The best Christmas treats are as dazzling to the eye as they are to the palate. My son, Henry, and I were scrolling through ‘Holiday Recipes’ on Food52 the other weekend and came across a gorgeous photo of Candied Cranberries. They are whole cranberries soaked in simple syrup and then rolled in sugar. You can use them as a snack unto themselves or as a garnish for a bigger dessert such as cake. In the photo they were stunning, but cranberries are pretty sour when raw. So we had two questions to answer: 1) is it truly a pleasant experience to eat a raw cranberry, even when smothered in sugar, and 2) do they taste even better if you soak them in maple syrup instead of simple syrup. The answers are yes and heck yeah. They are most definitely sour but the maple and sugar tempers them and I couldn’t help reaching for them all day. I tried them both with Sugarmaker’s Cut and Vanilla Bean Infused Maple Syrup and they both came out well.
You can prepare them either whole and halved. The halved will likely be preferred by people who don’t care for ultra-sour and they don’t take as much time to soak.
