Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to jazz up cranberry sauce? ›

Adding a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or orange zest, a tablespoon of chopped candied peel, or even a splash of juice to your canned sauce will brighten flavors and bring in some homemade flavor.

If your cranberry sauce is too thick, it's most likely overcooked. When you cook cranberries (or any berries), they burst, releasing pectin—a natural thickener. The key to a perfect consistency is to allow some but not all of the cranberries to split open—something you'll achieve with less time on the stove.

Mix with cream cheese for a tasty topping on crackers and bagels! Dollop a spoonful on baked sweet potato in place of butter. Top off your yoghurt with a spoonful for extra fruity flavour! Swirl it into your cake batter for delicious marbled muffins.

It's perfectly fine to serve up cranberry sauce — whole berry or jelled — straight out of the can. But in my experience, heating the canned sauce up takes its flavor to the next level. Plus, it becomes a little more aesthetically pleasing.

"Instead, start by stirring in one tablespoon maple syrup and one teaspoon of a sweet drink like apple juice, orange juice, or fruity white or red wine. Add more to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt (in small amounts, it intensifies sweetness)."

Try reducing the sauce down even further so more of the liquid cooks off and the mixture thickens. If that doesn't work, add a thickener like gelatin, pectin or a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch whisked into juice or water). Let the sauce cool before refrigerating to completely set.

When to Toss Cranberry Sauce. Cranberry sauce will last for two hours at room temperature. Homemade cranberry sauce will last in the fridge for 10 to 14 days.

The sauce will thicken as it cools. If you want a cranberry mold that holds its shape, continue to boil the mixture so that more pectin is released from the fruit, additional water evaporates, and the sauce becomes thick enough to set into a firm gel.

But that's not the case for prepared cranberry sauces, where prices are up. Lochner pointed out that processors set those prices, not growers, and that there are higher input costs unrelated to berries — like “processing the fruit and getting it to market.” Ocean Spray isn't immune either.

Is canned jellied cranberry sauce good for you? ›

Health Benefits

Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and fiber, as well as the metabolism-boosting mineral manganese. And yes, you reap all these benefits whether the cranberry sauce on your holiday table is homemade or canned, jellied or whole-berry.

4- You can enhance the canned cranberries by incorporating fresh fruits or berries. Chopped apples, pears, or even diced pineapple can add a fresh and fruity dimension to the sauce. Mix them in while heating the cranberries for added flavor. 5- Fresh herbs can provide a unique twist to cranberry sauce.

One 12-ounce bag of cranberries makes about 2 1/4 cups of basic cranberry sauce—in my house, that's enough for about five people. Going the canned route? You'll need at least one can for six people.

Slight edge to homemade. Ocean Spray's sauce is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, whereas homemade uses cane sugar. I spent an hour making the homemade cranberry sauce. Prep for the store-bought one, for those unfamiliar, goes: open can, pour onto serving plate, eat.

I sweetened my juice with honey which adds a sweet floral touch to the beverage. I also use a couple of freshly squeezed oranges which gives the juice a nice hint of citrus flavor. I'm sure apple juice or apple cider would work well too. I think moving forward I'm going to call this drink cranade (like lemonade…).

The traditional way to serve canned cranberry sauce is to slice the cylinder into rounds and arrange them on a platter. Go a step further by adding a garnish like sugared rosemary or candied ginger. Or, cook the canned sauce with orange juice and zest for a citrusy take on a holiday standby.

Heat 2 cups of distilled water. In a tea pot, add the hot water, then 1/4 to 1/2 cup of unsweetened pure cranberry juice. You can sweeten this to taste in your individual cup after pouring. To sweetened, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of maple syrup or unsweetened apple juice or pineapple juice.