Spanguolių Kisielius is Lithuania's cranberry kissel — a warm, thick, sweet-tart fruit pudding made from cranberries, sugar, and potato starch, served in bowls as a comforting winter dessert. It is one of the 12 dishes of the Kūčios Christmas Eve feast, the color of deep rubies, the taste of the Lithuanian bog.
Spanguolių Kisielius (cranberry kissel) is a traditional Lithuanian dessert and one of the 12 obligatory dishes of Kūčios (Christmas Eve). Kissel (kisielius in Lithuanian, kissel in Russian, kisiel in Polish) is a thickened fruit drink/dessert found across Eastern Europe, made by simmering fruit juice with starch (potato starch in Lithuania) until it thickens to a pudding-like consistency. The Lithuanian version uses wild cranberries, gathered from the country's bogs and forests, giving it an intensely tart, deeply red character. It is served warm in bowls, eaten with a spoon, and is the sweet-tart taste of a Lithuanian Christmas.
A bowl of deep ruby-red, glossy, spoonable fruit pudding — between a drink and a dessert. The taste is intensely cranberry: bright, tart, sweet enough to comfort, sharp enough to wake the mouth. Eaten warm, it is the most vibrant taste of the Lithuanian winter.
The cranberries are simmered in water until they burst and release their juice; the juice is strained and sweetened, then brought back to a boil with potato starch dissolved in cold water. The starch thickens the liquid on contact with heat (it must be stirred constantly to avoid lumps). The result is a thick, glossy, translucent pudding that sets further as it cools. The thickness varies — some serve it drinkable, others spoonable.
Variations
Some use other berries (raspberry, strawberry); some serve it thinner as a drink; the sweetness varies.
On the Palate
Where Spanguolių Kisielius sits in the Lithuanian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 15 min active + 15 min waiting
- 13 min
Rinse 300 g fresh (or frozen) cranberries.
- 210 min
Simmer in 800 ml water 10 minutes, until the berries burst.
- 35 min
Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on the berries to extract all juice; discard the solids.
Watch outPress the burst berries hard through the sieve to wring out every drop of juice — that extracted juice is the whole pudding; the pulp left behind is just skins and seeds.
- 43 min
Return the juice to the pot; add 100 g sugar; heat until dissolved.
- 52 min
Dissolve 3 tbsp potato starch (or cornstarch) in 100 ml cold water.
- 62 min
Bring the cranberry juice to a boil; stream in the starch slurry, whisking constantly.
Watch outStream the starch slurry into the boiling juice while whisking hard and without pause — pour it in slack or stop stirring and it seizes into lumps.
- 72 min
Cook 2 minutes until thickened and glossy.
- 81 min
Pour into bowls; serve warm or chilled.
