Over the years, I’ve served a variety of cranberry sauces to the Thanksgiving revelers. Gourmet, homemade, zesty, spicy… name it. Invariably, more than one person will ask, “Isn’t there any can shaped stuff?” Gross. Ok, well, there was a time when I enjoyed the can shaped stuff myself. Maybe that’s because it has a whopping 21g of sugar in 1/4 cup. I stopped trying to impress the masses and welcomed the opportunity to call this Thanksgiving side “dealt with” by tossing a couple cans in the cart. However, I don’t like it anymore. What to do? Enter Miss Suzy-Q Cooks’ Absolute Best Cranberry Sauce. Such an amazingly simple recipe! To make it at its absolute best, follow Suzy-Q’s recipe to the letter. Here is how I made mine last night.
Often overlooked, yet wonderful cranberries!
Ingredients
12 ounces (one standard bag) unsweetened fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup Splenda
1 packet Crystal Light Orange Sunrise powder
1 packet sugar free strawberry jello powder (.3 oz)
- Rinse cranberries. Place cranberries in 2-quart saucepan with 1 cup water.
- Stir in Splenda, drink mix, and jello powder.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
- Turn heat to medium-low and simmer, smashing and stirring every few minutes until cranberries have all popped and sauce has thickened.
- Serve warm, or place into covered container and refrigerate.
When I went into the kitchen to clean up for the night, I basically dumped all the ingredients into a pan and monitored them as I filled up the dishwasher and wiped down the counters. I turned the stove off just shy of the desired thickness and stirred once in awhile as it cooled down right on the burner. That’s how quick and easy this is to make. In fact, once I make it for Thanksgiving, I remember just how tasty it is and continue to make it weekly throughout the winter. It is WONDERFUL stirred into greek yogurt or just eaten by itself as a snack. You can certainly freeze some bags of cranberries to make this throughout the year. I like to leave it as a seasonal treat.
Fall scented simmer!
You can play with this recipe a bit. The original recipe calls for raspberry gelatin, but I already had strawberry on hand. It turned out great. I am trying out peach on a friend a bit later. Can’t wait to see how that comes out! You can also swap out Crystal Light flavors. The original recipe calls for orange. I had Orange Sunrise on hand, so in it went. Yes, I “went rogue” by swapping out Orange for Orange “Sunrise”. By the way… one of the new style long Orange Sunrise packets, intended for a 2 quart pitcher of Crystal Light, comes out to exactly 1 tablespoon.
Suzy’s recipe calls for cinnamon. A pinch of cinnamon is a fantastic addition. Be sure you don’t overdo it. A pinch will do. Not everyone in my house likes cinnamon, so I leave it out most of the time. Suzy’s recipe also says you can make this in a crock pot. How I overlooked that, I have no idea. What a wonderful recipe to have simmering on the counter all day. I just love recipes that double as holiday potpourri. You can bet I will try that soon. I will probably need to double the ingredients to make it in my slow cooker effectively.
Also, I have never tried, but I am betting this cranberry sauce could make a wonderful top layer for some sort of cheesecake or cream cheese based pie. It is so easy and has many many uses. I recommend you try it at least once, even if you don’t care for traditional cranberry sauce.
Ready for Snackin'
There it is in all its saucy glory. It’s still pretty warm there, but it continued to thicken in the refrigerator overnight. I just had some, mixed into Fage Total, for my breakfast.
