How to Make Cranberry Sauce, the Easiest Holiday Recipe EVER

Did anyone else grow up eating the cranberry sauce that comes in a can?  We carefully pushed it out of the can and cut it into neat little circles.  I didn’t know anyone who ate REAL cranberries until I was an adult!  Once I learned how to make cranberry sauce I never went back to the can.  Here’s how I make my cranberry sauce now.

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How to Make Cranberry Sauce

This is the absolute easiest way to make cranberry sauce. You can get fancy with it and add other fruits and nuts but Bikeman likes it plain.  The only thing I do different than the recipe on the bag is to add orange zest, or sometimes orange juice instead of water.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounce bag of cranberries
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• orange zest (optional)

Add the water and sugar to your saucepan.  Bring it to a boil and add the cranberries.  Bring it up to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  

I love hearing the cranberries POP while they break down into a jelly.

Now you’re probably thinking that this recipe calls for a lot of sugar.  I thought that, too, when I first started making it.  But the cranberries NEED sugar.  Just taste one right out of the bag and you’ll be pouring sugar all over them!  

One year I tried a fake sugar product.  Yuck… 

I just figure that we only eat this a few times a year and not very much at a time.  So I’m fine with a cup of sugar in my cranberry sauce.

If you have some leftover, use it as a spread on your leftover turkey or ham sandwiches! 

If you enjoyed reading how to make cranberry sauce, you might also like these:

• GG’s Corn Pudding Recipe
• The Classic Green Bean Casserole
• Cranberry Pound Cake Recipe
• 50 Things to Make with Cranberries
• Turkey Cranberry Grilled Cheese

Thanks for reading!  What do you put in your cranberry sauce?

‘Til the next meal,

 Ann @ Duct Tape and Denim

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