Sparkling Cranberry Centerpiece

Posted November 15, 2010

Find more about centerpiece , Holiday , cranberries

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I meant to set up a whole fake holiday table, to show them off in all their festive glory, but I, er, didn't.

As always, washing the cranberries is half the fun.

I love the orange flavor with the cranberries, but you could totally omit it. Or even partially omit it!

Here they are, soaked in the syrup.

And drained. I swear I'm going to use that syrup for something other than an inducement of guilt over the wasted sugar.

The sugaring is a messy business, but not unpleasant.

Here they are, after the first coating.

And after the second.

*One* more. Really. And then I'm stopping.

Birdy sat at the kitchen island this morning, munching these gorgeous sugared cranberries while I packed up school lunches. I wouldn't typically make them in mid-November, for no reason, but I wanted you to have this recipe before the holidays, so you could plan accordingly: they make the most perfectly beautiful holiday centerpiece--especially if there are candles burning nearby to glint off of their sparkling rubyness--and then they have the added advantage of being yummy, which is just not something you could say about those pine cones and fur boughs, or about the candles themselves. Invite people to try one between courses, as a "palate cleanser," and you will seem very fancy indeed, even without the muscat sorbet served in silver bowls between the pate course and the chestnut foam course. Some people will find them punishingly tart, prohibitively so--and others will find them punishingly tart, but then they still won't be able to stop eating them.

"I think I should stop," Birdy said, puckering her whole face into a squinch of tartness and reaching her hand back into the bowl. "One more, though. And then I'm really stopping. Mama, is a termite a kind of rodent?"

"No," I said. "It's an insect." And she said, "Phew." Phew indeed! I pictured what she was picturing: walls full of raccoons, chewing up all the woodwork until our house would be porous as honeycomb. "How come?"

"No reason. If you had to pick, would you rather step in elephant poop or human poop?"

"Elephant poop, definitely."

"Oh, I know!" she said. "I mean, it's huge, but it's mostly hay. Human poop is just so ew. So poopy. I'd much, much rather human poop."

"Wait, which?"

"I'd definitely rather human poop. Oh, wait. Rather. Rather. I'm saying the wrong thing. Rather. Rather. I'd definitely rather elephant poop." She laughed. "I lost my head for a minute there!"

Tell me about it. Monday, right? But I snuck a Tupperware full of cranberries into each kid's lunchbox, and that's definitely going to put a sparkle in their day.

Sparkling Cranberry Centerpiece
Active time: 30 minutes; total time: overnight, plus 30 minutes, plus 2 hours, plus 1 hour

This is based on a recipe from 101 Cookbooks, a recipe blog I love, but I added the orange peel and the cloves for flavor. (I will have you know that only upon a second reading did I realize I had typed "gloves." But that's really not the flavor you're going for. In the ingredients list too: "ground gloves." I lost my head for a minute there.) Heidi Swanson recommends serving these with a cheese course, which would be lovely, if I ever served a cheese course. As it is, I always swear I'm going to use the leftovers in cake or muffins--but there are never any leftovers. Start these the night before. Also, give yourself some extra time to clean up the sugar when it's all over.

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
The peel from half a scrubbed orange, in large strips (use a vegetable peeler)
1 12-ounce bag cranberries, washed, picked through, and drained
More sugar: a mix of larger-grain (I use Trader Joe's organic sugar) and regular

Bring the 2 cups of sugar, the water, cloves, and orange peel just to a simmer in a small pot, stirring, then cool it for a minute before pouring it over the cranberries, which you've put into a bowl. Cool briefly, then cover the bowl and refrigerate the cranberries overnight.

Now it's the morning, and you're assembling what you'll need to sugar the berries: a sieve, another bowl, a rimmed baking sheet, and the coarse sugar. Drain the berries (I saved the syrup because I have plans to make either rock candy or a gelatin dessert with it--not that I have done anything yet but feel vaguely guilty when I see it in the fridge. We did stir some into seltzer, which was delicious). Now dump the berries back into the bowl, and wash and dry the sieve.

What you're going to do is scoop some of the berries (I probably do this in 6 batches--you can't do them all at once or the sugar gets to wet) into the empty bowl with a large spoonful of sugar and toss them together, either by flipping the bowl a little, or with your hands. Add more sugar, if there's not some still loose in the bowl, and flip them some more, then scoop them into the sieve and shake the loose sugar back in the bowl and spread the berries out on the baking sheet. Repeat until you've done all the berries. Note: you'll have some leftover sugar, and also there will still be loose sugar on the sheet with the berries, ad this is all fine. Leave the berries to dry for 2 hours or longer.

Now sprinkle regular granulated sugar over the berries, and roll them around on the sheet so that all the sticky spots get well coated, then pour them back into the sieve and gently shake off the extra sugar before putting the berries back on the tray to dry for another hour. Now pour them into your serving vehicle, ideally a clear glass one that can show them off in all their sparkling prettiness. (I use an old fish-bowl type vase.) Voila.

Serve these the day you make them or they'll get damp and un-sparkly.

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Sparkling Cranberry Centerpiece

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pdxAmy says:

December 29, 2010

I made these for both Thanksgiving and Kristmas to great reviews. Everyone had the "Hmmmm, interesting and I'm compelled to have another... and another..." reaction. They even kept overnight in the fridge just fine and I think might have been better the next day! A sure addition to our holiday tradtions.

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jwhitney68 says:

December 01, 2010

My family loved these, Catherine. Thanks for giving us a new Thanksgiving tradition. I have to tell you, though, 'sparkling cranberry centerpiece' didn't last long as a name. Nope, around here they will always be known as "sparkle berries" :)

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greenmombr says:

November 18, 2010

Oh man, I get the potential of these, but I tried a very similar recipe last year (without the clever addition of citrus, however) and they never got out of the soggy syrupy stage. It's so humid here and often not cold enough to run the heater, which means the whole house stays damp.

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Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Sparkling Cranberry Centerpiece

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