Simple and Amazing Cranberry Sauce

By Addie

If you’ve never made homemade cranberry sauce because you thought it was too complicated to make, I am going to show you just how easy it is. Not only is this recipe easy, it is amazing! I love this sauce because it is not overly sweet and the combination of cranberry and orange give it a nice tang. The color of the sauce itself is so vibrant compared to its canned counterpart -one cannot even put them in the same category. Trust me after you try this sauce, you will never ever buy canned again. Be prepared when friends and family “Ooooh and Awwww” over the mere fact you made homemade cranberry sauce. They will call you “Martha” and hate you for it. But that’s okay.. you’re secret is safe with me – I won’t tell how you didn’t slave over making this. In all honesty, if the world only knew how flippin’ easy this was.. no one would ever buy canned again! Do yourself a favor and leave that good-for-nothing sauce in the can on the grocery store shelf and for this Thanksgiving make your own homemade cranberry sauce. And for those of you who are wondering if you can make this in advance – YES!!!

Ingredients

• 1 12-oz bag fresh cranberries
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• Optional: 2 oz gold rum

Details

Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium-high for 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced – stirring occasionally. You’ll hear the cranberries popping – don’t worry, that’s what you want them to do. Remove from heat and serve. Cranberry sauce can be made days ahead and brought to room temperature or slightly heated before serving.
..................

REVIEWS:

This was simple and delicious, made exactly as written (with the rum). Just the right amount of sweet and tang. Yummy! Thank you for the great recipe.

Love this recipie! Made it a few years back, now it is the request of the family…kinda get let off the hook for most of holiday cooking :) Fantastic combination!

This is a great recipe. I also add about 6oz frozen raspberries and add two table spoons of orange marmalade jam and just decrease the sugar a little.

This Thanksgiving, I’ll be making this cranberry sauce for the third year in a row. It’s a family favorite now! The first time around, it was a bit too sweet, so now I use all of the brown sugar and add the white sugar to taste. That’s just me — I don’t want to mask those tart berries!

OMG! Third year making this as per request of all 30 guest as tradition (The Host now demands it). Only 2 changes: ( 1 ) I double the recipe ( 2 ) about half way of the cooking I remove approx. half of the berries & put in the food processor for a few gentle pulses & put back in the pan to continue cooking. OH! YUM. Try it… you will like it!

Just finished making this recipe; did a batch with rum and one without. The RUM one wins hand down! Thanks

I just wanted to say “thank you” for the simple yet amazing recipe – love it! First time adding brown sugar which I think added to the taste. I also added a cinnamon stick and then made a second batch and added some apples (no alcohol on either batch). Thanks to Victoria for her suggestion on taking some of the sauce out and giving it a few pulses in the food processor – it gave it a nice even texture. I can’t wait to share with my family tomorrow.

It’s so yummy!! Really tangy and fruity and delicious. My boyfriend was cynical to start- he didn’t think it would be worth doing it from scratch when you can just buy the ocean spray stuff in a jar – but he is now well and truly convinced!

This recipe is wonderful! Made it last year and making it again this year:)

I started making this in 09′ when it was first posted. Amazing recipe! I get asked to make it every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Try it! You’ll like it!

I just made it for Thanksgiving. Pretty good, but too much sugar. Next year I would make it with a lot less. Added the rum, adds a nice flavor.

Excellent recipe. the balance of sweet : tart seems right on to me, but I think the difference might be to convert the volume of the ingredients to weights and weigh them accordingly–can make a huge difference with brown sugar especially. I used my immersion blender on most of it, delicious over stuffing and hopefully with the squab we’ll be eating later! Thank you for this!

Thank you, a big hit at Thanksgiving. Doubled the recipe and jarred half for Christmas!

I have over the years begun to enjoy cranberry sauce on thanksgiving. I like to eat it with piece of cornbread. Yum!! Now I don’t have to look for a recipe. I know you say it’s simple, but I hope I don’t screw it up when I do make it.

Wow…I made this yesterday for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve never had homemade cranberry sauce before. I don’t think I can ever go back to eating turkey breast without this now. Very tangy and not too sweet (probably helps I had low-sugar OJ). I’m in charge of cranberry sauce for this Thursday – I know my family will love this.

Lovely, I just finished a batch for our Thanksgiving and the balance of flavors is a delight.

Hands down, the best cranberry sauce I’ve ever made/tasted!
I liked it so much that i made an extra batch to use as filling in simple jam cookies…so sweet & tangy. I also substituted the rum for a bit of mead (honey wine). The flavour is very reminiscent of jellies etc. I enjoyed in Europe. Thanks for the simple yet delicious recipe

This was awesome!!!! I will make this again and again. LOVED IT!!

Thanks, Alice. We had this for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and it was perfect!

I made this recipe for Thanksgiving. It turned out great! Thanks for the recipe.

I just hosted a post-Thanksgiving dinner party and made your recipe, it was so awesome! Having never made cranberry sauce before (or anything with fresh cranberries for that matter), I was surprised at how easy it was. I spiced things up a notch by adding in some salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and cayanne (I wanted it both sweet & hot) … sooooo good!

Deeeelicious! Simply wonderful!

I have never made or eaten homemade cranberry sauce before but wanted to try to make some for a Thanksgiving pot-luck at work. I’m so glad I found your recipe! This sauce came out beautiful and tasted amazing. I had to share this link with quite a few co-workers that wanted the recipe. This is a keeper..thank you!

This is not only the easiest recipe for cranberry sauce, but the BEST. I made this last year and it was such a big hit at my fiancee’s family’s house, I am now in charge of it every year. Thanks for posting, along with the pics! MAKE IT A DAY OR TWO EARLY and it gets better and better. Spread it on Crescent Rolls, and your eyes will roll back in pleasure!

I made this recipe for a thanksgiving recipe test run. I must say it is truly amazing and simple. I have never replaced water with orange juice and I have got to say its genius. If anyone is out there listening PLEASE choose this for your cranberry staple. Its fantastic.

I found this recipe yesterday and made a batch and holy moly! I am a total homemade cranberry sauce convert! Thanks so much for sharing.