I grew up with canned cranberry jellied sauce so I know how easy it was to sit at the table and wait for someone to pop open the can, give it a few taps, and wait for that long, slow plop, as it hit the plate. Making your own cranberry jellied sauce is delicious, easy and rewarding—without the plop.
CRANBERRY JELLIED SAUCE
Servings: approximately 4 (recipe can be doubled)
Ingredients
12 ounce bag of whole cranberries
1 large orange for zest and juice (2 small ones will do as well)
1 cup of sugar
1 whole cinnamon stick and a few whole cloves wrapped in cheesecloth. (Or 2 pinches of ground cloves and cinnamon.)
Instructions
Add whole cranberries to medium pot.
Place zest of 1 orange in small plastic container or ramekin and set aside.
Squeeze the juice of the orange and add enough water to make 1 cup. Add this to cranberries. Add 1 cup of sugar and cheesecloth with spices.
Stir on medium-high heat until cranberries start to pop and thicken. Continue stirring, using the back of a spoon to smash any remaining whole cranberries.
Once sauce is thick, remove the cheesecloth and allow the sauce to cool a few minutes.
Puree the sauce in a blender until smooth. Strain out sauce into the container with the zest and stir until well blended.
Cover the top of the sauce with cellophane wrap or parchment paper and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove paper, run a knife around the container to loosen and pop onto a plate.
