Canned Cranberry Sauce

This is a great recipe and actually a fairly easy canning recipe {although you could also store this in the refrigerator if you will use it within a week or two; I assume you could also freeze it but I haven't tried that yet}.  

All you need are fresh cranberries, sugar, an orange and water!  The original recipe I found and used from Foodie with Family strained the cranberries to make it more "jelly" like.  I decided I wanted to keep some of the texture {but not much}, so I ran my berries through my food processor.

This is a huge hit with everyone in my family!  Big Mr. J and Little Miss J like to eat it with a spoon or fingers.  And my hubby was using it on my fresh Hawaiian baked bread before I got a chance to tell him it was a sauce not a jam!

I made a single batch of this last Sunday, which came out to 2 quart and 3 pint jars.  Then since it was so tasty and fresh cranberries are in season right now, I made double batch on Monday, which turned out just over 5 quarts!  

Yum, homemade cranberry sauce for the year to come!

Now to the recipe...

Ingredients:

-4 {12 ounce} bags fresh cranberries

-4 cups sugar

-zest of 1 orange {I actually used 2 clementines (zest and juice)... *tip: zest orange before juicing it}

-juice of 1 orange plus enough water to equal 4 cups

Process:

1. Prepare canning equipment, start heating water in canner.

2. Combine sugar and orange juice/water mixture in a large pot.  Bring to a boil.

3. Add cranberries and orange zest; return to a boil, gently boil for about 10 minutes.

4. At this point you can choose to strain the mixture through a sieve or process the mixture in a food processor or blender {you could probably use an immersion blender, but I haven't tried it yet}.  I processed my cooked cranberry mixture in batches in my food processor.
5. Once you have processed or strained the mixture return it to the pot and keep hot.

6. Pour cranberries into hot sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

7. Wipe rims, place lids on jars, screw on rings to finger-tip tightness and place jars in hot water bath.
8. Process all jars for 15 minutes, whether they are pint, pint and a half or quart.
9. Turn off heat and remove canner lid, let jars sit in water for 5 mintues.
10. Transfer jars to a wire rack or clean towel to cool overnight.

Enjoy any way you like its great!  

I think it would be fantastic over ice cream or cake, or maybe even over greek yogurt!?!