Cranberry Sauce Homemade with Honey

Author: Mike James

You cannot have a Thanksgiving dinner without the staple cranberry sauce on the dinner table, or wherever else you eat your Thanksgiving dinner. This cranberry sauce homemade with honey, will not only give you pride over a sauce that didn't come out of can, but will please the taste buds of your guests. 

Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Honey

Naturally Sweetened Cranberry Sauce

Your typical cranberry sauce from a can is made with either high fructose corn syrup or sugar. This recipe not only uses honey as the sweetener, which has a low glycemic index and is a much more flavorful as well as healthier. 

 

Cranberry sauce is often the lowest food item on the totem pole, and gets the least amount of attention on the dinner table. You can change that and help raise the bar of all cranberry sauces to follow for your friends and family.

 

This recipe is quite easy to make, but I will make additional sauce and put it in a glass jar with flip lid for easy sealing and eating with meals or for adding to our yogurt, topping for ice cream, or drizzled over some cheesecake. (Note: This recipe yields 2 cups which equals 16oz.)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce Ingredients

When shopping for the cranberry sauce ingredients, I recommend finding the freshest cranberry's you can and focus on ripeness of those cranberry's as well as the orange(s). And as always, a high quality honey can go a long way and is great for topping your other dishes for Thanksgiving, like your yams.

Prepare Thanksgiving cranberry sauce

Ingredients- 

You will also need a large pot to boil the ingredients in. And that's really it, this is a simple recipe and easy to prepare. Once you make this one, you'll wonder why you'd ever buy it again.

How to Make the Cranberry Sauce

Are you ready for this....., throw all of it in a pot and boil it. Done.

Well, its almost that easy, combine the cranberries, cinnamon stick, honey, and water to a large pot and boil it while mixing until the cranberries have broken open and mixture has thickened to your liking, about 5 to 10 minutes. 

Remove the pot from heat and stir in the orange zest. If you’d like to add orange juice, add it now. Taste and if the mixture is too tart (keeping in mind that cranberry sauce is supposed to be a little tart!), add more orange juice and honey to the sauce.

I then like to finish the sauce up by pouring it into glass jars with flip lids to cool in the refrigerator, after adding a sprig of rosemary and a little zest of orange. I use 16 oz jars as this recipe is for one jar, and I will normally make 3-4 jars. So I will triple or quadruple the recipe.

Cranberry Sauce Naturally vs. Conventionally Sweetened

If you pick up a can of cranberry sauce at the grocery store and glanced at the list, you'll see— cranberries, followed by high fructose corn syrup, and that’s about it. High fructose corn syrup is heavily processed, flavorless sweet stuff that is often difficult to avoid, and I will try to avoid the stuff if I can.

Most homemade versions call for about a cup of white sugar. You can substitute most recipes with half the amount in honey. So a 1/2 cup of honey is equal to 1 cup sugar.  

[[ recipeID=recipe-8khseezot, title=Cranberry Sauce Homemade with Honey ]]

Cranberry Sauce Homemade with Honey

Your typical cranberry sauce from a can is made with either high fructose corn syrup or sugar. This recipe not only uses honey as the sweetener, which has a low glycemic index score and is a much more flavorful as well as healthier. 


If you would like to make more or less of this recipe, simply duplicate the ratios of each items.

Servings: 2 Cups

Keywords: Cranberry Sauce, Honey, Homemade

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

Instructions

Ingredients

  • 1 Bag (12 oz) Fresh or Frozen Cranberries
  • ½ Cup Wildflower Honey
  • ½ Cup Water
  • 1 Each Orange
  • 1 Tablespoon Zest of Orange (from orange)
  • 1 Stick Cinnimon
  • 1 Sprig Rosemary (for garnish)

Instructions

  1. 1. Combine the cranberries, cinnamon stick, honey, and water to a large pot and boil it while mixing until the cranberries have broken open and mixture has thickened to your liking, about 5 to 10 minutes.
  2. 2. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the orange zest. If you’d like to add orange juice, add it now. Taste and, if the mixture is too tart (keeping in mind that cranberry sauce is supposed to be a little tart!), add more orange juice, and honey to the sauce.
  3. 3. Then finish the sauce up by pouring it into glass jars with flip lids to cool in the refrigerator, after adding a sprig of rosemary and a little zest of orange. 

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 8

Serving Per Recipe: 2 Cups

Amount Per Serving
Calories 82
% Daily Value*
Total Fat g 0%
Saturated Fat g 0%
Trans Fat g
Sodium 2.2mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 22g 7%
Dietary Fiber 1.4g 5%
Sugars 19g
Protein 0.2g

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs:

Notes

Combine the cranberries, cinnamon stick, honey, and water to a large pot and boil it while mixing until the cranberries have broken open and mixture has thickened to your liking, about 5 to 10 minutes.

 

Remove the pot from heat and stir in the orange zest. If you’d like to add orange juice, add it now. Taste and, if the mixture is too tart (keeping in mind that cranberry sauce is supposed to be a little tart!), add more orange juice, and honey to the sauce.


I then like to finish the sauce up by pouring it into glass jars with flip lids to cool in the refrigerator, after adding a sprig of rosemary and a little zest of orange.