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Classic Chunky Cranberry Sauce

This basic recipe works as a foundation for your own cranberry sauce creation, a choose-your-own- adventure cranberry sauce, if you will. The only limit is your imagination! Feel free to adjust the sugar to taste, I tend to prefer my cranberry sauce on the tart side, but you can use up to 1 cup of sugar if you like it sweeter.

Total Time
15 mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces (3 ½ cups) fresh or frozen cranberries
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ cup granulated sugar, more or less to taste
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 pieces lemon peel

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. In a saucepan set over medium heat, combine cranberries, water, sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel.
  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes, mashing berries with the back of your spatula or a potato masher for a smoother texture. Sauce is done when cranberries are very soft and sauce is nice and thick; it will drip off a spatula in thick, wide drops. Remove from heat; discard lemon peel.
  3. At this point the sauce can transferred to washed and sterilized jars, and water-bath processed if desired. Otherwise, keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 6 months.

Notes

  • I like using natural or organic sugar for this recipe, which has a subtle hint of molasses flavor that goes beautifully with the cranberry.