sweet, tart, tasty little units! eat ’em plain or add them to gorp
Dried cranberries are one of my favorite dried fruits. The store-bought version is tart, sweet, and slightly chewy, much like a raisin. Just about any dried cranberries you buy in the store will be sweetened with sugar since the plain fruit is SO tart, and they contain a bit of sunflower or vegetable oil to keep them from sticking to each other.
If you’re on the autoimmune protocol (AIP), that added sunflower oil isn’t an option (no seeds allowed on AIP), and in my humble opinion, consuming mass-produced vegetable oils that may have been sitting on some shelf for a really long time (read: they are frequently rancid!) is a bad idea no matter what your dietary habits are. Dried cranberries without the oil are hard to find locally, so I decided to make my own.
This time of year, there are lots of fresh cranberries left over in the stores from the holidaze, so I made use of a great sale on fresh organic ones at the local market. Drying cranberries is a new project for me, and though I’d love to be able to tell you it went 100% perfect the first time, I’d be lying like a shag rug. I got lazy during the prep process (notes below), which added a lot of time and effort to the drying process. The directions below, however, should line you up for a great turnout for your dried cranberries.
For those of you who want dried cranberries but don’t want to make your own, below are two options. Be sure to double check the ingredients, as sometimes producers change them and add oil or sugar:
1. Unsweetened cranberries from Shoreline Fruit, made from frozen, sliced berries. No ingredients listed on the photo on Amazon, but when I checked their website, cranberries were the only ingredient.
2. Unsweetened cranberries from LC Foods, listed as gluten-free and paleo.
Dried Cranberries
One cup fresh berries makes about 1/2 cup dried
Ingredients:
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar, such as coconut sugar, maple syrup, date sugar, or honey
Preparing the cranberries
Crazing
The first step is to prepare the berries for drying by ‘crazing’ them, a process that causes the skins to break open so they can release moisture more easily. Without crazing, cranberries will take a lot longer to dry – as in days!
crazed cranberries – can you see the little breaks in them?
1. Wash your berries, and place in a large bowl or pot. In a separate pot, boil enough water to cover the berries, then pour the water over them. Let them sit for 10 minutes, covered. You’ll hear them popping as the skins burst open.
Hint: Do not be tempted to put them in the water on the stove and let them boil for a bit to increase the number of berries that break open – or, like me, after 30 seconds you’ll end up with cranberries prepped very nicely for cranberry sauce; too mushy to dehydrate. However, the cranberry sauce I then made turned out really great. I ate almost all of it standing at the kitchen counter, with a spoon!
2. Drain the berries in a colander, and remove excess moisture by gently wrapping them between layers of kitchen towels. You’ll notice that not all the berries popped – don’t worry, we’ll deal with that in a moment.
Simple Syrup
Meanwhile, if you want to sweeten the cranberries, follow this step. If not, move to the next step. I like my cranberries tart, so I omitted this step. Simple sugar sweetener options for AIP: coconut sugar, maple syrup, date sugar, or honey.
3. In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup water and 1/2 cup sweetener to a boil. When the sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. You’ll only use 1/4 cup of this for this recipe; use the rest for something else, or make a half-batch of syrup.
4. Gently stir 1/4 cup of simple syrup into the berries, coating them evenly.
Dehydrate
5. Line the bottom of your dehydrator with a layer of parchment paper or aluminum foil, to catch drips from the berries.
6. Lay out the berries on the dehydrator trays, leaving about 1/2 inch space between each berry. (I wasn’t so diligent, and having some of the berries touching each other reduced the air flow enough that it took a LOT longer to dry all the berries than it should have). It’s worth taking the time to do this.
7. Now that the berries are laid out on the trays, it’s easy to see which ones did not break open during crazing. With a paring knife, poke any berries that are not split yet – this will speed up overall drying time, since the berries will all dry at a more uniform pace.
8. Set the dehydrator to 150°F for the first hour, then reduce temperature to 135° for the remaining time.
9. Drying will take 8 – 20 hours, depending on the size of the berries, how much space you left between them, and whether they are broken open enough. After about 8 hours, some berries will be ready to come off the trays. Take the trays out, sort through and remove done berries, and return the trays to the dehydrator. Repeat that process periodically till all berries are dried. Part-way through the process, I poked some of the berries again with the paring knife, because they had self-sealed and weren’t letting go of moisture.
