This is definitely not your can shaped, jelly looking cranberry sauce that we all know as kids. As a kid my mom would always open a can of cranberry and add it to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. To be honest I don’t believe anyone ever touched it. I know that I never tried it and it was years after I had married and moved out of the house that my mom began making a cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries.
Which all began with a little elderly friend, of my moms, who gave her some fresh cranberry sauce and we fell in love with it. Her name or what I know her as is Mrs. Dry. We loved this sauce so much that Mrs. Dry gave us the recipe, but it was for a sugar free version. So, I took that recipe and added some changes and to this day, which it has been at least 10 years, we continue to make a fresh cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Easy Cranberry Sauce Ingredients (scroll down for full recipe)
- fresh cranberries
- chopped walnuts
- sugar
- juice of a lemon
Sweetners
This recipe calls for real granular sugar, but if you need a sugar free version there are a variety of artificial sweeteners on the market. I have tried some good, bad and ugly ones, lol. As far as granular artificial sweeteners, I like a sweetener called Pyure. It is a Stevia blend of Erythritol and stevia. It has a grainy texture like real sugar, however too much of it leaves a vanilla taste in your mouth.
Also, this recipe calls for orange marmalade. This is also an item that can be found sugar free and can be purchased at your local supermarket.
Cranberries are a seasonal food. I know this because I wanted to make this cranberry sauce early in the Spring one time and I assumed that I would go to my local supermarket and purchase some fresh cranberries. Well, I couldn’t, so a great idea is to buy a few extra bags of cranberries and place them in your freezer for those out of season times that you would like to make this cranberry sauce.
New Recipe With Cranberry Sauce!
Turkey Cranberry Grilled Cheese!!! OH MY! This sandwich is amazing! Our family has a food truck and we were trying to think of a new sandwich around Fall time and we created this one. It is turkey, cheese and this cranberry sauce on sourdough bread. You can make this sandwich with any bread, but sourdough toasted on a grill is so delicious! Here’s the recipe for our Turkey Cranberry Grilled Cheese.
Directions (scroll down for printable version)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place cranberries, walnuts, sweetener, lemon juice, and orange marmalade into a oven safe dish
- Place aluminum foil over dish
- Cook for 45 minutes
- Take a potato smasher and smash cranberries
- Let cool and refrigerate
Makes 1 quart of sauce
Easy Cranberry Sauce Tips
- buy extra cranberries in season and freeze them
- cranberry sauce can be frozen, make extra at Thanksgiving and freeze until Christmas
- if you don’t have a potato smasher a fork will smash the cranberries
Recipe Variations
- add apples
- add pears
- replace the walnuts with pecans, almonds or pistachios
- candy orange slices or cherries
- candied nuts
- mini marshmallows
Easy Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 oz bag of cranberries
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/2 juice of a lemon
- 1 cup orange marmalade
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Place cranberries, walnuts, sweetener, lemon juice, and sugar free orange marmalade into an oven safe dish
- Place aluminum foil over dish
- Bake for 45 minutes
- Take a potato smasher and smash cranberries
- Let cool and refrigerate.
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