Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Spice up your holiday meal with this easy homemade cranberry sauce recipe. This spiced cranberry sauce is made with warm spices like cinnamon and cloves, and flavored with red wine and orange zest. It’s the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving turkey.
Spice up your holiday meal with this easy homemade cranberry sauce recipe. This spiced cranberry sauce is made with warm spices like cinnamon and cloves, and flavored with red wine and orange zest. It’s the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving turkey.
Why I love this cranberry sauce recipe
There was nothing I liked more about celebrating the holidays in France than the vin chaud. It was sold at all the Christmas markets and even at most of Marc’s hockey games during the holiday season, so naturally, when the Christmas season is approaching, I can’t help but crave it.
But, since I refuse to start Christmas-ing until after Thanksgiving (with the exception of Christmas cookie testing), I thought it might be nice to infuse our Thanksgiving cranberry sauce with some mulled wine flavor.
Plus, who doesn’t want to put wine in their cranberry sauce? No one. It’s the perfect side dish for your Thanksgiving meal, whether its large or small. Although, you may want to double the recipe if you’re having more than 8 people.
Get ready to fall in love with chilly weather and shorter days with fresh new recipes for autumn!
Here’s what you’ll need to make it
- Measuring cups
- Large saucepan
- Cheesecloth (optional)
How to make spiced cranberry sauce
Making this mulled wine cranberry sauce was beyond easy. You just need to buy a few slightly-of-the-ordinary ingredients, like star anise, but nothing you can’t find at your normal grocery store. Plus, now that you’ve stocked up on these items, you can easily make yourself some mulled wine for Christmas.
Gather your ingredients and put them in a sauce pan and bring to a boil
Boil in a saucepan and let them simmer away for about 20 minutes.
Remove it from the heat and let it cool.
Remove the aromatics from your sauce. If you’re smart, you’ll have created a small bundle with cheesecloth to keep them in, but if you’re awesome like me, you get to go on a fishing expedition for those cloves.
It might not seem like fun, but don’t worry, you should still have wine left in that bottle you opened. Or surprise your guests with a nice, spicy bite of cloves. I’m kidding. Well kind of… It depends on who’s coming to dinner.
FAQS and tips for making homemade cranberry sauce
Traditionally it’s served chilled or at room temperature, but it’s also really great served slightly warm. So it’s totally up to you.
Homemade cranberry sauce will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I prefer to use it within a week to ensure the best flavor.
Yes. You really don’t want to overcook cranberry sauce because the sugar will turn to caramel and the sauce will be too thick.
If your cranberry sauce is too bitter, add a sweetener. Traditionally, sugar is used, but you can also add maple syrup, honey or brown sugar.
This recipe would be great with:
More cranberry recipes you’ll love:
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Spice up your holiday meal with this easy homemade cranberry sauce recipe. This spiced cranberry sauce is made with warm spices like cinnamon and cloves, and flavored with red wine and orange zest. It’s the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving turkey.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound fresh cranberries
- 3/4 – 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup red wine
- Peel of one navel orange
- 1 star anise
- 3 whole cloves (or 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves)
- 1 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
Instructions
- Combine ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have popped and sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
- Allow cranberry sauce to cool completely or refrigerate overnight. Remove orange peel, cloves, anise and cinnamon stick before serving.
- Category: Condiments
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 239
- Sugar: 55.4 g
- Sodium: 5.4 mg
- Fat: 0.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 63 g
- Fiber: 3.9 g
- Protein: 0.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: dairy free, egg free, vegan, gluten free, wine, cranberry, side dish, Thanksgiving, Christmas
Published: November 21, 2017. Updated: October 8, 2021.
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