Cranberry Orange Sauce

Cranberry sauce is a common sight on any Thanksgiving table, and if you have never warmed up to it, maybe it’s because you have never tried homemade cranberry sauce.

This cranberry sauce with fresh orange and cinnamon is the easiest thing ever, and I guarantee one lick of the sauce, and you will never go back to store-bought sauce, ever!

Ingredients for homemade cranberry sauce

There are many versions of cranberry sauce, some simple with minimal ingredients, and some slightly more complex with a variety of spices added to it.

This version is one of my favorites, and it only takes four ingredients: fresh cranberries, fresh oranges, cinnamon, and sugar.

You can use frozen cranberries if you happen to crave some homemade cranberry sauce outside of the Thanksgiving and Christmas months. I found that this homemade sauce freezes beautifully, so you can go ahead and make multiple batches when fresh cranberries are in season and freeze.

How to cook cranberry sauce

Place cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon stick, and sugar in a saucepot, and bring to a boil over medium heat. The cranberries will make some popping sound as they burst.

After about 15-20 minutes, the sauce will become thick to the same consistency as berry preserves.

Give the sauce a taste, and increase the amount of sugar if necessary.

Serving and storing homemade cranberry sauce

If you are making the sauce on the day of serving it, wait until the sauce cools to room temperature before serving.

If you are making the sauce ahead of time, transfer the sauce to clean and sterilized glass jars immediately after cooking. Let it cool a bit until the glass jars are only warm to touch, then chill in the fridge until needed.

Remove chilled cranberry sauce from the fridge about 2-3 hours before serving to bring them to room temperature.