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Some people look forward to Thanksgiving and to eat turkey for the stuffing or the gravy. Not me. I’m a total cranberry sauce girl. Since we’ve been on a roll roasting turkeys every week this month testing holiday recipes, Kenya has acquired a real taste for it, too. He’s just like his mommy — he wants some turkey and a pound of the sauce to go with it.
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Most cranberry sauces call for a cup of sugar for each bag of cranberries. It makes my teeth feel like they are going to rot just thinking about it. Granted, cranberries are uber sour, so they do need something to sweeten them up, but orange juice does the trick brightening it up. Adding oranges and orange juice to add not only citrus flavor, but also their natural sugars.
We sat down for lunch last week and I’m not kidding when I tell you that Kenya kept pouring the sauce on his plate and eating spoon after spoonful. He loved it and hopefully so will your family this Thanksgiving.
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 bag cranberries, washed and bruised cranberries discarded
- 2/3 cup orange juice and or the orange pulp, removing the seeds and sections between the pulp
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- When they reach a boil, turn the heat to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the berries start to pop.
- Turn off heat and cool. Remove the cinnamon stick.
- Serve warm or chilled.
Notes
- *Allow to cool, place in appropriate container or ziploc bag, label and freeze.
Hi Catherine! Planning to make this as Christmas gifts! Just wondering how Long it will keep in the fridge?
Thanks!
Looks delicious!
What does bruised mean?
Add a little more orange juice or agave! Make sure the orange juice is sweet instead of tart! 🙂
Just made this and it came out a little sour. Any tips on sweetening it? Thanks! 🙂
Yes! You can always substitute the two for each other at a 1:1 ratio!
Can you use honey instead of agave?
1 serving is 1/4 cup!
How big is a single serving? Other recipes stated a single serving is 2 1/2 TBSP.
Frozen works just as good as fresh. Just make sure they’re proper cranberries and not dried or anything else. I’ve used both kinds in my cranberry sauces over the years and never noticed a difference.
This looks great. For us in Oz who can only get frozen/dried cranberries, would frozen ones work? How much does a normal bag weigh?
Thank you for this recipe- now I like cranberry sauce! Added a bit more agave bc my orange wasn’t too sweet.
A standard bag of fresh cranberries is 12 ounces or 3 cups of cranberries according to Ocean Spray.
How big of a bag of cranberries? Thanks! Excited to make it.
My family loves this even the baby!
It started out as a non sugar alternative,
now a family favorite, love it when they pop!
so fresh, great on a cold turkey sandwhich!