Simple Honey Fermented Cranberries
Honey fermented cranberries combine fresh cranberries with orange and warm spices and left to ferment in raw honey for a healthy sweet and tart ferment made with whole ingredients. You’ll enjoy honey fermented cranberries without a lot of preparation for a tasty treat full of friendly, probiotic goodness that’s perfect to enjoy during the holiday season.
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My fall is filled with days of preserving all the lovely foods from our garden and orchard that we’ll enjoy throughout the winter months. I use different types of preserving such as canning, drying, curing, freeze drying, and fermenting to capture the best of our produce until the next growing season.
Cranberries start filling our grocery shelves in October, sometimes as early as mid-September. This is enough time to create a batch or two of fermented cranberries just in time for the holiday season.
What Is Fermenting?
Fermenting foods is an ancient process that uses yeast and bacteria in an anaerobic environment to convert the sugars and starches in foods and make them more acidic. This controlled process is used in many of the foods and drinks that many people enjoy regularly such as yogurt, sauerkraut, cheese, sourdough bread, and kefir.
Historically, fermenting foods was a way to preserve foods before modern refrigeration was around. Without the ability to keep food cold, it would perish quickly.
Some fermented foods start with some sort of culture like a sourdough starter for bread or a SCOBY for kombucha. Other types of ferments rely on salt to draw out the water content in the produce to help create the anaerobic environment needed, as well as lower the pH to an acidic environment the lactic acid needs to survive.
Honey works as a natural preservative due to its high concentration of sugar, which draws out the moisture in the cranberries, allowing fermenting to occur.
Why You’ll Love Honey Fermenting Cranberries
- Once you get the hang of fermenting, it’s very simple to do and often doesn’t require a lot of equipment.
- Honey-fermented cranberry’s benefits include friendly probiotic bacteria that’s good for your gut health as well as for your taste buds.
- Over time, the honey is tinted a lovely red hue while the cranberries become softer with some of the tartness
Equipment
A clean container – I use a clear glass jar, like a quart mason jar. This allows me to keep an eye on the cranberries as they ferment.
Ingredients
Honey-fermented cranberries are made with just 5 ingredients with the ability to add or subtract flavorings.
- Honey – When fermenting with honey, it’s important that you use raw honey for the fermentation process to work properly.
- Cranberries – While fresh cranberries are preferred, you can use frozen cranberries . Every fall, I buy multiple bags of cranberries and freeze them since they’re only in season for a short time. This way I have them to use throughout the year.
- Ginger – Wash a knob of fresh ginger and add it to the jar, leaving the root whole or creating ginger slices.
- Orange – Cranberry pairs well with any sort of citrus, with the most common being orange and lemon. Grate the orange rind and squeeze fresh orange juice into the honey for a citrus flavor. Adding the juice gives enough liquid to the honey to kick start the fermentation process.
- Clove – Whole cloves add a bit of spice and warmth to the ferment.
- Cinnamon – Use a cinnamon stick to flavor the honey without leaving pieces of cinnamon in the honey.
How to Make Honey Fermented Cranberries
This honey fermented cranberries recipe hardly feels like a recipe as it’s more of a process.
Break Up the Cranberries
The first step is to smash the raw cranberries a bit. The cranberries have a thicker skin, which makes them difficult to penetrate, so breaking them a bit aids the fermentation process.
I like to add the cranberries to a large plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin to break them up a bit. This leaves mostly whole berries while breaking some apart so that they release their juices. Otherwise you can pulse them a few times in a food processor.
Combine The Ingredients
Place cranberries in a clean container and top with cinnamon sticks, cloves, grated orange zest, orange juice, and a knob of ginger. Pour raw honey over the ingredients until it reaches 2 inches from the top of the jar.
Ferment Cranberries In Honey
Cover the jar with a piece of cheesecloth or a lid, leaving it loosely fitted to allow the excess gases escape and place the jar in a cool, dark place.
Since the cranberries like to float to the top of the jar, the cranberries and honey need to be stirred a couple of times each day to keep the berries submerged beneath the honey liquid to ensure safe fermentation.
Over the next couple of days, you’ll begin to see tiny bubbles appear in the honey. This is a good sign that the fermentation is beginning to work.
