I never saw or tasted cranberries until I moved to the U.S. The beautifully deep red and round berry has quite a tart flavor with a slight sweetness. The taste of Vitamin C! I feel making cranberry sauce brings me closer to this culture. So, I take pleasure in making my own cranberry sauce during this time of Thanksgiving.
Cranberry sauce without sugar!
Since the flavor of the berry is so tart, to make cranberry sauce, it feels almost inevitable to add much sugar. With my passion of making sugar-free sweets, I pondered what could be the way to make a delicious and sweet enough cranberry sauce without adding much sweetener.
Roasted applesauce as main sweetener
I was inspired to combine the cranberry with my roasted applesauce. This apple sauce has a wonderful rich sweetness that can compensate for the tart flavor of the cranberry. And the flavor of apples goes so well together with it!
1 tbsp of honey completes the flavor
When I cooked the cranberries and the applesauce together, there was still a little bit of sweetness missing. So, I added 1 tbsp of honey after turning off the heat. The sauce became a perfect flavor!
I often combine several sweeteners for making sweets. I discovered that through combining different sweeteners expands the spectrum of flavor. And this makes it possible to minimize the amounts. I find it so much more delicious to experience the fine full spectrum of sweetness instead of an intense and simple sweetness.
Easy to make!
The making of this sauce is very simple.
- Blend the 1/2 lb. of fresh cranberries in a blender or food processor. I like having it a little coarse rather than completely puréeing.
- Put the blended cranberries into a pot and start to heat at medium heat.
- Allow it to simmer at medium low for 10 minutes.
- Add 120g of roasted applesauce, mixing together, and bring them to a boil.
- Turn off the heat and add 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tbsp of honey. Mix them well together.
The usage of the sauce
Of course, this can be one of your Thanksgiving dishes.
But also, this can be enjoyed so beautifully as a jam. Look here! My organic whole spelt sourdough bread with some coconut oil, peanut butter, and this cranberry-apple sauce. It is a wonderful treat of this season.
Also, I used this sauce for my Thanksgiving Pumpkin Coconut Mousse Cake. It added such a nice freshness to the pumpkin mousse. I hope you will try to make it, too!
