Homemade Cranberry Sauce or jam is made from fresh cranberries and yields a delicious, dark red, sweet and slightly tart sauce that beats the canned version every time.
Using fresh, organic cranberries, pure maple syrup or honey, a dash of cinnamon and splash of orange juice; this sauce is excellent as a topping over Pumpkin Pie or homemade French Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Enjoy it as a side on your holiday dinner table with turkey and all of the fixings.

How do you make Homemade Cranberry Sauce?
The process of making your own Cranberry Sauce couldn’t be easier. In a saucepan combine fresh or frozen organic cranberries, your choice of sweetener, a dash of spice such as cinnamon, and finish with good quality orange juice for a wonderful citrus undertone. This will give your the best cranberry sauce you can imagine.
What are the advantages to making your own Cranberry Sauce?
Like all things homemade, you have absolute control over the ingredients you use as well as the quality and freshness. By preparing your own sauce you can avoid preservatives, fillers, gums and low quality sweeteners.
What’s so good about Cranberries?
WhFoods has an excellent article on the health benefits of cranberries. Fresh organic cranberries offer many many health benefits and should be brought into your diet. This sauce recipe pairs these wonderful tart berries with maple syrup, a low glycemic sweetener and fresh oranges. The results are an amazingly flavorful, fresh and healthy sauce.
How do you thicken Cranberry Sauce?
Cranberries naturally contain a lot of pectin, which will cause your homemade sauce to thicken as it cools. If you are needing it thicker, add a small amount of cornstarch or tapioca stirring until the desired consistency is reached.
Just be cautious with the added thickeners as the sauce will thicken as it cools.
This sauce tastes fantastic on Pumpkin Pie and Sweet Potato Pumpkin Pie. We also used it in our Homemade Pepper Jam.
Recipe Notes on Homemade Cranberry Sauce:
- This is a wonderfully easy side to make
- Adjust the sweet and orange flavor to suit your family taste
- The process:
- Add all the ingredients into a saucepan and boil gently until the berries burst.
- Reduce heat and simmer until done to your satisfaction. It will thicken a little as it cools
What else can you add to Cranberry Sauce?
Cranberry sauce is wonderfully flavorful on it’s own, but if you are looking to deepen the flavor or add some aromatic undertones give these ideas a try
- Cook in a bit of Grand Marnier
- Add a bit of pure vanilla extract to your sauce
- Top with candied orange zest
- Cook with a bit of Bourbon
- Add a splash of apple cider
- Add some fresh organic raspberries

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Homemade Cranberry Sauce made from fresh cranberries. A Delicious, darkly red, sweetly tart sauce, full of healthy for you cranberries, easy and fun to make!
Ingredients
- 4 Cups fresh cranberries
- 2 Cups water
- 1 Cup maple syrup or honey (to taste)
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 Cup fresh orange juice
Instructions
- Pour all ingredients into a 2 quart pot on stove on medium and stir
- Cook until the cranberries boil and pop
- Adjust sugar and orange juice to taste and add small amounts of water if necessary to avoid burning, stirring often.
- Remove the cranberries from heat when the berries start to disintegrate and the tiny seeds appear in the sauce
- Cool and stir occasionally to release the sauce texture and allow the sauce to thicken
- Serve slightly warm to cool
- Store in an airtight container in your fridge for up to one week
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 113Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 7mgCarbohydrates 29gFiber 2gSugar 24gProtein 0g
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Recent Posts:

Debra @ Bowl Me Over
Monday 14th of December 2015
LOVE homemade cranberry sauce - so much better than what comes out of a can! Thanks for sharing with us at #tryabitetuesday - I've pinned & tweeted to pass the word. Come visit us again, our party goes live tonight!
homemadefoodjunkie
Monday 14th of December 2015
Thank you Debra. I'll be over!
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