Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Slow Cooker) + Tidbits of Life

Name: Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Slow Cooker) + Tidbits of Life
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 5 min
Yield: ~1 ½ cups
Ingredients: 12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries (do not defrost frozen berries); 2 teaspoons orange zest; ½ cup fresh orange juice; 1 cup granulated sugar (brown sugar and palm sugar would work too); 2 tablespoons water; Optional add-ins: cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, vanilla extract, etc.

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A simple 5-ingredient homemade cranberry sauce recipe that’s made in the slow cooker! You can even make it ahead and just reheat the day of. It doesn’t get easier than this!

Hello! I’m back! Is it too much to ask if you missed me 🙂 I hope you did!

I bringing you the most delicious homemade cranberry sauce that’s made in the slow cooker today but before we get to all of the yumminess — This whole month has been absolutely CRAZY! <– that’s putting it mildly.

So — for the big news that i’ve been dangling over you for the last, oh I don’t know, 2 weeks, 2 months? — Little Spice Jar has a *HOME*!

It’s a cute little thing on a cul-de-sac and it’s all ours 🙂 It took us half of forever to find this place but it was sorta worth the wait. It comes complete with a red door AND AND AND the kitchen actually has a window! I never, in my entire life, thought i’d be so excited to see a window in the kitchen. So this means, I can actually snap a few shots while cooking. WIN. Which definitely wasn’t an option in our two bedroom apartment.

This was the second move we made in a year and it has been insane! We were in a 1 bedroom till the end of February and as the blog started growing quickly, we needed space for an office and a proper room for photography. So in February we packed up our stuff and the neighbors/besties helped us drag all of our belongings down to the 3rd floor of the same apartment building. But even in a 2 bedroom it quickly started becoming obvious that we needed more space. 2 adults + 2 desks + 1 photography area/blog props storage area was not working. *pouty-face*

The last week of being in the apartment drove me bonkers. Shooting recipes for upcoming posts, packing, and living out of a boxes. I really don’t know how other bloggers do it. Packing up my dough hook attachment for the KitchenAid mixer only to realize I needed it to make One Hour Dinner Rolls. Panicking and not realizing I packed it. Asking the hubby if he tossed it? Going through all the boxes and not finding it! Only to pray that Amazon will send me one in 2 days so that the dinner rolls can still be made! Ouhf.

Glad that’s over with.

Cheers to new beginnings and windows in the kitchen!

So now let’s talk about this homemade cranberry sauce!

It’s 5 simple ingredients, y’all! We’re using fresh OR frozen cranberries along with fresh orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and water. That’s it!

You jazz up the cranberry sauce with whatever you like — cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, vanilla extract — the possibilities are endless.

Toss it all in the slow cooker and give it a good stir. I let my cranberry sauce cook on the high setting for 3-4 hours while I walked away and packed a ton of boxes for the big move and listened to Judge Judy scream and people in the background. She is awesome in so many ways.

The sauce will look a little thin when it’s done and you may be tempted to cook it longer but don’t. When the cranberry sauce starts cooling the natural pectin present in the cranberries helps thicken the sauce to the perfect consistency.

Really wish I had more to explain about this simple cranberry sauce recipe but it’s so easy to make that it really requires no additional words.

Just toss it all in, give it a stir and let make the whole house smell amazing. You can even cook it on the slow setting for 7-8 hours. Or just let it cook overnight before heading off to bed and have it ready for you tomorrow morning. Let it cool completely before popping it in the fridge. It perfect to make ahead of time and reheat the day of!

Yield: ~1 ½ cups