Be sure to stir the honey daily, coating the cranberries with honey. As the cranberries progress, the honey will become runnier, making it easier to shake or flip the jar instead of stirring, just be sure to fasten the lid before flipping. Give the jar a shake, burp the jar to release the trapped air, and replace the lid.
The cranberries float initially, but as they absorb the honey they become more dense and start to sink to the bottom of the jar. Over time, the cranberries lose some of their tartness and become sweeter from the honey.
How To Enjoy Honey Cranberries
The tart cranberry flavor becomes sweet with a hint of orange and spice
- The deep red cranberry honey is sweet with a fruity, slightly tart flavor that’s perfect to add to any number of beverages. Add a splash to sparkling water, lemonade, or mocktail for a yummy probiotic beverage. I especially love a fermented honey drink during the warm, summer months.
- Chop the cranberries and serve in place of traditional cranberry sauce for your holiday table. Short on time? Enjoy homemade cranberry orange sauce for your Thanksgiving table.
- Use the flavored honey as a fruit syrup and enjoy on top of some ice cream,
- Top a crostini with goat cheese and a drizzle of the cranberry flavored honey.
How to Store Fermented Honey and Cranberries
Lacto-fermented cranberries are shelf-stable at room temperature in a cool, dark place. However, I like to keep all of my ferments in the fridge.
What Type of Honey Should I Use To Ferment?
A few things to consider when choosing the type of honey to use. First, unpasteurized raw honey is key for the fermentation process to work properly. Pasteurized honey kills the wild yeast and lacks the microbes needed to ferment. I like to buy local honey for its abundant health benefits.
Second, you want to use honey that is in its liquid state, not crystalized honey that’s thick and hard to stir.
Tips
- Make sure that your equipment is clean to ensure successful fermentation and avoid spoilage.
- As with any type of preserving, use fresh produce at the height of its freshness for the best flavor and nutritional value.
- You can add a fermentation weight to keep the cranberries submerged under the honey, but I find that unless the jar is packed with cranberries, the weight has difficulty staying on top of the berries.
- As fermentation happens, it produces carbon dioxide, causing little bubbles to form in the jar. These bubbles raise the contents of the jar and can cause it to overflow. Keep the jar on a plate in the event the honey overflows to help contain the mess.
- Test the fermented honey cranberries with a pH strip if you’re concerned about botulism. Honey is an acidic food and has an average pH of 3.9, a range that botulism spores can’t reproduce at. Plus, cranberries are an acidic food as well. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar reduces the pH if needed, though generally it isn’t.
FAQs
How long does it take to make honey fermented and cranberries?
You’ll notice the cranberries begin to ferment in just a few days and continue for the next month. Once you notice there are no more bubbles, it’s done fermenting.
Do I remove the spices from the honey fermented cranberries?
When I no longer see evidence of fermentation, I fish out the ginger, cinnamon stick, and cloves and add a lid that fastens close, and refrigerate.
Simple Honey Fermented Cranberries
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Equipment
- 1 quart size mason jar
Ingredients
- 3 cups cranberries wash and break up a bit
- 1 large orange add the zest and juice
- 1 2-3" cinnamon stick
- 1 1" ginger wash and slice or leave whole
- 2-3 whole cloves
- 2 cups raw honey or enough to cover the cranberries
Instructions
Break Up The Cranberries
- The first step is to smash the raw cranberries a bit. The cranberries have a thicker skin, which makes them difficult to penetrate, so breaking them a bit aids the fermentation process.
- I like to add the cranberries to a large plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin to break them up a bit. This leaves mostly whole berries while breaking some apart so that they release their juices. Otherwise you can pulse them a few times in a food processor.
Combine The Ingredients
- Place cranberries in a clean container and top with cinnamon sticks, cloves, grated orange zest, orange juice, and a knob of ginger. Pour raw honey over the ingredients until it reaches 2 inches from the top of the jar.
Ferment Cranberries In Honey
- Cover the jar with a piece of cheesecloth or a lid, leaving it loosely fitted to allow the excess gases escape and place the jar in a cool, dark place.
- Be sure to stir the honey daily, coating the cranberries with honey. As the cranberries progress, the honey will become runnier, making it easier to shake or flip the jar instead of stirring, just be sure to fasten the lid before flipping. Give the jar a shake, burp the jar to release the trapped air, and replace the lid.
