Candied Cranberry Cocktail Garnish

These lovely little garnishes are the perfect holiday treat and will liven up any cocktail. They can be cooked up well in advance, we have found they last at least a week. They are also tart and delicious, we found ourselves snacking on them like candy!

Ingredients

2 cups (or about 1/2 a bag) of fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Zest of 1 lemon
The juice of the lemon
2 teaspoons fresh cloves
1 cup fine or turbinado sugar for coating
picks, or wooden skewers

Procedures

Put the sugar, water, zest, lemon juice, and cloves in a saucepan and cook till all sugar is dissolved, just a couple of minutes. Add the cranberries and simmer lightly for 2-3 minutes.

Fish the cranberries out with a slotted spoon and place on a wire rack to dry for 1 hour.

After the cranberries have sat for a while, the sugar water should still be damp and a bit sticky. Put 1 cup of sugar in a small bowl, roll the cranberries around in the sugar to coat them thoroughly and then set out on a cookie sheet to dry for another hour. You can use fine sugar, or to make a more crystalized look, use a heavier sugar like turbinado or raw sugar.

Then skewer the treats onto a wooden pick (I used small wooden skewers, or you can use bamboo picks).

Pro Tip: Don’t discard the leftover syrup! You can strain it and use it as a zesty sweet addition to any cocktail. It will last for at least a week and has a nice update to traditional simple syrup.