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Cathartic Ink

putting my own spin on things

Baked Cranberry Sauce

November 24, 2009 'Tis the Season, Bastions of Domesticity, Cooking and Baking, recipes 2

bakedberry2

Marnie posted a link on twitter to this recipe on the Food Network this morning and even though we’re not celebrating Thanksgiving until Friday this year, I went ahead and immediately made some changes and tossed my berries in the oven. Just over an hour from start to finish, this sauce can be made quite a bit in advance (the recipe says it keeps a few weeks in the fridge) and takes almost no active time. The result is a rich sauce, tangy and sweet, with just a hint of spice. Perfect for any dinner, and you can easily adapt the flavors to suit your meal. You could try changing out the juice and almond extract for tequila and cayenne pepper, with lime zest in place of the orange for a spicy kick on your turkey.

Baked Cranberry Sauce (adapted from the Food Network)

1 12 ounce bag of cranberries, fresh or frozen and thawed

between 1 and 1 1/8 cups sugar, depending on how sweet you like it.

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tablespoon orange zest

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract.

Preheat Oven to 350º F.
Mix cranberries, sugar and cinnamon together in an oven safe dish with a lid (I used a corning ware dish). Cook in oven for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes, stir in orange zest and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Berries will be soft, surrounded by a syrup-like sauce.
Remove from the oven, stir in the orange juice and almond extract and allow to cool to room temperature. Chill at least one hour before serving and store any leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge.

2 Comments

  1. Marnie

    You and I have like minds. I also added orange juice and a little less sugar, though we had no zest (poop) and no almond extract (cool idea!). I did finish mine with a splash of rum to make it a little more decadent. So easy.

  2. Kathryn

    I used this recipe of yours, and it worked out wonderfully (and easily!). We only had one orange lying around, so I subsituted minced candied ginger for the zest and home-steeped apricot-ginger vodka to top off the OJ.

    Everyone really loved it, and it thankfully doesn’t need lots of time to mellow, unlike my mom’s cranberry-orange sauce.

    Thanks!