Growing up, I never dared to try “that” cranberry sauce sitting on the buffet table. If I remember correctly, it was more like a relish. At some point after meeting my husband, he talked me into trying the stuff out of the can that his grandmother always served. I decided it wasn’t too bad! BUT … over the last several years, we’ve been trying to eliminate canned & processed foods from our diet so we started making it from scratch. I have also become very aware of high fructose corn syrup in processed foods and I refuse to {knowingly} feed HFCS to my family.
Over the years, we’ve tried a couple different recipes for cranberry sauce, but this is THE ONE that we keep coming back to. This recipe is yummy & easy enough for a 10-year old child to make! At this time of the year, you should be able to find all the needed ingredients at one store & I love that it’s made with pure maple syrup instead of refined sugar.
Orange-Cranberry Sauce
Because this recipe yields about 5 cups, it may be enough for a large gathering or to share with friends to enjoy with their Thanksgiving feast. I figure most people are probably going to take about 1 or 2 tablespoons worth of sauce so a little sauce goes a long ways! This is also the perfect recipe to make several days ahead of time because it keeps very well in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 12-14 oz fresh cranberries, rinsed
- 2 large oranges, washed
- 1 cup pure maple syrup
Directions
- In a medium-size pot, combine the cranberries, zest from both oranges, juice from both oranges, and maple syrup.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat; stirring occasionally. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and allow the sauce to simmer for 10-20 minutes, depending on desired consistency for your cranberry sauce. A shorter simmer time will produce a thinner sauce and 20+ minutes will make it thicker like a jam.
- Allow the cranberry sauce to cool and then store in air-tight containers in the fridge. I like to serve mine warm, but it can also be served cold.
