No matter what method you use for drying cranberries, picking the right kind of cranberry is very important. Choose only those cranberries that are ripe and firm. Take a bag of fresh cranberries and wash them thoroughly. Next, take some water in the saucepan and bring it to a boil. Pour all the cranberries into the boiling water to blanch them. As soon as you soak them in water, the cranberries will start popping and its skin will burst. If the skin does not burst properly, they will not dehydrate the way you want. So, keep them in boiling water for sufficient amount of time. It should be kept in the water for few minutes and not just few seconds.
When the skin of all the cranberries have split, drain out the water and place them on a dry paper towel and gently pat dry them. Now, spread them on the dehydrator trays in the form of a single layer. Turn the temperature of the dehydrator to 120 degrees and allow the cranberries to dehydrate. After a gap of every two hours, you should stir the cranberries. Continue to dehydrate them until the cranberries are hard and slightly leathery to chew. It will take around 12-24 hours for that. However, it depends on the weather condition in your locality. If you live in a less humid zone, then it is likely that the cranberries will dehydrate in a less amount of time.
How to Dry Cranberries in the Oven
If you do not have a dehydrator, do not worry, for you can still dry cranberries at home. It may be surprising, but it’s true that cranberries can be dried in an oven too. When you eat dried cranberries, it is slightly tart in taste which many people do not like. So here we are using a method to slightly sweeten the cranberries. For this purpose, you can use sugar substitute. Use sweeteners that are in the powdered form for this purpose. Dissolve the sweetener powder (the quantity varies as per your taste) in water and pour it over the rinsed cranberries kept in a pan. Heat the pan for a few minutes on medium heat so that the skin of the cranberries split. Allow the cranberries to cool down for about 15 minutes.
Now preheat an oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover up the baking sheet with 2-3 layers of paper towels and a parchment paper. Spread the popped cranberries on the parchment paper properly. Place the baking sheet inside the oven and bring down the temperature to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually, it takes about 8 hours for the cranberries to dry but it may take longer in humid conditions. Some people want to keep it longer to make them crispier. Thus you can obtain dry cranberries to eat.
Hope you have understood how to dry cranberries easily. Now, its time to store the dried cranberries. The best way to store dried cranberries is to vacuum pack them and then store them in the freezer. Cranberries stored in this manner can be used for almost 5 years. However, if you store them at room temperature you can use it only for a year or so. Many people use dry cranberries for potpourri; others like to add it to cooked cereals. You can also use dry cranberries for decoration of cakes, pies or plate edges.
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