Tart and sweet, this homemade cranberry syrup recipe is perfect for the holidays! The festive colors and flavors will be a special touch to your breakfast and dessert.
Ruby Red Cranberry Syrup is a tartly sweet flavored syrup that will wake up your taste buds. Serve for breakfast or dessert!
This recipe is part of my “One 12 Ounce Bag of Cranberries Experiment”. In under an hour I made three items: Apple Cranberry Sauce, Ruby Red Cranberry Syrup and Cranberry Relish.
Make sure you PIN Cranberry Syrup!
All three items can be easily frozen in airtight containers and used for another occasion.
Simmering bitter cranberries in sugar makes a sticky sweet concoction. I served this syrup over buttermilk biscuits, however it would taste phenomenal over pancakes, warmed brie, French toast or vanilla ice cream.
It is sweet with a slight bite of tart. You can’t beat the festive bright color, especially at the holidays.
If you’re like my family and I, then your holidays just aren’t complete with cranberries incorporated in some way. Cranberry sauce with our turkey is an absolute necessity, I can’t even imagine eating my turkey without it!
When I came up with this Ruby Red Cranberry Syrup recipe, I was thrilled to be adding another cranberry recipe to my collection.
The best part is that you can use this flavored syrup with so many things and cranberries are good for you!
I use the cranberry solids that are left over from this recipe to make cranberry relish so nothing goes to waste.
Cranberry relish is used to make Cranberry Mayo and Turkey, Swiss and Cranberry Roll-Ups! This recipe seems to be the gift that just keeps on giving!
Making the syrup is simple. Simply heat a saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Cook, stirring continuously, brining to a simmer.
Remove from the heat, strain and allow to cool. The perfect homemade pancake syrup (or syrup for anything, really). If you love fruit syrups, give our Homemade Blueberry Syrup a whirl!
Be sure to check out these other easy cranberry recipes:
- Fruit Fluff Salad with Cranberry Cherry and Pineapple
- Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Relish
- Turkey, Swiss and Cranberry Mayo Roll-Ups
Holiday Meringue Wreath Recipe
Cranberry Punch
Cranberry Coffee Cake
Questions you might have about how to make cranberry syrup:
Can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar? You can, but it will take on a slight molasses flavor.
Can I use corn syrup instead of sugar? I am sure there are recipes that use corn syrup, but this isn’t one of them.
Can I add cranberry juice instead of fresh cranberries? This recipe really requires fresh cranberries. Juice will be too watery.
Do I need to add extract? I don’t simply because I love the tart flavors of cranberry. I have heard of folks adding maple extract or vanilla extract and loving it. The choice is up to you.
Cranberry Syrup Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh cranberries coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cup water
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Combine chopped cranberries, sugar, water and sea salt in a heavy saucepan. You can hand chop or throw them in a food processor for a few pulses. Bring to a boil.
- Stir until sugar is dissolved. Lower heat to medium and allow to simmer.
- Simmer for approximately 10 minutes, stirring sporadically with a wooden spoon. Mixture will be thick and sticky.
- Place a fine sieve or colander over a bowl. Strain mixture through, pressing down lightly on solids to get excess syrup out. **See note for use of solids
- Whisk lemon juice into syrup and place in the refrigerator to cool slightly. Syrup will be ready for use in 10-15 minutes. You can freeze syrup or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back and let us know how it went!
Can you can this recipe?
Hi Cory- there is no reason why you couldn’t, but I am not a canning expert.
Yes, cranberries are high acid. You can treat this like jam, use the times from a canning recipe for jelly/ jam.
Simple recipe packed with flavor! I used oven roasted cranberries and added 1 teaspoon of ginger paste to the mixture. Before heating I blended the berries, sugar, water and ginger with a stick blender. I added lemon at the end as you suggested and the mixture set up beautifully. It did not require straining and was a beautifully savory treat drizzled over waffles with a little whipped cream. Festive treat!
Made this for an event and love it so much, it just became a family favorite. No more store bought cranberries for holidays at our house!
Perfect easy recipe for delicious cranberry syrup. It was sweet and citrusy. Now I have to make pancakes! 🙂
Glad you loved it~
Could this be made with a can of whole-berry cranberry sauce instead of fresh or frozen berries?
I don’t see why not!
I just wanted to come back to report how things turned out for me. I modified this into a savory sauce by putting in less sugar and by adding a bit more salt, the type of seasonings usually found in turkey stuffing, and some Liquid Smoke. I then spread it onto pizza dough, topped it with mozzarella, cheddar, leftover turkey, leftover stuffing crumbles, and diced onion. After baking, I added feta. Ta-da! Thanksgiving leftovers pizza! My family was skeptical through the whole process, but everyone except the three-year-old enjoyed it.
Wow! Now that is a customization I’ve never heard of, but I’m so glad it turned out well! Who doesn’t love pizza?
This syrup is so unexpected and so delicious! I have yet to find anything that it isn’t good on!
Hellooooo delicious! This is just what our pancakes and waffles have been missing – such a fun recipe!