How To: Make, Customize and Freeze Homemade Cranberry Sauce

How To: Make, Customize and Freeze Cranberry Sauce

November 20, 2014 by Valerie 3 Comments

Just like jams and jellies, homemade cranberry sauce is a great item to make-ahead and freeze. Transfer it into mason jars, pop them in your freezer, and you can cross one thing off your Thanksgiving “to do” list. Make and freeze a couple of batches now and you’ll have fresh cranberry sauce on hand for the entire holiday season.

Homemade cranberry sauce is one of the quickest and easiest items that make up the Thanksgiving feast. While you could just grab a couple of cans at the grocery store, once you try making it from scratch, it’s doubtful you’ll ever go back to the canned variety. It’s fresher, you can control the texture, and it takes less than 30 minutes to make. It is also freezes beautifully so it can be made far in advance of the holiday.

I’m sharing my base recipe that is wonderful on it’s own, or you can get a little creative and add in a variety of ingredients to jazz it up. Apples, pears, berries, and some cozy fall-inspired seasonings can be added to this base recipe to make it unique. Each Thanksgiving, I always prepare two sauces – the straight forward base recipe for the cranberry sauce purists, and another with a variety of add-ins to make things interesting. I go with whatever suits my fancy and each year, it’s a little different.

Grab those fresh cranberries while the gettin’ is good and make up a couple of batches of this holiday classic. Click on the link below for the recipe and complete step-by-step instructions on how to make, customize and freeze cranberry sauce in advance. I’ve also included instructions on how to incorporate some optional add-ins to make things interesting.