10. Berries are done when they have a leathery, pliable texture. Crunchy berries dried for longer than needed. It can be hard to tell if berries are done, since they will be softer coming out of the dehydrator than once they cool. To figure it out, let the berries sit for 30 minutes, then take one and break it open – there should be no moisture along the break.
Conditioning and storing the berries
As is true with many dried foods, there will be a slight variation in the amount of moisture that each piece holds after drying. This moisture doesn’t necessarily mean the product will spoil or become moldy (though if there is too much moisture, it can). To assure even distribution of moisture, it’s smart to ‘condition’ the fruit in the following manner:
11. Place the dried fruit in glass or BPA-free plastic containers, filling to about 2/3 full. Cover tightly and keep in a cool, dark place, but not the fridge. Twice a day, for a week, shake the jars to mix the fruit around. This allows the moisture content in the fruit to redistribute so it’s more even. During this time, if you notice condensation on the walls or lid of the jar, it means the fruit did not dry enough and needs to be put back in the dryer for a few more hours. If that happens, repeat the conditioning process afterward. I find conditioning dried food to be especially important if I plan to store it for a long period of time. If I’m heading out on the trail in two days, I don’t bother.
12. Once the fruit is conditioned, it’s fine to store the jars completely full. Store tightly sealed in a cool, dark place. At this point, if you want to store the berries in the fridge or freezer, that is fine.
- Wash your berries, and place in a large bowl or pot. In an separate pot, boil enough water to cover the berries, then pour the water over them. Let them sit for 10 minutes, covered. You'll hear them popping as the skins burst open.
- Drain the berries in a colander, and remove excess moisture by gently wrapping them between layers of kitchen towels. You'll notice that not all the berries popped - don't worry, we'll deal with that in a moment.
- Optional: sweetening the berries. In a small saucepan, heat 1 cup water and ½ cup sweetener to a boil. (Simple sugar sweetener options for AIP: coconut sugar, maple syrup, date sugar, or honey). When the sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
- Gently stir ¼ cup of simple syrup into the berries, coating them evenly.
- Line the bottom of your dehydrator with a layer of parchment paper or aluminum foil, to catch drips from the berries.
- Lay out the berries on the dehydrator trays, leaving about ½ inch space between each berry. It's worth taking the time to do this.
- Now that the berries are laid out on the trays, it's easy to see which ones did not break open during crazing. With a paring knife, poke any berries that are not split yet - this will speed up overall drying time, since the berries will all dry at a more uniform pace.
- Set the dehydrator to 150°F for the first hour, then reduce temperature to 135° for the remaining time.
- Drying will take 8 - 20 hours, depending on the size of the berries, how much space you left between them, and whether they are broken open enough. After about 8 hours, some berries will be ready to come off the trays. Take the trays out, sort through and remove done berries, and return the trays to the dehydrator. Repeat that process periodically till all berries are dried. Part-way through the process, you may need to poke some of the berries again with the paring knife.
- Berries are done when they have a leathery, pliable texture. Crunchy berries dried for longer than needed. It can be hard to tell if berries are done, since they will be softer coming out of the dehydrator than once they cool. To figure it out, let the berries sit for 30 minutes, then take one and break it open - there should be no moisture along the break.
- Conditioning and storing the berries to assure even moisture distribution: Place the dried fruit in glass or BPA-free plastic containers, filling to about ⅔ full. Cover tightly and keep in a cool, dark place, but not the fridge. Twice a day, for a week, shake the jars to mix the fruit around. This allows the moisture content in the fruit to redistribute so it's more even. During this time, if you notice condensation on the walls or lid of the jar, it means the fruit did not dry enough and needs to be put back in the dryer for a few more hours. If that happens, repeat the conditioning process afterward.
- Once the fruit is conditioned, it's fine to store the jars completely full. Store tightly sealed in a cool, dark place. At this point, if you want to store the berries in the fridge or freezer, that is fine.
Your link to Sincerely Nuts dried cranberries features a photograph of the product’s ingredients which clearly indicates the presence of organic sunflower oil.
Susan – Thanks for the heads up. At the time I published the post (January of 2015), the product did not contain any oil. Could be they changed their ingredients. For now, I’ve removed the link to that product.
Susan – following my response yesterday, I found two oil-free options and added them to the post.