These tart and tiny little dried fruits initially were created as a marketing ploy by Ocean Spray, but they slowly took over our hearts and baked goods.
When did ‘craisins’ become a thing?
I’m pretty sure if you had asked me if I wanted dried cranberries on my salad as a kid, I would have looked at you like you had three heads and protectively pulled my salad bowl closer.
But these days, dried cranberries are everywhere.
Now, of course, I love craisins on my salad. And I enjoy them in my oatmeal and yogurt and mixed in with homemade granola or trail mix.
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I think I use dried cranberries when I’m cooking and baking more than I use raisins. Because raisins are like the beige paint of the baking world.
What I don’t love about dried cranberries is how sugary sweet they are.
When it comes to store-bought craisins, there’s so much added sugar that you lose the lovely natural tartness specific to these berries.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve purchased unsweetened craisins before, and that natural tartness nearly turned my face inside out.
As so often happens when I’m frustrated with the quality of manufactured goods, I head back to my homesteading roots with a resolute, “I’ll bet I could make this myself.”
Nearly every time this happens, the result is always much tastier than anything sitting on the supermarket shelves. Yet another reason to lean into being more self-reliant.
After a little trial and error (ok, there was a lot of trial and error… poor little cranberries), I stumbled on the easiest way to make homemade dried cranberries that are the perfect combination of sweet and tart.
And I did it without dumping in a ton of sugar or artificial sweeteners.
And they’re insanely easy to make.
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