I was getting pretty annoyed with the price of dried cranberries here. Also the fact that when I did find them at a reasonable price they seem to always have a “may contain nuts” sign on the package. So I decided to buy fresh and attempt to dry them myself. I used a 12 oz bag (about 340g) and that gave me 40g dried fruit. It is enough for my recipe but I would definitely make double next time.
I looked online at a few different sites and came up with a method that worked for me;
- Preheat your oven to low , I had mine at 75 c /165 f.
- Wash your cranberries and drain. Place into a large bowl
- Boil a large pan of water until boiling. Pour over the cranberries and wait for a few minutes until you start to hear the skins “popping”.
- Drain the cranberries and spread onto kitchen paper or tea towel to dry off gently.
- Place onto a baking tray with grease-proof paper and gently squish the berries so all are popped and flattened a bit.
- Put in the centre of the oven.
- Check on the berries throughout the day occasionally changing the grease-proof paper and making sure to spread them out nicely (this should speed up the process).
- Just keep checking until you are satisfied with how dry your berries are, I think mine took about 6 to 8 hours in all.
- Use straight away or store in the freezer.
Time consuming but easy. These will be going into my Christmas Pudding.
i bake without 
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I love dried cranberries but all the ones here have hidden sunflower oil (not listed in ingredients but used in processing so they don’t stick together).
I am in the process of drying a bag of cranberries in my oven. I prepped them by washing, cutting each berry in half, then drying for a while on a wire rack or screen in a 150 Degree oven..Since i wanted sugar free berries, I sprinkled some stevia on them. They are still in the oven and look great. Have my fingers crossed!
Sorry! Have been away for a while! Hope they turned out well! 🙂