By Emily
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Hello November. Hello holiday season. Hello Thanksgiving sides!!!
Today I share a family favorite Thanksgiving/Chrismtas side, cranberry apple pear sauce.
This isn’t your average cranberry sauce. It’s much more than cranberries and sugar with maybe a little orange juice simmered into a sauce. No, my friends this cranberry sauce has crunchy apples and pears and juicy raisins, it’s got a touch of cinnamon and is spiked with a hint of orange liquor at the end!!!
It’s literally THE BEST CRANBERRY SAUCE that will every sit on your Thanksgiving table!!!
Growing up me and my parents would fly from Wisconsin down to Texas to spend Christmas with my Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins. Since before I can remember my Aunt has been serving this exact cranberry apple pear sauce alongside our Christmas dinner.
It wasn’t long until my mom started making it at home for Thanksgiving. And we’ve never looked back!
Honestly, I don’t even know why it took me this long to share this family favorite recipe here on the blog. I did make a slow cooker sweet and spicy cranberry sauce a few years ago which was fun, if you need a hands off recipe…but if I am being 100% honest it doesn’t hold a candle to this cranberry apple pear sauce.
The reason I wanted to get this cranberry apple pear sauce recipe to you ASAP is because you could literally make it right now in preparation for Thanksgiving. Yes, it will keep for quite a while.
Of course only food bloggers have large amounts of cranberry sauce in their refrigerator in October – when I made this recipe to photograph. Normal people might not want to make it quite yet, but you might want to consider making it the weekend before Thanksgiving – one recipe done and out of the way to make your life that much easier on the biggest cooking holiday of the year.
It’s okay, you can thank me later!
What makes this cranberry apple pear sauce so dang good??!?!
Let’s count the ways:
- It’s got the perfect balance of sauciness from the cooked down cranberries
- the apples and pears give it a chunky texture
- the raisins plump up and are a nice bite of sweetness among the tart cranberries
- hints of warming cinnamon
- spiked with an orange liquor for depth of flavor
- beautiful color – BONUS!!!
What more could you ever want in a cranberry sauce?!
Side note: if you are wanting to avoid the alcohol from the orange liquor – there isn’t much in the recipe so it’s not like anyone’s gonna be falling over from cranberry sauce lol – however, I have included a few suggestions on how to substitute the orange liquor or cook off the alcohol so you still have all the flavor. BUT I do recommend using the orange liquor if you can, it’s like the icing on the cake.
And holiday cheer! 😉
I hope you enjoy this cranberry apple pear sauce as much as me and my family always have. The recipe is so perfect as is, I didn’t even change a thing (except for a pinch of salt, because balance) which is not my norm.
Family holiday recipes though…aren’t they the best?!
Like cranberries?
Try my cranberry orange muffins. Another great Thanksgiving side. Or they would be great as breakfast the next day.
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- Author: Emily Koch
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 8 to 10 1x
- Category: Side, Holiday, 1 pan
- Cuisine: Vegan, Vegetarian, Superfood, Gluten Free
Description
Cranberry apple pear sauce is the perfect side dish for Thanksgiving or Christmas. It’s packed with saucy cranberries, apples, pears, and sweet raisins.
Ingredients
UnitsScale
- 2 pounds fresh cranberries (8 cups)
- 3 cooking apples, peeled and chopped (I used granny smith)
- 2 firm pears, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups golden raisins
- 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups raw or granulated sugar (adjust according to how sweet/tart you like it. And keep in mind how sweet your orange liquor is)
- zest of 2 oranges
- 1 cup fresh orange juice (about 3 oranges)
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (use 1/8 teaspoon if using table salt)
- 1/2 cup orange liquor, such as cointreau or grand mala*
Instructions
- Simmer: Add all of the ingredients (except the orange liquor): fresh cranberries, apples, pears, golden raisins, granulated sugar, orange zest, freshly squeezed orange juice (use the oranges you zested to squeeze the orange juice), cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, to a large pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Allow the mixture to simmer for 35 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. You will know the cranberry sauce is done when most of the cranberries have popped and the sauce has reduced and become thick (see photo in post above).
- Finish: With the heat off stir in the orange liquor. Taste and add more sugar if needed.
- Cool: allow the sauce to mostly cool before transferring to airtight containers and storing in the fridge. Allow it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours (or overnight). This recipe is best made up to 2 days in advance so the flavors can really develop. You can make it up to 1 or 2 weeks in advance as it keeps for a long time in the fridge. Serve cold.
Notes
*Orange Liquor : If you want to cook off the alcohol just allow the cranberry sauce to simmer for another 30 seconds after you stir in the orange liquor – don’t let it simmer too long otherwise it will cook of the liquid and alter the consistency.
Omit the orange liquor – if you want to omit the alcohol completely, simply replace it with 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice at the end.
Sugar: I know most of my recipes use coconut sugar, honey, or maple syrup for sweeteners but I knew this recipe was best left unchanged. I did use raw sugar because that’s what I had on hand, granulated sugar will work too. Besides, this is a holiday recipe, it’s okay to splurge.
Recipe credit – My Aunt has been making this recipe for our Christmases as long as I can remember. The past few years my mom has made it for our Thanksgivings too, because we love it so much. My Aunt found the recipe in a column article by Perla Meyers.
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