The long-awaited and coveted Fruit-Sweetened Cranberry Sauce recipe is here!!! One that I've been working on the past 3 years to perfect, so I could finally post it on The Dimpled Date. It's finally arrived. This jammy cranberry sauce is thick, fruity, and smooth, infused with cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and orange. It has a good mouthfeel, and it's a little tart but very sweet and well-balanced. And this one is sweetened ONLY with fruit... yet it's still amply sweet enough. This cranberry sauce is bound to be the star of your Holiday/Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner table, each spoonful bursting with flavor. And I also have an absolutely delicious cranberry sauce made with maple syrup/honey that I'm including in this recipe post (for those who prefer a more sugary, jelly-like, conventional cranberry sauce). But both are delicious! Make this easy, quick, homemade cranberry sauce, for an actually healthy alternative that's WAY better than canned. Happy Holidays!
Ok so this Fruit-Sweetened Cranberry Sauce is delightful! It's super sweet, citrusy, warmly spiced, and just a liiiiittle tart. And it's thick and has substance. It's honestly a treat worthy of being a dessert, except it's actually healthy and good for you. (Really it's just pureed fresh fruit + spices + extracts + superfoods)
For those of you canned cranberry sauce purists, let me say this: once you try this homemade cranberry sauce, you will never go back. It is honestly so flavorful and fresh, and it doesn't have the gelatin-like texture that turns some people off. And you can actually taste the cranberries with each bite exploding with sweetness and balanced flavors.
This cranberry sauce touches on all the main flavors (except salty + umami... even though it does have a little salt + pepper): sweet, sour, tart/bitter/tangy, earthy, and pungent (which includes spices like cinnamon and ginger). *I know* technically "earthy" and "pungent" aren't recognized as flavors (pungent is technically a sensation, not a taste, and "earthy" isn't recognized as a flavor. But in my books it should be since it specifically is detectable through the presence of a natural, fresh, robust, soil-reminiscent flavor). And if we're being honest, I think that "smoky" should definitely be a flavor too, but it's not. I do highly respect and appreciate the newly recognized "sixth" flavor, ammonium chloride, though. This is the compound that gives a salty-licorice flavor present in such foods as Finnish tar candy and other Scandinavian confections. Although I'm no scientist, I've made activated charcoal-infused candies in the past, and I think a charcoal flavor type ought to be recognized too. But I digress, we're here to talk about cranberry sauce, not tar candy and smoky mesquite. Thanks for sticking around for my tangent lol.
Needless to say, my point is: this is a complex cranberry sauce with a satisfying balance of flavors. And the texture is jammy, smooth, and almost "creamy" too. What's more, is it has a gorgeous red/pink color that's all-natural (just from the cranberries). And this is an actually healthy cranberry sauce, no sugar, gelatin, or artificial colorants/flavors/preservatives in sight!
This side dish can be served warm or cold. And if you're looking for a cranberry sauce that's sweeter, more red + transparent/clear, and more jelly-like (like canned), try the maple-sweetened version of this recipe (see recipe below). In the photos, the darker red, clear cranberry sauce in the little green and white bowl is the maple-sweetened (above photo), whereas the thicker, pinker, more opaque cranberry sauce in the white dish is the fruit-sweetened (below photo). But both are really sweet, healthy, and good.
Ok, so so far for the holidays, I've mainly had side dish recipes like cornbread and cranberry sauce. As we move further into the holiday season, what other holiday recipes do you want to see on The Dimpled Date? Particularly, are there any new healthy dessert recipes you want to see me make? Drop your suggestion in the comments!
And if you tried this cranberry sauce and liked it, give this post a <3 and leave your feedback in the comments, if you'd like! :) I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!
Substitutions in this Fruit-Sweetened Cranberry Sauce
Cranberries
well, cranberries are kind of the point because this is cranberry sauce. However, if cranberries aren't your thing and you want to cut them with a little something else, try replacing some of the fresh cranberries with fresh raspberries, fresh strawberries, fresh wineberries, fresh cherries (pitted), fresh pomegranate arils (pomegranate seeds), or even fresh blackberries or blueberries for a purple-y mixed berry type sauce. Using any of these fruits along with some fresh cranberries will yield a sweeter, less tart sauce with more berry notes and a slightly different color, depending on the other type(s) of fruit used. You can also try using white (young) cranberries to make your sauce, understanding that they're a little harder to come by but less tart, more fruity, and sweeter.
Orange juice/apple cider
Date paste
Date sugar
Spices/herbs (cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, etc.)
Vanilla
Orange zest/lemon zest
Orange blossom water/rose water
Pomegranate arils/add-ins
Maple syrup (For the maple-sweetened cranberry sauce)
Future Recipes Sneak Peek... Back Again!!
This feature that previews 3+ new recipes coming to The Dimpled Date soon is back again! 7 new recipes that are perfected or are in the works and that are coming to the DD soon are:
Vegan/GF Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese egg custard tarts)
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Cranberry Pomegranate "Ging-let" Cocktail/Mocktail
Fruit-Sweetened Banana Bread (Vegan + GF)
New and Improved "Sugar Cookies"
Healthy Gingerbread
"The Colbie" Dalgona Latte ...
... AND MORE! Stay tuned for these delicious recipes!
Thanks for checking out this healthy cranberry sauce recipe, hope you all love it! Happy Thanksgiving/Friendsgiving & Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas! More holiday recipes coming soon!
See you all in the next post and at the next market/pop-up!
Enjoy! <3
-K.
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