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| Two 12-ounce bags yielded about 2 cups of craisins |
Natalie's Crack-tastic Craisins
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar substitute (Truvia is my preference, but I used Splenda because I already had a lot of it)
1/2 cup water
1. Sort through cranberries, throwing out any brown or mushy berries. Dissolve sugar substitute in water. Put all ingredients in large pot/pan.
2. Heat until every berry pops.
3. Let cool ten minutes.
4. Smash all berries with back of spoon to make sure they are all popped.
5. Let soak 5 more minutes.
6. Place in dehydrator for 15 hours on 125 degrees (or until they reach desired dryness).
6a. If you don't have a dehydrator, put parchment paper n cookie sheet, spread out cranberries and cook in over on 150 degrees for about 10 hours. Check them after 6 hours and then every hour after until they reach desired dryness.
Possible variations: Try soaking them in orange juice instead of sweetened water. Just note this will add calories. Some of the craisins didn't dry evenly and are still pretty juicy. I have seen some variations that involve cutting each cranberry in half. I might try that for the next batch. I'll let you know if it works any better.
Nutritional info: 1 cup of chopped cranberries is 51 calories. I'm guessing 1/4 cup of these craisins is about 50 calories. Store-bought craisins average about 140 calories for 1/3 cup. Just sayin'
My grocery store has cranberries on sale, so I stocked up! Two bags for $4 is a great deal - plus, they can be frozen, in their original packaging for at least a year.
Because I love craisins (hello, crack-tastic!), and plan to bake with them, I wanted control over the amount of sugar in them (i.e. calories). Store-bought craisins are sweetened using sugars that add calories. Mine are not. Yay! These are tasty, lower in cost, and lower in calories. Score!
I am super excited to sprinkle some in my oatmeal tomorrow morning!
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