Di’s Home-Made Cranberry Recipe
2 bags of fresh cranberries
Apple or grape juice, enough to almost cover the cranberries, approx. 3 cups
2 cups natural white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Cinnamon
Dash of Orange peel, dried is ok
¼ cup raisins (optional)
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Total cooking time approx ½ hour, but worth every minute.
Rinse fresh cranberries, empty into deep saucepan. Cover the cranberries with juice until it is within one inch from the top of the cranberries. Heat cranberry mixture over medium flame, let boil until cranberries begin to pop by themselves, stir in first cup of sugar. Keep the cranberry mix from burning by continually stirring and smashing the popped berries on the side of the pan, this will help make the jelly.
After the first cup of sugar is well melted in, stir in the second cup and keep smashing those berries. Sprinkle a light coating of cinnamon on the top and stir in. The mixture should start looking darker in color by now, keep stirring, smashing berries and adding the sugar one cup at a time, allowing the sugar to become candied.
Put in the raisins and the walnuts if you have a fancy for something completely different!
Stir in a couple of pinches of the orange peel (not too much of this or it will be bitter), and mix in. By now you should have only a few last cranberries that aren’t burst, but keep stirring and smashing until you are sure they are all popped. Most of the excess juice has also been cooked off by now so it can jell properly.
This is WOW with turkey, but has been known to be slathered on ham, waffles and used as pancake syrup (if there’s any left over the next day)!
Blessed Beeeees,
Diane Tegarden and furfamily
