Has anyone dried cranberries themselves?

QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

Hi All,

Every recipe for dehydrated cranberries says they have to have sugar. I don’t want cane sugar on my cranberries.

Has anyone dried them without sugar… if so, are they so tart they are inedible?

Anyone experiment with using honey or agave on them?

Ideas Please! :)

QT

Comments

  • KhaasLadkiKhaasLadki Raw Newbie

    I have dried mine with honey, they seemed to work fine, although they taste NOTHING like Craisins! When I first tasted them it was like CRANBERRY instead of sweet taste, but I like it because, well, that’s a cranberry!

    I’m sure agave would work just as well. I just cut the berries a bit so the moisture could escape, then drizzled on enough honey (or agave) to moisten them all around. Then just dry them until they’re done! Good luck!

  • schmoopeeschmoopee Raw Newbie

    I haven’t tried them yet, but here’s a recipe with agave. http://goneraw.com/recipes/64-Dried-Cranberries

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi Khaas Ladki and schmoopee!

    Thanks for the info. Now I just need to decide between honey or agave.

    Can’t wait to see how they turn out.

    QT

  • blueyzblueyz Raw Newbie

    I haven’t tried this myself, but with cranberries just coming into stores I have been thinking about it. I do have one natural foods store near me that I can get apple juice sweetened dried cranberries(instead of sugar) and they are good, When I get a dehydrator cranberries will be something I try and I like idea of trying fresh apple juice to sweeten.

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi blueyz, Khaas Ladki & schmoopee!

    My cranberries came out good but more dry-chewy than I would like and am thinking of adding some oil next time. I do notice on the dried cranberries commercially made there is sugar and oil.

    Will be starting a new batch this evening.

    Will keep you posted.

    QT

  • waterbaby12347waterbaby12347 Raw Newbie

    I sliced the cranberries in half and sprinkled stevia on them and the are marinating… Will put into the D shortly to see how they come out… Can hardly wait to find out if it was worth the slicing time… LOL

    I might put a bunch in the blender and try a leather, it would sure beat all the slicing of those beautiful little boggies…

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi waterbaby12347

    Let us know how they turn out… have you ever tried the honey or agave with some oil as well.

    That is my next plan.

    I Love Dried Cranberries for Raw Scones!

    QT

  • I dry cranberries without sugar. I like the taste.

    I also puree them with apples and dry them as a fruitleather. Its a bit sweeter.

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi christygirl Great idea with the apples and cranberries. How does it taste before you make the leather??

    Wondering if that might be a good “cranberry sauce” recipe with natural sweetening from apples.

    I can’t imagine eating cranberries without some sweetener… way too tart for me.

    I started the cranberries with the agave & oil last night in the dehydrator… so far it is looking good. I will post results here… and the recipe (if it turns out) in the recipe folder.

    I Love Cranberries!

    QT

  • schmoopeeschmoopee Raw Newbie

    I just bought the apple juice sweetened ones at rawvegansource.com. Dried cranberries are my favorite!

  • 1sweetpea1sweetpea Raw Newbie

    My supermarket is selling 12-ounce bags of fresh cranberries for 99 cents each! Granted, they’re not organic, but the price is outstanding. I bought 3 bags and am going to dehydrate them with a little agave. If they turn out well, I’ll go back and buy a few more bags. Much cheaper than the Incan berries I bought online, and probably about as tart in flavour.

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi schmoopee

    Is it apple juice or concentrate?

    Since going raw in March, I often wonder whether concentrated juices are raw or not.

    I use to love to use the organic cascadian farms frozen concentrates in recipes… but think they are probably not raw… do you or anyone know??

    Hi 1sweetpea

    I especially like to get berries organically grown as I was told by a knowledgable HFS clerk that berries are heavily sprayed… that included cranberries.

    What do you think?

    QT

  • 1sweetpea1sweetpea Raw Newbie

    You’re absolutely right, QTLayla. Cranberries are heavily sprayed. I hesitated before choosing the OceanSpray ones, but the price was definitely right. I thought I’d try the regular ones this time and see how the drying of them goes. I’m going to give them all a soak in water with lemon juice and baking soda, then another soak in plain water. Hopefully, that will clean off some of the pesticides.

  • KhaasLadkiKhaasLadki Raw Newbie

    Hi 1sweetpea,

    Where did you get them for 99 cents each?! I would’ve jumped on that one, too! I love finding stuff on sale… :D

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi

    1sweetpea… interesting idea about soaking them in lemon and baking soda… where did you get this info? Does it work??

    to All… I am posting my recipe for the dried cranberries as they definitely came out better with the addition of oil. Check for the recipe under “Moist Chewy Dried Cranberries”.

