make ahead roasted cranberry sauce
One cranberry sauce with booze and one without. These easy oven roasted cranberry sauces continue to be my go to cranberry recipes year after year. The best part is how simple it is to make them as much as five days ahead of time so you can save yourself one small portion of stress when prepping for Thanksgiving Day. (and don’t tell but I make at least two kinds of cranberry sauce because I want leftovers)
The house smells amazing right now. A heady whiff of cinnamon and cardamom, the tang of cranberry and grapefruit, and the smoky sweet of bourbon. I love Thanksgiving!
Last time I made cranberry sauce ahead of time I almost forgot about it until I heard some of my Canadian guests wondering aloud if perhaps we just didn’t serve cranberry sauce for American Thanksgiving. Not this year I’ll remember because this year I’m making two different kinds. What the heck, I’ve got a whole week to do the rest.
Cranberry Sauce Two Ways
I bought two 12 ounce bags of fresh cranberries, rinsed and sorted and then divided them up, ending up with about 3 cups of berries for each batch. I prefer my cranberry sauce tangy so I use almost half the sugar called for in most recipes. Feel free to ramp up the sweet.
Baked Bourbon and Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce
One of my more recent favorites- Bourbon Cranberry Sauce. I don’t drink whiskey but I love how the bourbon softens the edge of the cranberry’s bite without overwhelming the sauce.
adapted from Bon Appetite’s Bourbon Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and sorted
3/4-1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup bourbon
Directions:
Combine first three ingredients in a bread pan or other oven safe dish. Bake uncovered in 350 degree preheated oven until cranberries have burst and bubbled and sugar is completely dissolved-about 50 minutes. Stir once or twice during baking. Remove from oven and add the bourbon. The sauce will thicken once chilled. Can be made up to one week ahead.
Grapefruit and Cardamom Cranberry Sauce
There are kids coming so I thought I better do one booze free cranberry sauce. I was having a half a grapefruit for breakfast and version two was born.
Ingredients:
3 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and sorted
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp grapefruit zest, pith completely removed and finely minced
The juice of half a grapefruit
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bread pan or other oven safe dish. Bake uncovered in 350 degree preheated oven until cranberries have burst and bubbled and sugar is completely dissolved-about 50 minutes. Stir once or twice during baking. Remove from oven and cool before serving. The sauce will thicken once chilled. Can be made up to one week ahead.
Roasted Cranberry Sauce Two Ways- bourbon cinnamon & grapefruit cardamom
Ingredients
Baked Bourbon and Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce
- 3 cups fresh cranberries rinsed and sorted
- 3/4-1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup bourbon
Grapefruit and Cardamom Cranberry Sauce
- 3 cups fresh cranberries rinsed and sorted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp grapefruit zest pith completely removed and finely minced
- The juice of half a grapefruit
Instructions
Baked Bourbon and Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce
- Combine first three ingredients in a bread pan or other oven safe dish. Bake uncovered in 350 degree preheated oven until cranberries have burst and bubbled and sugar is completely dissolved-about 50 minutes. Stir once or twice during baking.
- Remove from oven and add the bourbon. The sauce will thicken once chilled.
- Can be made up to one week ahead.
Grapefruit and Cardamom Cranberry Sauce
- Combine all ingredients in a bread pan or other oven safe dish. Bake uncovered in 350 degree preheated oven until cranberries have burst and bubbled and sugar is completely dissolved-about 50 minutes. Stir once or twice during baking.
- Remove from oven and cool before serving. The sauce will thicken once chilled. Can be made up to one week ahead.
I was all set to do my usual: cans of Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce plus Jane Brody’s cranberry relish–raw cranberries, a whole navel orange, peel and all, a little sugar and orange liqueur, like Gran Marinier or Cointreau–all in the Cuisinart. Now that I see these, though, I may have to try one. I love cardamom in any form. The Jane Brody one is worth making lots of in order to have leftovers for sandwiches with sharp cheddar, or making without bothering with a turkey, just to eat on toast.
Mmmm, I love the idea of sharp cheddar with cranberry relish. Now I’m going to have to go out and get more cranberries. This is why I love the Thanksgiving season, so many of my favorite foods all on one table. And yeah I’ll slip cardamom into anything I can.
Wow! I followed the basic principle, but changed the flavor a bit based on what I had on hand. I used cinnamon, orange and lemon zest and orange juice, then when it came out, I added a splash of almond extract. It is AMAZING!! I don’t even know if it will last until Thanksgiving. I keep tasting it… ya know… for quality control.
I will definitely be making it again with the grapefruit and cardamom! Love both those flavors!!
Quality control is very important! Using what I have on hand is my inspiration and Almond extract sounds like an inspired addition on your part. I almost threw some vanilla in the grapefruit cardamom.