Margaritas are a happy hour honey favorite and my parents' drink of choice too. So when my mom found a recipe for Cranberry Margaritas in Sunset Magazine, she suggested that we try out the recipe when I was home for Thanksgiving.
Sunset's recipe is for blended margaritas which are unacceptable in most cases, so we had to do a bit of tweaking to make them the more superior on-the-rocks variety.
Ready to find out how to make these festive and yummy drinks?
What You'll Need:
- 3/4 cup of tequila- 1/2 cup Cointreau or Triple Sec
- 1 1/4 cups cranberry juice cocktail
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (6oz) of fresh or frozen cranberries
- 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
- ice
This will make 3-4 margaritas.
Step 1: Wash the cranberries.
Duh. But check out this photo where I was trying to go all Bakerella. I think I need more practice. Or maybe cuter backgrounds and a reeeeeally nice camera.
Step 2: Blend cranberries, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 1/4 cups cranberry juice, and 3/4 cup lime juice
How many drinks are you making? 4? Set aside 12 cranberries for garnish. Throw the rest of the cranberries into the blender with the sugar, cranberry juice and lime juice.
Step 3: Sugar rim time!Pour some sugar onto a flat plate. Run the lime rind (that you didn't throw away yet, right?) around the rim of the glasses. Place the rims in the sugar and gently twist them to make sure the whole rim gets covered.
So pretty!Step Four: Add tequila to cranberry mixture
Pour the tequila into the blended cranberry mixture. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup of tequila but we wouldn't judge if you wanted to up that a bit. Stir.
Step Five: Pour over ice
Place ice in cups and pour margarita mixture into the glasses. Careful of the rim!
Step Six: Add a "Cointreau floater"
This was my dad's contribution. Use a spoon to gently "float" the Cointreau on top of the margarita mixture. Or you can just put the Cointreau in when you put the tequila in.
Step Seven: Garnish
Sunset says to use toothpicks but we didn't have any so my mom found some twigs in the backyard to serve as the skewers for the cranberries. (Don't worry, we washed them.) We decided they give these drinks a nice rustic look.
Slide the cranberries (3 is a good number) onto the toothpicks/twigs/whatever you can find, and place them on the edge of the glasses.
Pour the tequila into the blended cranberry mixture. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup of tequila but we wouldn't judge if you wanted to up that a bit. Stir.
Step Five: Pour over ice
Place ice in cups and pour margarita mixture into the glasses. Careful of the rim!
Step Six: Add a "Cointreau floater"
This was my dad's contribution. Use a spoon to gently "float" the Cointreau on top of the margarita mixture. Or you can just put the Cointreau in when you put the tequila in.
Step Seven: Garnish
Sunset says to use toothpicks but we didn't have any so my mom found some twigs in the backyard to serve as the skewers for the cranberries. (Don't worry, we washed them.) We decided they give these drinks a nice rustic look.
Slide the cranberries (3 is a good number) onto the toothpicks/twigs/whatever you can find, and place them on the edge of the glasses.
Enjoy!
