Boozy Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Course: Accompaniments

Cuisine: North American

Keyword: cranberry

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 25

Servings:

Calories: 177kcal

Author: Marta Rivera

Use fresh or frozen cranberries in this quick accompaniment for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Equipment

4-quart pot
wooden spoon

Ingredients

2 12-ounce bags (680 grams) cranberries (or frozen, thawed cranberries), rinsed and picked through
1 1/2 cup, packed (300 grams) dark brown sugar plus more to taste
1 1/2 cups (375 milliliters) orange juice (3 large navel oranges)
4" piece orange peel from 1 medium orange
3/4 cup (188 milliliters) bourbon
3 cinnamon sticks or 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) ground cinnamon (omit if you're not using cinnamon sticks)
1" piece ginger sliced into 1/4" (7mm) thick coins
1 3-inch sprig rosemary
1 vanilla bean split and scraped (or 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

To a 4-quart saucepan, add the cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice and peel, bourbon, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, sliced ginger, rosemary sprig, scraped vanilla bean and its seeds, and the salt.
Stir and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat.
After 5-6 minutes, you will start to hear the berries burst.
After you hear about 10 cranberries pop, use the back of a large wooden spoon to gently smash some of the berry mixture. Don't smash all of the berries, leave about 1/2 of them whole.
Continue cooking for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberry sauce is moderately thick. It should have the consistency of loose oatmeal.
Remove the sauce from the heat and spoon it into a glass or plastic storage container. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Just before serving, remove the whole spices and spoon into a serving bowl.

Notes

Swaps and Substitutions:

Maple syrup, granulated sugar, or honey may be substituted for the brown sugar.
You can reduce the amount of brown sugar in this recipe to 1 cup, or replace the brown sugar with your preferred sugar substitute. Any decrease in the amount of sugar may make your cranberry sauce taste tart.
Bourbons like Knob Creek, Maker's Mark, or Basil Hayden are those I recommend.
You can omit the bourbon from this recipe. Replace it with more orange juice, apple cider, or plain water.
If you drink but aren't a fan of bourbon, you can use whiskey, dark rum, or even an añejo or reposado tequila. Same amounts.
If you're not a fan of rosemary, replace it with sage or thyme.
You can omit the ginger.
Replace the cinnamon with a 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg or 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves.

Tips and Tricks:

To use frozen cranberries add them to the pot while still frozen. Add 5 minutes of simmering on low at the end of cooking time.
If your cranberry sauce isn't thickening, it may be that you haven't smashed enough of the berries to release the pectin. Press more berries to correct this.
If you smashed a good amount of cranberries, you just need to cook the sauce for another 5-10 minutes to activate that pectin.
Store the sauce with the whole peels, ginger coins, rosemary, spices, and vanilla. Just before serving, remove and discard all of those large pieces and serve.

Keto Cranberry Sauce:

To convert this recipe to a keto-friendly cranberry sauce, omit the brown sugar and use 1 1/2 cups of erythritol and 2 1/2 teaspoons of molasses. You also need to omit the orange juice. Replace it with water. You can still use the orange peel, though.

Prepare as instructed above.

Storage Instructions:

Store cranberry sauce in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Just make sure you keep it refrigerated when you're done serving it.

Freezer Instructions:

Allow the sauce to cool completely.
Transfer the sauce to a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Thaw the cranberry sauce in the fridge.
Just before serving, stir the sauce well.

Nutrition