Beauty! Look at these cranberry gems! I’m turning them into cranberry sauce.
Super easy. Are you doing this too?
You’ll probably be cranking food out of your kitchen all weekend. Need a few more ideas? I’ve got everything! Everything but the turkey, stuffing, and cornbread… Yea, I know. But I have everything else!
1- Pumpkin Pie Pancakes. Super flavor for for breakfast.
2- Honey Roasted Acorn Squash. So easy and it makes me feel fancy.
3- Spiced Apple Cake. I love this creature.
4- Prosciutto Dijon Gruyere Puffs. How about an appetizer? I love the mustard in these.
5- Roasted Pumpkin and Leek Soup. That’s yummy. Fact.
Let’s finish this cranberry sauce.
There’s absolutely no reason you should by the canned stuff. It slinks out of the can and has weird ridges. It’s also waaaay too sweet.
I think you should boil cranberries with orange juice and zest… then add just a tiny touch of vanilla beans.
Cranberry sauce dream… I’m tellin ya.
Cranberry Sauce
makes about 4 cups
2 12-ounce bags fresh cranberries
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup water
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
scrapings from one quarter of a vanilla bean (optional if you don’t want to shell out the cash for a vanilla bean)
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the water, juice granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt. Stir until sugars have dissolved. Add the two bags of cranberries and stir until cranberries begin to pop. Cook cranberries, stirring occasionally for about 10 to 12 minutes. Sauce will thicken as cranberries cook down. Once thick, remove from heat and add orange zest and vanilla bean. Stir to incorporate. Cool to room temperature then store in the fridge until ready to eat. Lasts for up to three days in the fridge. Delicious.
6- Maple Pecan Muffins. Topped with pure maple syrup and baked to perfection.
7- Dad’s Perfect Sweet Potato Pie with No-Roll Pie Crust. Yes. I’m totally obsessed with this pie.
8- Cornmeal Cranberry Honey Bread. Sweet and crunchy. Like.
9- Vegan Pumpkin Walnut Bread. So moist you’ll never know it’s vegan. Promise.
10- Apple Pie Granita. Like pie…. but totally not!
11- Buttermilk Pie with Warm Blackberry Sauce. Ooooh man.
12- Apple Crisp. My key to one day tricking a man into marrying me.
13- All Purpose Holiday Bundt Cake. Bring a bib.
14- Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Frosting. Cupcakes for the holidays? I say ok!
15- Pear Walnut Bundt Cake. The praline alone is reason enough to make this happen.
16- Homemade Apple Pie. It’s worth the time. It really is.
Kathryn
Let the Season of Baking Begin! Wonderful.
Rachel
Hey! I love your blog, so I decided to give you an award. :) You can pick it up here! Thanks for posting!
Jess
Joy!!!
I made the cranberry sauce for our Thanksgivin:g Round 2.
It was a great success!
ALSO…a new adition to our table this thanksgiving was buttermilk Pie. Also delicious. In fact it was delicious for dessert and breakfast…
Michelle
You have an amazing knack for inspiring me to bake – and take photos. As always, thanks for sharing!
kang li
Thanks for coming up with this! Bet you must have been busy… Love those photos!
New York City Girl
Oh thank you jOy, this post makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, esp when feeling so homesick… I really am excited to give the cranberry recipe a try.
bodavian
I made this for part of our Thanksgiving dinner tonight! With a minor change: halving the sugar (I love tart cranberry sauce, mmmm). It was sooo good! Except I feel like a lot of people weren’t so fond as I of the tartness. Ah well. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!
Anne
Cranberry sauce! I try to do this every year and I’m always happy that I did. It’s super easy and always much more delicious than the canned stuff (even though, I will admit, I love eating it). =P
In my recipe (actually Williams-Sonoma), I did something similar, adding orange and it totally compliments the cranberries in all the right ways. Sooooo delicious.
But I’m curious about the brown sugar though since I use white, does it give a really different flavor to the sauce? More molasses-y?
Stelena
Thank you, Joy, for your cranberry sauce recipe! We just hosted our first Thanksgiving with our baby girl and it was a huge hit. It went well with our orange-glazed yams. I had bits of leftover puff pastry from cheesy twists so we used it as filling for little puffs. It made a nice impromptu dessert. To be honest, your blog has inspired me to cook more from scratch and to enjoy the process. This is coming from someone who started learning to cook only this last year. I’ve come a long way from burning hard-boiled eggs… (yes, it can be done, and yes, they do explode). My loving husband is a great chef–at least now he can say he doesn’t cook out of self-defense.
Jean
Love the cranberry sauce recipe.
Ana Rita
Just to say:
Happy Thanksgiving Joy!!!
Rita
Gen
Happy Thanksgiving! I don’t know whiwh oe to choose, they all look so perfect!
Alana
I made this yesterday to have with the turkey today and I must say that it’s amazing – so yummy! Thanks for the recipe, Joy!
jules
Happy Thanksgiving Joy!
Thanks for saving us from canned cranberry sauce and other such boring food.
Ana Rita
Joy,
I just did the “Honey Cranberry Cormeal Bread” and it is wonderfull.
Check out my blog (https://bembons.blogspot.com) in Bolo de Mel e Cranberries.
I didn’t make in a loaf pan because i was afraid it was to much batter for that pan, so i used a cake one.
I hate 2 slices in a row… serious!!
You kill me with your cakes…
Kisses,
Rita