Learning how to make homemade cranberry sauce recipe from scratch is easy! Our cranberries are made with orange juice and orange zest to elevate it to a gourmet cranberry sauce or even a yummy cranberry dip or cranberry salsa!The longer you cook this down, the more it will become like cranberry jelly.*Scroll up in the post if you want to know how to make homemade cranberry sauce with dried cranberries.
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Holidays
Cuisine: American
Servings: 8
Calories: 221kcal
Author: LittleCooksReadingBooks.com
Ingredients
1orange
2cupswater
3cupsfresh cranberries12-ounce bag
2cupssugar
1/2tsp.ground cinnamon
1/4tsp.ground cloves
Instructions
Roll and squeeze the orange between your hands to make it juicy. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from each half into a bowl. Remove the seeds and set aside.
Peel the orange halves. Remove the membrane and peel from orange pulp and cut into pieces. Set aside.
Zest some of the orange peel. Place the orange zest in the pot.
In a medium saucepan over high heat, combine the orange rind and the 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain the water, separating from the rind, and place the water back into the saucepan. Discard the rinds.
Rinse and sort the cranberries, discarding any soft ones. Add to the saucepan.
To the saucepan, add the orange juice, orange pulp, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium heat to low and cover the pan partially.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens. When the cranberries burst, after about 10 to 15 minutes, the sauce is done.
Let cool before serving.
Notes
If you like a more tart sauce, reduce the sugar by 1/2 cup. You can play around with the amount of sugar based on how sweet or tart you like cranberry sauce.Also, I let this cook down naturally and leave some of the whole cranberries in the dish. (We like a chunky cranberry sauce.) If you like it smoother, use a mixer or potato masher to make a smooth cranberry sauce.