quick tip: cranberries 3 ways
Any time you are making sugared anything, there’s an added bonus. Times three.
When you make a flavored simple syrup or sugared fruit/rind, etc.— equal parts water and sugar, to which you add what ever flavor you want; jalapeño, cranberry, grapefruit, orange, etc. — you get two products.
A flavored syrup, in this case cranberry simple syrup, and a sweetened sticky fruit. To finish creating sugared cranberries, you toss them in sugar. While some of the sugar coats the cranberries, the rest is left behind, after taking on the flavor of the sweetened cranberries, leaving you with cranberry flavored sugar.
Simple syrup can be used to flavor drinks, also to coat the top of a glass, that can then be dipped in the flavored sugar to rim it for a festive look.