Fresh Cranberry Ginger Vanilla Margaritas. (and sugared cranberries!) {Video!}
So I’m weird about cranberry stuff. Except cranberry margaritas.
We’ve now reached that time of year where I make my annual confession of loving jellied cranberry sauce from a can.
Yes. There you go.
That’s what I love. I don’t even care for the fresh, wonderful cranberry sauces. I KNOW. I don’t know why and hate myself a little inside for it, but it is what it is and I like what I like. Give me congealed gel cranberries or give me death.
Err, something like that.
Every year I rant about cranberries, thus shocking some of you, relating to another bunch and downright offending most. Apologies. I even like my cranberry gelee with a bit of gravy.
(don’t hit me.)
So since I can’t make you cranberry sauce (I mean, I can… but I won’t), I’m making you the next best thing. Cranberry margs!
Yes yes, predicatable. I’m so common.
I’ve been going a little nuts over the vanilla ginger combo ever since I created a cocktail of the same flavor for the book earlier this year. And then I did the same combo with pomegranate and ginger a few weeks ago, which was so, so good. I figured… this can all go together. All the things in my margarita!
That’s how I like it.
Also, let’s discuss the festive appearance of these little cocktails. I wouldn’t say they fit the part as well as my pomegranate margaritas do (those just scream happy holidays! drink me!), but they are definitely next in line.
so.freaking.merry.
The other thing is that I didn’t want to use any store-bought cranberry juice, so I made my own makeshift juice. If you have a juicer, you can juice your cranberries, but otherwise I puree the heck out of the little gems and strain them. They may taste slightly different to you if you’re used to cranberry cocktail. Luckily, you can add in allllll the vanilla ginger syrup that you’d like and sweeten things up again.
Since I had the whole bag of cranberries and knew they wouldn’t be going into a sauce, dunked into a vat of sugar they went. These sugared cranberries remind me of the sparkly styrofoam fruit – they are super pretty, but you can actually eat them.
Well. If you want to. A few years ago I talked about that too: how cranberries themselves are darn weird.
Okay. Done hating on them. I love them now.
That might be the tequila talking.
Fresh Cranberry Ginger Vanilla Margaritas with Sugared Cranberries
Ingredients
margaritas
- 2 1/2 ounces fresh cranberry juice, recipe below
- 2 1/2 ounces vanilla ginger syrup, recipe below
- 2 ounces fresh lime juice
- 1 ounces Grand Marnier
- 1 1/2 ounces silver tequila
- corase salt for glass rimming
- limes for garnish and sugared cranberries to pop in drinks
for the vanilla ginger syrup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
- for the cranberry juice
- 6 ounces fresh cranberries
- 3/4 cup water
sugared cranberries
- 6 ounces fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
for the vanilla ginger syrup
- Add the water and sugar to a small saucepan. Scrap the beans out of the vanilla bean and add them and the whole pod to the saucepan along with the ginger. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, then set it aside to cool to room temperature. If you’re making this ahead of time, store it in the fridge with the vanilla bean pod and ginger still in the syrup. If you’re using it as soon as it cools, remove the ginger and the pod. This will make about 1 cup of syrup – keep it stored in the fridge for a week or so.
for the cranberry juice
- Add the whole cranberries and the water to a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for 5 or 6 minutes, until the berries pop. Pour the berries and liquid into a blender. Blend until the cranberries break down and you have a deep red mixture. Pour it through a strainer, pressing down with a spoon to release all the juice.
margaritas
- To make the margaritas, rim the ridge of your glass with a lime wedge and dip in margarita salt. Fill the glass with ice. In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, grand marnier, simple syrup and lime juice with ice, and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour over ice and squeeze in lime slices.
sugared cranberries
- Add 1 cup of the sugar and the water to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until the sugar dissolves and bring the mixture to a boil, cooking for 2 to 3 minutes. Set it aside until it is cool enough to touch. Once the syrup is cool, either dunk the cranberries in it or pour the liquid over top of them in a bowl. Place the remaining sugar on a plate. I find the cranberries stay the prettiest if you try to remove any syrup “globs” and roll them in sugar one at a time.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
So. Now can you forgive me for the canned sauce?
100 Comments on “Fresh Cranberry Ginger Vanilla Margaritas. (and sugared cranberries!) {Video!}”
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Shared your recipe here:
http://www.eastmesadesign.com/blog/homemade-vanille-extract-recipes
I hope it brings you some traffic :-)
I had a cranberry ginger vanilla margarita over the holidays at a local bar and finally got around to scouring the web for a recipe I could use to recreate them at home.I was so excited to find this on your blog – and they taste great. I’m so excited – thanks!
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nice! thank you so much! Thank you for sharing. Your blog posts are more interesting and impressive. I think there are many people like and visit it regularly, including me.
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HI! I’d like to try try this for thanksgiving I am having about 7-8 people is this something that could be done in the morning and sit ?
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I knew there was a good reason for me to buy extra cranberries over holidays. This is the best cocktail I’ve had in a long time. I have some lovely tequila and the tart cranberries go so well with it. My cranberry juice was a little thick, but the other liquids thinned it out just fine. Thanks for this great cocktail recipe!