The best Homemade Cranberry Sauce you will ever have, and it’s completely processed sugar free! Sweetened with maple syrup and done in 15 minutes, you’ll never serve the canned stuff again.
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It’s the first day of December, and we JUST got some cool weather over here in Southern California! It rained all day yesterday, and I could not have been more pleased.
Rainy days really just SCREAM for a cozy dinner and a good book, don’t they? So, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite cozy time reads.
Each of these books is one that contains a bit of magic, suspends reality, gives a fantastical twist to every day life. That is my absolute favorite kind of book to read. I believe the official genre is called magical realism.
You will completely lose yourself in each of these stories, and if you have an entire rainy day to devote yourself to one, that’s a good day.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
I know I’m cutting it close with this post. Obviously, a Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe would have been lovely for Thanksgiving, which just passed, and I’m really sorry I didn’t have this up for you guys sooner.
But it’s here now! And a lot of people make the exact same dinner for Christmas as they do for Thanksgiving, so I think some of you will still get some use out of this recipe very soon!
This Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe is very very very easy to make, and it only takes about 15 minutes total to put together!
All you do is:
- Put the whole cranberries, orange juice, maple syrup, spices and a pinch of salt in a saucepan over high heat.
- Bring the liquid to a rapid simmer, stir, and reduce the heat to medium/low, keeping a gentle simmer going.
- Simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently so the sugars don’t burn, until the whole cranberries have mostly all popped and all are very soft.
- Turn the heat off at this point, and go to town with a potato masher until you get the consistency you like.
- Then you just put it in the fridge until it’s nice and cold, unless you like room temperature cranberry sauce. That would make this take even less time.
Would this be your first time making homemade cranberry sauce? I make it because I think homemade stuff is better for your body and pretty much always tastes better than packaged stuff.
Why are you making it? Is it to stay away from processed sugars and artificial ingredients? This homemade cranberry sauce is absolutely perfect for that because the only liquids and sweeteners are orange juice and maple syrup, which both contain natural sugars that your body knows what to do with!
This recipe calls for quite a bit of maple syrup to really sweeten it up and counteract the tartness of the fresh whole cranberries, but if you aren’t too big on sweet and prefer the tart flavor, cut the maple syrup by a ¼ cup or even a ½ cup!
I actually don’t remember ever having the canned version when I was growing up – but I don’t remember specifically having the homemade version either. I may have just skipped it entirely as a child, which sounds like something a kid would do.
As an adult, I always make my own homemade cranberry sauce and have for as long as I can remember being a grown up. It’s just too darn easy not to! And when you are really watching what goes into your body, when you are truly and actively caring about your health, it’s little things like making your own homemade cranberry sauce that count in the long term.
I know the debate is real and quite heated, but I just don’t understand HOW you could prefer the can shaped jelly to this vivid, sweet, tart, fresh homemade version of cranberry sauce. Nostalgia is one thing, but homemade is just plain better. Who’s with me?? If you wrongly believe that canned stuff to be the best, I’ll still love you 😉 J/k! Don’t bombard me with hateful comments haha
In the first picture above you can see what the cranberries look like when they are done cooking and ready to be mashed, then in the second picture you see up close what it looks like when they are completely mashed and ready to be chilled.
Total prep and cooking time – 15 minutes. So don’t even tell me the canned stuff is easier. It’s MARGINALLY easier, meaning basically not at all.
I’ve used orange juice as my liquid for this basic Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe, but you could use any juice you prefer. I’ve used white grape juice and apple juice with success. I’ve also subbed some of the juice with Brandy! That is YUM.
And in the same way, I’ve used cinnamon and clove to spice my cranberry sauce, but you could use what you like. Chinese five spice would be a really great idea! I’ll try that next time.
So, friends out there, will you give this very simple and easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce a try this holiday season? Please make me happy and say you will. You will be SO glad you did!
If you love cranberry sauce, you won’t want to miss out on my Baked Brie with Cranberry Sauce – it’s a great idea for using up leftover cranberry sauce! And cranberry lovers will want to try this Paleo Cranberry Chicken for Instant Pot. Done in about 30 minutes and HUGE on flavor!
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Vanessa at The Cheerful Kitchen
Yields 3 cups
The best Homemade Cranberry Sauce you will ever have, and it's completely processed sugar free! Sweetened with maple syrup and done in 15 minutes, you'll never serve the canned stuff again.
10 minCook Time
10 minTotal Time
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Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh cranberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup maple syrup
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground clove
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and stir to combine.
- Turn the heat to medium/high and bring to a simmer. When simmering, stir and turn the heat to low.
- Cook over low heat, keeping a steady simmer, and stirring occasionally for 10-15.
- When the berries have softened and mostly popped (see third photo in the post for what they look like at this point), turn the heat off.
- Using a potato masher, mash the heck out of the mixture until it is void of large chunks and thick (see fourth photo in the post for how it looks when mashed.)
- Transfer the cranberry sauce to a bowl or container and cool on the counter until no longer steaming, then cover and keep in the fridge until chilled. Can be made up to 5 days ahead of time.
Try out these other holiday recipes:
Roast Turkey Breast with a Balsamic Glaze
Grain Free Goat Cheese Tart with Cranberries & Cinnamon
Coffee Rubbed Cornish Game Hens
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