Quick and Easy Spiced Cranberry Sauce Recipe

I grew up eating Thanksgiving cranberry sauce from a can. I figured cranberry sauce must be hard to make and that's why so many people buy the canned stuff.

Nope.

I learned just how easy it is to make cranberry sauce the year Husband and I threw a Thanksgiving dinner for some international grad students. We wanted the dinner to be as traditional as possible because we were introducing them to their first American holiday.

Cranberries. Water. Sugar. That's it.

Cranberry sauce yum!

We've been making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries ever since. 

In a house with two daring foodies with a large spice rack, it didn't take long for Husband and I to start tweaking the basic cranberry sauce recipe into a fantastic and still easy spiced cranberry sauce recipe.

Easy Cranberry Jelly Recipe

You will need:

4 cups of cranberries (approximately one pound)

2 cups water

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground clove (or 3 whole cloves)

2 cups sugar

Make it: 

1. Bring the water, cinnamon, clove, and cranberries to a low boil in a covered saucepan until the skin on the cranberries start to burst. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes after the mixture starts to boil.

Boiled cranberries!

2. Dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the cranberry mixture and stir until it reaches a steady boil. Now it is time to make a decision on how thick (jelly) or runny (sauce) you want your cranberries to be.

• To make cranberry sauce: Remove the cooked cranberries from the stove. 

• To make cranberry jelly: Boil the cooked cranberries while continually stirring to keep the sugar from scorching until the spiced cranberry jelly reaches the desired thickness. This may take between 5 and 15 minutes depending upon how thick you like your cranberry jelly.

Cinnamon and clove cranberry sauce

3.  Skim the foam from the top of the cranberries with a spoon. If you leave the foam, it won't hurt anything or affect the flavor. This is clearly for looks.

4. Serve it up and make your guests think you slaved hours over your spicy cranberry sauce!

Which one do you like best? Cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly?


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