    Namaste

    QT

  • 1sweetpea1sweetpea Raw Newbie

    I had read in Ani Phyo’s book that she saves used lemons and cleans her tub and sinks by filling them with warm or hot water, then dumping in the used citrus and letting it sit for a while. Later, she drains the water out and can just wipe away grease and residue. I started thinking that maybe the citrus juice idea could work to dissolve some of the waxes and clean of the surface pesticides from my apples. I had occasionally used dish soap, but that seems kind of gross. The baking soda idea came from my readings of “no poo” threads on this site. People are abandoning shampoos for baking soda and apple cider vinegar rinses to clean their hair. I figure it’s the same concept: dissolving oils and waxy buildup from sebum.

    So, now I’m making a gritty paste of baking soda and whatever cheap vinegars (or citrus) I have in my cupboard, but am no longer consuming because they aren’t raw. I take a clean dishcloth and smear the paste on my (nonorganic) apples and oranges, scrub away for a few moments, then rinse well. I can’t guarantee how effective it really is, but it seems to take away that sticky, waxy coating on the fruits.

    For the cranberries, I half-filled the sink with room temp water, poured in some baking soda and squeezed lemon into the water, then swished the cranberries around for a few minutes. It looked like a cranberry bog! I fished them all out with a strainer, rinsed down the sink, then refilled it with fresh water, to rinse off the cranberries. After that, I fished them out again and spread them out on a clean towel. I semi-dried them off with another towel, then tossed them all in a large mixing bowl. I added about 2 TB of light coloured agave syrup and evenly distributed it. They’re in the dehydrator now. I didn’t slice mine in half (too lazy), but I think I should have, because they’re taking forever to dehydrate!

    The whole baking soda and acid thing makes sense from a cleaning perspective, and I figure it’s more natural than those commercial fruit and veggie washes, so I’ve adopted it. Who knows how much good I’m doing, from a pesticide perspective, but it makes me feel better about eating those non-organic items that ahere perhaps all that’s available where I live. Try it on a heavily waxed or powdered-up apple. You’ll see that it takes off all that residue and leaves a skin that feels much more natural. All I can promise is that it will be cleaner than when you started. But hey, that’s better than nothing!

  • ungratefulungrateful Raw Newbie

    seems like a good idea to me. BS and ACV to the rescue

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi 1sweetpea

    Thanks for posting those tips… it sounds reasonable that they would work!

    You are clever!

    QT

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Anyone?? Three times I have tried to post the recipe here for the way I dried these cranberries and it failed every time… I did check the box for publishing it and the save button… but it is not saving it.

    Help!

    QT

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    To All

    Anyone interested in my recipe… I posted it at: http://forums.delphiforums.com/rawsupport/messages

    I will post it here if I can sometime in the future!

    QT

  • waterbaby12347waterbaby12347 Raw Newbie

    QTLayla Here is a copy of your recipe, it looks good but I would use a different oil like coconut, flax, hemp, grapeseed or EVOO to name a few… My dried cranberries came out wonderful but still haven’t tried the leather… Have made cranberry yogurt, cranberry teacakes and pumplin pecan cinnamon cranberry tea cakes… Will post recipes later as they all turned out wonderful…

    Also I have a fruit & Veggie cleaner on my profile, you might check it out…

    Moist & Chewy Dried Cranberries

    1 pint fresh Cranberries 1 tablespoon unrefined Canola Oil

    2 tablespoons sweetener (raw Agave or Honey)

    In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and sweetener until smooth.

    Wash and then slice the berries in halves right into the bowl.

    Stir to coat well.

    Pour onto teflex sheet; spreading to separate as much as possible.

    Dehydrate 115 for 2 hours; mix and turn temp down to 105.

    Continue to dehydrate until no longer syrupy.

    Scrape them onto regular tray to continue to dry at 115 until still moist and chewy but not sticky to touch.

    Note: Sorry I don’t remember how long it took… I started them at night… turned them down in 2 hours. Next AM scraped them onto the regular tray… and they were done that afternoon sometime.

    Linda who will enjoy them as a snack and maybe in some dehydrated scones

  • QTLaylaQTLayla Raw Newbie

    Hi waterbaby12347

    Awesome… did it finally get published?? [edit: actually I just went to my profile and it shows only the title and 2 ingredients… is there somewhere else it would be here??]

    Yesterday it was not there in full… just the title and 2 ingredients… nothing else… strange that it would take days… I wonder if there will be several there since I tried to post it a few times… LOL

    I used the organic spectrum canola oil… I have good sources that say it is a healthy oil… is there something I should know?? :(

    Originally I had planned on using coconut oil but thought I should refrigerate the dried cranberris in case they were not completely dried… I could not tell for sure… and I thought they would end up too hard since coconut oil does get very solid in fridge temps.

    Thanks for posting it here!

    QT

  • 1sweetpea1sweetpea Raw Newbie

    Bah!!! Cleary it was a mistake not to slice each cranberry in half. They are taking forever to dehydrate. The biggest ones are still wet, but the tiniest ones are overdried. Boo-hoo. Next time I’ll take the time to cut them in half, which will speed up the drying time immeasurably. Now I’m really happy I bought the bags on sale at 99 cents each!!!

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