprise! thank you for sharing the recipe and i wish a joy filled holiday to you and your family!
Kate F on 2023-11-24 (4 stars): loved this recipe and will use every holiday
the only catch is my berries were totally dry and not sticky after an hour
I had to remake the syrup and took them out with a slotted spoon, let them rest only a few minutes before rolling in the sugar. All recipes say to dry longer but this adjustment worked great ( and saved time !)
Lana on 2023-11-22 (5 stars): Great recipe! I’m using it on skewers for cocktails tomorrow. I never made these before but they look frosted & taste delicious! Thank you Traci
Asha on 2023-11-21 (5 stars): I make these every year for Thanksgiving! They’ve become a family tradition 😁 I finally remembered to put orange peel in the simple syrup—also I like to add vanilla (preferably vanilla bean paste, but extract works fine too) and orange zest to my sugar. I just made them a few days ago for a potluck and added Fiori di Sicilia to the sugar as well…AMAZING!!!!! It’s a pricey extract (King Arthur makes the best) but man was it worth it. Everyone loved them!
Ash on 2023-10-17 (5 stars): To make these slightly vanilla, would I use the vanilla bean seeds or pod?
