Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
  • ½ orange
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1 tart apple
  • 3 cups of fresh cranberries
  • 1¼ cups of honey
  • ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves
Preparation
  1. Squeeze the juice from the orange and set it aside. Scoop out the membrane from the orange and chop it.
  2. Cut the orange rind into ½ inch squares.
  3. Add the water and the orange rind and membranes to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
  4. After it boils, lower the flame and cook for 10 minutes.
  5. While this is cooking, cut the apple into ½ inch pieces. Remove the seeds.
  6. Remove any soft cranberries.
  7. After 10 minutes, add all the ingredients to the saucepan and boil over high heat.
  8. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for one hour. Cover the saucepan.
Notes
  • This recipe comes from Williams Sonoma. It originally appeared in their book of holiday recipes and has undergone a few changes. As I usually do, I have made some changes.
  • The original recipe calls for sugar; I use honey. If you decide to double or triple this recipe take caution on the quantity of honey you use. Honey tends to be sweeter (and healthier) than sugar. If I double the ingredients, I will use 2 cups of honey. If I triple the ingredients, I will use 3 cups of honey.
  • I freeze whatever I don't use in zip-lock bags. They are fine for 6 months.
  • The original recipe called for removing the orange membrane after extracting the juice. I happen to like the membrane, but when chopped up, it really goes well with the rest of the ingredients.
  • The same for the apple core. I will remove the seeds, but I keep the core and chop it into squares.
  • This recipe can be prepared 1-2 weeks in advance and stored in the refrigerator. If you are making it more than 2 weeks in advance, store it in the freezer.
  • I usually zest the whole orange and put that in the saucepan. I will only use the juice of half the orange.
  • Here are a couple of variations to the recipe.
    • Take 1 inch of fresh ginger, peel and slice.
    • Add ¼ cup of raisins. You might consider reducing the honey if you add the raisins.