Holiday Cranberry Smoothie
Here’s a little experiment I undertook over the holidays when I had extra cranberries after making the annual batch of my grandmother’s cranberry sauce. It was different, but festive.
- 2 tbsp. macerated cranberries (with juices)
- 1 cup apple cider (you could probably use orange juice too)
- 1 small handful of walnuts (1/8 of a cup or so)
- a dash of cinnamon
To macerate the cranberries:
- 1/2 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed and each berry cut in half
- apple cider
- sugar
- rum
Put the halved cranberries in a container you can seal (I used a small tupperware). Toss the cranberries in about a tablespoon each of sugar and rum. Add apple cider to just about cover, but not submerge the berries. Let the cranberries soak, refrigerated in the sealed container, for at least a few hours, but ideally at least overnight. This will make more cranberries than the above recipe calls for, but it keeps in the refrigerator for a few days. Cranberries are sturdier than a lot of fruit, so they will keep macerated longer than others. Just keep in mind that eventually, as the fruit breaks down, you’re going to move further from flavor infused cranberries and closer to holiday moonshine.
The drink itself was not as thick as I’d hoped - more juice than a smoothie. Yet I did like the taste, both tart and sweet. Less juice or a good helping of yogurt would help to thicken it out into a smoothie (and build on the protein base of the walnuts), which I would have tried, if there were yogurt on hand. You could also make it a little more festive and spike it with some rum, which I also would have tried, were I not testing this at 8 o’clock on a Thursday morning.
