American Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and cranberry sauce is a quintessential part of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. My version contains no sugar, sweetened instead with chopped apples, a handful of raisins, citrus zest, warming spices, and a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice.
Most cranberry sauce recipes call for a terrifying amount of sugar. The Barefoot Contessa puts a whopping 1¾ cups into her “Cranberry Conserve,” and that’s in addition to orange juice and the ¾ of a cup of raisins her recipe calls for. My recipe is loosely based on the Contessa’s, but with less raisins, more spice, and no white lines (my preferred, cocaine-laced metaphor for sugar). Don’t worry, I promise it tastes good. Fruit sweetens up plenty when cooked, even cranberries. As the sauce heats, the raisins grow plump and start to melt, the apples roast down like pie filling, and everything grows sweeter still in a warm bath of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. The result is a sauce that actually tastes like cranberries, not jello. It’s more tart than traditional cranberry sauce, but still plenty sweet.
YOU’RE SO PRETTY THE WAY YOU ARE
If you’re a fan of The Cranberries, you’ll recognize the above lyric from “Pretty,” off their classic album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? I think it’s a fitting line for this stripped down, more naked version of cranberry sauce, and as such, I’m using this recipe as an excuse to pay homage to the album.
My introduction to The Cranberries came one rainy day back in 1993 when I was channel hopping between MTV and VH1 in the hope that one of the networks would play something cool (kids: there was no YouTube back then, no On Demand, we were at the mercy of the gods for any culture we might chance to be exposed to, and channel surfing was our only hope). I caught a fleeting glimpse of the last half of the original version of “Dreams” video and never saw it again. But the imagery stayed in my heart for years: Dolores O’Riordan with her cute pixie cut, wandering through the grey skies and green fields of Ireland in a flowing white gown and long red coat with a magical white horse at her side.
Many years later, my husband and I traveled to Ireland for our honeymoon in the dead of winter to wander those fields in the most dramatic weather possible and live out every Wuthering Heights fantasy I’ve ever had . . . almost. I still need a long white gown and red velvet maxi coat in which to wander the countryside. Can anyone help?
This garnet colored sauce is an ode to Dolores’ long red coat, a gift to those who seek sweet treats that have less sugar, and an invitation to consider the possibility that much of the sugar in our food is unnecessary, and can be reduced without sacrificing flavor. Happy Thanksgiving.
RECIPE NOTES
Make this sauce one day ahead to allow all the flavors to get to know each other and make sweet love. It makes it taste better. The leftovers are gorgeous on crispy toast smeared with Irish butter and garnished with fresh orange zest.
INGREDIENTS
One 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, washed
3/4 cup (177 mL) water
1/4 cup (59mL) freshly squeezed orange juice
Scant 2 tsp orange zest, plus more for garnish (about 2 oranges)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/3 cup (79 mL) raisins
2 cups (474 mL) Golden Delicious Apples, peeled and chopped into rustic, bite sized chunks (approximately 1.5 large apples)
INSTRUCTIONS
Cook the cranberries, water, orange juice, spices, and raisins in a saucepan over medium low heat until the skins start to pop open (about 5 minutes).
Reduce heat to low and add the apple and orange zests and cook over low heat for 15 more minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
Remove from the heat, let cool, and store in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to use. Garnish with more orange zest before serving.
