Cranberry Juice and Cranberry Roll-ups
Cranberry Juice
I bought quite a few bags of cranberries right before Thanksgiving. I popped a few in the freezer to enjoy later. I also wanted to preserve some of them in a couple of other ways. I decided to can cranberry juice. I used the leftover pulp (after I strained the juice) for cranberry fruit roll ups.
The juice came out great. Nothing like store-bought. It was really easy, too.
I started with 5 (12oz.) bags of cranberries. I measured them out and added the same amount of water- each bag was just under 4 cups of berries so I added 3 1/2 cups of water for each bag. I brought this mixture to a boil and let it cook until the berries starting popping. I strained the juice twice. First time through a fine strainer and second time through a strainer lined with cheesecloth. Set the pulp aside for now.
I returned the juice to the pot and brought it up barely to a simmer. To sweeten it, I added 6 oz. of frozen apple juice concentrate and less than a cup of sugar. Once the juice was up to a simmer, I let it cook 5 minutes and then ladled it into clean, hot quart canning jars. I filled them to about 1/4 inch from the top, wiped the rims and closed the jars. I also used the last of it to fill a pint jar. Processed in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Ended up with 4 quarts and 1 pint for my efforts.
After making cranberry juice I was left with a lot of pulp. I didn’t want to toss it, so I decided to make cranberry fruit roll ups with it. I ran the pulp through the coarse blade of my food mill. I then sweetened just a little- less than a cup of sugar. I spread the mixture on plastic wrap placed on the trays of my dehydrator. I ended up with 7 in the end. I dried them at 120 degrees for 6 hours. They should be pliable but not sticky to the touch when done. A friend stopped over today and got a chance to taste them. He said he liked that the roll ups were not too sweet- they had a nice tartness to them. Once finished, I rolled them up in the plastic wrap and will store them in the fridge. Honestly, they aren’t going to be around long.
Cranberry Roll-ups- wrapped in plastic wrap
