Wednesday, October 17, 2012

What's Cooking Wednesday - Cranberry Sauce


For Thanksgiving this year we chose to make our own cranberry sauce. I was a little nervous because I heard it was hard to do. Boy was I wrong. It was super easy and tasted way better than any cranberry sauce out of the can. Even BF and the children who don't especially care for cranberry sauce enjoyed it. I am never going to buy canned ever again! For this recipe I just followed the directions on the bag.

8 Cups    Whole Cranberries
4 Cups    Brown Sugar
2 Cups    Water
8 Tbl Sp   Lemon Juice

Mix all together in a sauce pan or pot. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for approximately 5 minutes. During this time you will see the cranberries popping. Once the majority are popped I brought out my potato masher and mashed it all up so there wouldn't be any big chunks. Let cool or serve warm. 

I decided to put ours in this little jar from the Dollarama. It was so cute sitting at the table. I froze the rest in a small container. It's so easy to make this ahead of time and just pop in the fridge until you need it. It's good warm or cold.

Overall I'd say this was a real success. I only made 1/4 of the recipe which was easy to do when you look at the measurements. It was more than enough for dinner. I think that if I made the entire recipe it would have been far to much. Then again, I've considered making a large batch next year and "canning" it to give as gifts in an assorted basket. Next time though I'm going to try another recipe because I've read a lot of recipes online that suggest replacing the lemon and water with orange juice. The orange-cranberry flavour is supposed to be amazing. I would also like to reduce the sugar somehow but I realize the cranberries are quite bitter on their own. 



I've been attempting to make a lot more things from scratch to control what's in my food. I hope to grow a garden next year. BF's parents have told me that if we decide to stay in this apartment another year that they encourage me to grow a garden which will be perfect for canning and eating food we grow ourselves from organic seeds. Super excited for that!

Shout out to the Cranberry farmers here in Quebec for supplying such a magnificent product. Your cranberries are delicious!!!

1 comment:

  1. I didn't realize it was so easy to make. I always just bought canned. Thanks for sharing. Will try this next time I make turkey.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting! Each one feels like a beautifully wrapped gift under the Christmas tree.