Imogene wolcott's candied cranberries

1 batch

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1½ cup Large firm cranberries picked over stems removed
1½ cup Sugar plus Additional for coating
1¼ cup ;Water

Directions

Rinse cranberries and drain them. Prick each one completely through with a coarse needle, then dry them thoroughly on a towel.

Combine the 1½ cups sugar and water in a 10" or 12" saute pan or skillet (the berries should cook in a single layer). Bring the mixture to boil over high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.

Boil syrup until it forms a soft ball when a small amount is dropped into ice water (the reading is 234 F. on a candy/jelly thermometer).

Add cranberries to the syrup and boil them rapidly, shaking the pan often, until syrup reaches the hard-boil stage (250 F.), 6 to 10 minutes. The berries will burst their skins during cooking, but this does not affect the final result.

Immediately lift berries from the syrup with a wire skimmer or slotted spoon and scatter them on a nonstick-surfaced or lightly oiled cookie sheet. The cranberries will be lying there in clumps; as soon as they have cooled enough to be touched comfortably, separate them with your fingers or two small forks. Let them cool completely.

Place about ½ cup of additional granulated sugar in a bowl. Pick up each cranberry in turn, together with the hardened syrup pooled around it, and reshape it quickly; drop the now globelike berry into the bowl of sugar and roll it around to coat it well, then lift it onto a clean baking sheet to dry for a few hours. Leave the berries until they are no longer sticky.

Store sugared cranberries at room temperature in a tightly closed jar; they will keep almost indefinitely, if the household will let them. If desired, sugar them again at serving time.

Yield: About 1 ¾ cups.

Witty writes: "Cranberries candied in this fashion will keep perfectly in a glass jar, at room temperature, for many months [or up to a year], not that there is likely to be a need for such longevity.

In color they are even brighter than cherries, so they make a pretty holiday garnish for either sweet or savory things. To serve them on their own as a sweetmeat, drop them into tiny bonbon cups, three or four to each. Finally, they are a desirable candied fruit to use in baking in the same way as candied cherries.

"There are more complicated ways to candy these tiny native fruits, but the method of Imogene Wolcott, which she says is a Cape Cod recipe, is hard to beat. Here it is, adapted from the 1971 edition of her _Yankee Cook Book_."

From "Fancy Pantry" by Helen Witty. New York: Workman Publishing Company, Inc., 1986. ISBN 0-89480-037-X. Pp. 259-260. Posted by Cathy Harned. From: Cathy Harned Date: 09-24-94

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