Cranberry Dessert Recipes

Frozen, yes, almost anywhere a recipe calls for fresh, and there is no need to thaw them. Add them straight from the freezer so they bleed less into the batter. Dried cranberries are a different ingredient, sweeter and chewier with none of the juice, so save them for the cookies, scones and blondies written for dried rather than swapping them into a pie or bar filling.

Toss the berries in a tablespoon of the recipe's flour before you fold them in, which gives them some grip in the batter. A thicker batter holds them better, and halving large berries makes them lighter. Frozen berries sink less than thawed ones, one more reason to add them straight from the freezer.

Simmer equal parts sugar and water until the sugar dissolves, let the syrup cool for a few minutes so it does not split the skins, then stir in fresh cranberries and soak them for an hour, or overnight in the fridge. Drain, roll them in sugar, and let them dry on a rack for an hour. White Sparkling Sugar gives the coarse, glittering coat you see on bakery cakes.

Pair the berries with something sweet or rich. Orange is the classic partner, and white chocolate or a cream cheese frosting softens the edges. Cooking the cranberries down with sugar first, the way most bar and pie fillings do, mellows them far more than folding them into a batter raw.

Whole-berry sauce works in bars and as a cheesecake topping, since it is already cooked down and sweetened, so cut the sugar in the filling to match. Jellied sauce is too smooth and too sweet to stand in for fresh berries in a batter. Leftover homemade sauce the day after Thanksgiving is fair game for the bars too.

Bars, coffee cakes and quick breads keep covered at room temperature for two to three days. Anything with cream cheese, curd or frosting lives in the fridge for up to five days. Unfrosted bars, loaves, muffins and cakes freeze well for up to three months, wrapped tightly and thawed overnight. Pavlovas and trifles are best the day you assemble them.