Tastes of the Season

I am still alive! I promise! I know its been a loooong while since I've posted a blog but I've honestly been a bit busy and just haven't been able to sit down and write for a bit. Mainly it involved finishing school so yay me on that part! Yay! And there was that whole Thanksgiving thing which was followed by the madness of Black Friday shopping! Yes I was out in the crowds and I got great deals!

So then, it is officially the holiday season! Hurray! My favorite time of year! I love the smell in the air, the bite of the cold (when it actually gets cold, which happens a bit later in the season for us Texans!), the pretty lights and decorations and most of all...THE FOOD! I love cooking for the holidays! Cookies, pies, cakes, snacks, dips, bread, main courses and side dishes. It doesn't matter! If it puts me in the kitchen I am happy! So hopefully, I shall be blogging more often with a lot of tasty treats that you can make for your loved ones over the holidays.

And what better way to start than with a traditional favorite for the holiday dinner table? You know what I'm talking about. Cranberry sauce! Last year I made a whole berry cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving that my family went nuts over. So of course this year I wanted to make it again. But then I remembered something my mother had said. She had mentioned she always bought canned jellied cranberry sauce because she liked to have it for after the holiday. Well...I like to can, and I know how to make jelly...why couldn't I surprise my mother with homemade and CANNED cranberry sauce? And so I set to work.

Homemade cranberry sauce is actually really, really easy to make, and the recipe is the same whether you like whole berry or jellied, just some of the steps change.

You will need:

2 12 ounce bags of cranberries
1/3 cup of water, cranberry juice, or orange juice (I opted for orange juice)
2 cups of sugar or honey
(Optional for sugar free: omit the sugar and instead add 1 packet of no sugar needed pectin)

Same procedures as always with your jars. Wash and sterilize them in boiling water or a dishwasher. Place all caps in a pot of water that was boiled and then the burner turned off and fill your canning pot with water and get it boiling, making sure to also sterilize all your tools.

Now I am actually tripling this recipe so I have plenty to share, but the basic recipe should make about three half pint jars of jellied cranberry sauce.

First, get a bowl of water big enough to hold the cranberries. As you can see I have a lot of them! Now you want to give them a good rinse as well as feel for any really, really hard, or really mushy berries. Discard any that are a pale pink, and any that are mush. They are not ripe enough and too ripe. 

Now you can drain the cranberries, and if you're dealing with a small batch, that's the way to go. However since I'm doing a triple batch I let them hang out in the water and just scooped them out with a big straining spoon and plunked them in the pot. More on that in a moment. Add whatever liquid you are using to a large, non reactive pot. Let this come to just about a boil over medium high heat.



Now add your berries. Cook the berries, stirring occasionally, until they start to pop. This is a lot of fun because it sounds really neat to hear those berries pop! Like cartoon soap bubbles! Once about half the berries have popped, they are done with this phase of cooking. If you want whole berry sauce, you can use a potato masher to give em a bit of a squish to get a bit of a better consistency.

If you're going for jellied, its time to strain them either using a food mill, strainer attachment for the Kitchenaid, or in a pinch you can just puree the whole mess in a blender, food processor or an immersion blender works well too.

With the Kitchenaid strainer you want to position two bowls. One to catch the strained jelly.



And one to catch what is affectionately known as fruit poop. I know juvenile and gross but can you think of a better name for it? This is essentially all the skin and seeds from the berries.

Using a ladle, load the hopper, putting the mixer at about a level two, and the machine does all the rest. Be careful though, this stuff is hot!



Next, transfer the hot berry sauce back into its pot. Again, be careful! I learned that the hard way!

Bring this back to a boil and add the sugar, honey or if going sugar free, pectin. Boil for one minute.

Ladle the jelly into hot jars, run a plastic utensil around the sides to eliminate air and cap. Process in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes let them cool undisturbed for 24 hours to allow the jelly to set.

There you have it! Homemade cranberry sauce that will keep all year and for all your holiday meals! You can also change up your flavor profiles by adding marmalade or preserves when you add the sugar. Citrus, cherry and raspberry work well and help tame the tartness of the cranberries. Experiment! Try some fresh herbs too! I should note if you change things up, use a recipe that calls for it if you are canning this so you don't mess up your acidity. If its going to be served and not preserved though, you're good to go!  And you don't have to can it either. Instead of canning, pour the hot sauce into a festively shaped pan or mold. Turn it out onto a pretty plate and you have a side dish that is also a centerpiece! I used a heart shaped cake pan this year, and plan to find something Christmasy for Christmas dinner. You can even use muffin tins and make individual sauces for each attendee at your next dinner! Have fun with it!

Brightest blessings.