Real Cranberry Sauce with Orange

Ingredients

• 1 bag Fresh cranberries
• ½ cup Granulated sugar
• 1 Orange, zest and juice
• 2 tbsp Pure maple syrup
• ¼ tsp Ground cinnamon (optional)
• ⅛ tsp Kosher salt

Method

1. Put everything except the zest in a saucepan with 2 tbsp water. Bring to a simmer over medium.
2. Cook 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. The berries will pop audibly — that is the sound of it working.
3. Pull it while about a quarter of the berries are still whole. It thickens a lot as it cools, so it should look slightly loose in the pan.
4. Stir in the orange zest off the heat. Cool completely before serving.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Zest at the end, never at the start. Simmering drives off the aromatic oils that make it taste like oranges.

🧒 For the kids

Kids who claim to hate cranberry sauce usually mean the ridged cylinder. Let them taste this one warm off the spoon.

🌿 From the garden

Nothing — but buy an extra bag of cranberries in November and freeze it. They cook from frozen and keep a year.

🥡 Leftovers

2 weeks refrigerated. Swirl it into yogurt, or spread it on a sandwich with sharp cheddar.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.