Spice up your holiday celebrations with this scrumptious FAST and EASY homemade cranberry sauce that's made with cranberries, apples, apple cider, cinnamon sticks, and allspice for the PERFECT must-make side dish! A lovely balance of sweet-yet-tart with warmly spiced flavors so you'll never want to think about using store bought sauce again!
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Sides, Salads & Vegetables
Cuisine: American
Keyword: apple cider cranberry sauce, apple cranberry sauce, cinnamon apple cranberry sauce, cranberry apple sauce, cranberry sauce with apples, homemade cranberry sauce with apples
Servings: 3cups
Calories: 254kcal
Author: Averie Sunshine
Ingredients
12ouncebag fresh cranberriesfrozen and thawed may be used
2red applespeeled, cored, and diced small (Gala, Fui, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, etc.)
1cuplight brown sugarpacked OR 1 cup granulated sugar
1cupapple cider*NOT apple cider vinegar
Zest from one medium to large orange
½cupfresh orange juiceabout the yield from one medium to large orange
2cinnamon sticks
½teaspoonallspiceor to taste
Ground cinnamonoptional and to taste
Instructions
To a large or high-sided pot, add all ingredients, making sure to zest the orange (only taking off the outermost layer of orange and not going down into the bitter white pith), and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low or low, depending on if you're seeing an excessive amount of bubbling up and splattering. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Tips - Some people like to mash or mush the cranberries while they simmer however this reduces the nice texture of homemade cranberry sauce and makes it smoother. Plus, cranberries are going to burst with or without mashing them when they're boiling so I just leave it alone to simmer and do it's thing naturally.
Simmer as long as necessary so it's not too thin or soupy noting that it will tighten and thicken up considerably once you take it off the heat and it cools to room temperature, and then again once it's chilled in the fridge it will thicken even more.
Remove the cinnamon sticks, and optionally if desired, add ground cinnamon to taste (1/2 to 1 teaspoon approximately) and stir to combine.
Cranberry sauce can be served warm and fresh, or chill it in the fridge before serving. Cranberry sauce will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. To make ahead, feel free to make a batch and store it in the fridge for up to 2-3 days before serving it at a holiday meal.
Notes
*It’s highly recommended that you use apple cider, not apple juice. Apple cider is fresh, unfiltered, and usually doesn’t contain any added sugar.However, apple juice can be used in a pinch if it’s all that you have. They both lend sweet apple flavor to your cinnamon apple cranberry sauce and if you do want a sweeter cranberry sauce, apple juice may be better suited since it usually is bottled with lots of added sugar.Do not make the mistake of using apple cider vinegar. That is a definite no!