Spiced Cranberry Sauce Recipe + Thanksgiving 2016

Hello friends and happy Thanksgiving Eve Day!!  I’ve been busy since the weekend with preparations, and I’m documenting the journey on Instagram Stories here.

I’m going to keep this short today, because I’ve got pies and sides to get to along with a little last minute food shopping!  This Spiced Cranberry Sauce recipe is one I’ve been making for years.  An old co-worker gave me the recipe, and described it as the cranberry sauce for people who hate cranberry sauce.  At the time, I  hated cranberry sauce.  I grew up with the canned stuff, and I’m pretty sure I never even once tried it.  The look of it alone was enough to scare me off.  I was never a very picky eater as child, but for some reason, I would not give canned cranberry sauce a chance!  This hatred for cranberry sauce continued on through most of my 20’s until I finally made this recipe.  Now, it’s one of my favorite things at the buffet.

Luckily too, the recipe is quite simple.  Start by simmering sugar, orange peel, cloves, allspice, cinnamon and black pepper in a healthy amount of red wine.  Once the mixture reduces a bit and the spices have had some time to release their flavor, the wine syrup is strained.  A bag of fresh cranberries is then simmered in the rich syrup until they burst and soften.  And that’s it!  You’ve got homemade cranberry sauce.  It’s sweet.  It’s spiced.  It’s tangy.  And it’s an absolute dream on slices of gravied turkey.  I like to make this sauce at least a day in advance to let the flavors marry even more in the fridge.  Continue reading for the cranberry sauce recipe plus my Thanksgiving 2016 menu!!

Here’s my Thanksgiving 2016 menu:

Appetizers

Meat & Cheese Board

Candied Jalapeños

Quince Jam

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs with Everything Bagel-Spiced Breadcrumbs

Rosemary Spiced Nuts

Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Cumin Crema

Signature Cocktail

Brandy & Apples

Buffet

Smoked Turkey

Gravy

Italian Sausage and Tuscan Kale Stuffing

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Brussels Sprouts and Caramelized Shallot Gratin

Sweet Potato Crunch

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Rice Krispie Topping

Palate Cleanser

Grapefruit and Star Anise Granita

Dessert

Coconut Custard Pie

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crumble

Limoncello Cheesecake Bars

Print

Spiced Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Adapted slightly from here.

Servings 3 cups

Author Brandon Matzek

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups good red Zinfandel
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 8 whole allspice
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 3x1-inch strips orange zest
• 1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries

Instructions

1. Place wine, sugars, spices and orange zest in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the mixture has reduced to 1 3/4 cups (10 - 15 minutes), stirring occasionally.
2. Pour the wine mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl, then pour the syrup back into the saucepan. Discard the solids. Add the cranberries to the syrup, and cook over medium heat until they burst and soften (5 - 6 minutes), stirring occasionally. Transfer to a clean jar, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be made up to 1 week in advance.

That’s it for this year!  Happy Thanksgiving from Brandon, Jorge, TiVo and Boris.  We hope you have a safe and delicious celebration this year.  If you make any these recipes, please share and tag @Brandiego and/or #KitchenKonfidence, so I can check out the results!!