Secret Happenings in the Lab

In early October I was introduced to the best candies in the world. Cranberry Sweet's pure Pates de Fruits. The store in Coos Bay has almost every type of Pate for a gummy lover to sample. I bought some cranberry ones in dark chocolate and a bag of what they call the "trim." These are the super chewy waste pieces cut off the chunks they sell. What flavor.

So when I came across a recipe for these little jewels, I freaked. The Cranberry Sweets site says that theirs take weeks from start to finish, which is AWESOME, but I don't want to commit to that much time if I don't know what I'm doing and their recipe is super secret anyway.

On the internet, all the recipes are for things like apple or mango, but I wanted CRANBERRY. So. That's what I did tonight. While my pan of goo is cooling, I'm going to write a bit about my process. There will probably be multiple addenda because who knows how they'll turn out...

Here's my recipe:
2 bags of frozen cranberries (or fresh)
1 granny smith apple, peeled
2.5 - 3 cups Sugar
1 Tbs unsalted butter
6 oz (2 pouches) liquid pectin. I used Certo brand.

Prepare an 8 x 8 pan with a tin-foil lining and brush the inside with a teeny bit of oil. Set aside.

1. I started by poaching the apple for a while. Recipes I found said that you should do it for 25 minutes, but if you do, you'll need to strain the bits that fall off into the water. One medium granny smith apple doesn't make much purée, but it tastes delicious. I synthesized three recipes and was trying for 2 cups of purée total. Two bags of cranberries make almost two cups of purée, so that's where the apple helps.

2. To purée the cranberries:
In a medium saucepan bring some water to a boil. Dump in cranberries. When skins start to pop open, drain cranberries. (The juice is pretty and tastes kinda good. Maybe tea?)

Toss the cranberries into a blender with about 1/4 cup of the cranberry juice and blend until smooth.

3. Dump the resulting purée into a mesh strainer over a bowl that is at least the diameter of the strainer. With a rubber spatula or a spoon back squish the cranberries through the strainer. Scrape the purée that gathers on the strainer into the bowl. Keep going until you feel like your hand is going to fall off and the stuff in the strainer starts to look like just skins.

I basically did the same thing with the apple, but I first cut out the core and chopped it to bits.

5. Ok. Here's the good part. Eat dinner and watch Heroes.

6. When you're done with dinner, dump all the purée into a medium saucepan with the sugar. Stir until well-blended while you bring it to a boil. Lower heat to medium or medium-high or the stuff will spit out like hot magma and burn you. Stir constantly for about four minutes and then stir in the butter. Keep stirring and boiling until the stuff seems thicker. About 5 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and stir in the pouches of pectin. Make sure to stir it in well and then pour into prepared pan.

Notes:
My strainer is small, so I did one bag of cranberries at a time. There's got to be a better way, but I have to say that the smooshing of cranberries is a bit meditational.

I checked on my setting goo and it jiggled! I read somewhere that apples and cranberries have natural pectin and are a good choice for this type of recipe, but I hope it doesn't get too solid.

Here's a crappy picture of the pectin and the goo in the pan:



Updates to come!