The barrage of holiday recipes has started. For my Canadian and other non-American readers, I urge you to think of these recipes not just for American Thanksgiving, but for the whole holiday season. In fact, our family tradition is to eat turkey at Christmas dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes and a double dose of gravy. For my family, it’s not a proper turkey dinner without our favorite
Maple & Brown Sugar Cranberry Sauce and my mother-in-law’s Crockpot Applesauce. Our favorite cranberry sauce will be making appearance again this year. In fact, I think my kids would have “words” with me if I didn’t make it. However, since variety is the spice of life (so they say), I thought it would be fun to have another version on hand for day-after sandwiches.
Between the family applesauce recipe and the pear applesauce I made this year, the crockpot (slow cooker) has always worked well for us. Not only does it fill the kitchen with the smell of the holidays, but it can be tucked away in the corner of the kitchen, freeing up stovetop space, which is at a premium when cooking a holiday meal. This version is filled with cranberries, fresh orange juice, orange zest and chopped crystallized ginger. As the apples cook down and the cranberries pop, the color takes on a ruby red hue. Before removing the sauce from the crockpot, be sure to taste it. If you find it to be too tart, just add an extra tablespoon or two of brown sugar to sweeten things up.
The recipe:
Place all of the apple pieces and cranberries in a large bowl and stir in brown sugar and orange zest.
Pour orange juice into the bottom of a large crockpot (slow cooker) and add the apple mixture.
Cover, turn the crockpot setting to Low, and cook for about 8 hours, stirring occasionally and breaking up the apple slices and popping cranberries with a wooden spoon as they soften.
Stir in crystallized ginger. Taste and add an additional tablespoon or two of brown sugar if you find the sauce too tart for your liking.
Serve warm or room temperature.
Other cranberry sauce recipes:
Cookin’ Canuck’s Maple & Brown Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Flavias’s Flavors’ Cranberry-Pomegranate Relish
Two Peas and Their Pod’s Fresh Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ciao Florentina’s Blood Orange Cranberry Sauce
From the kitchen of Cookin Canuck. www.cookincanuck.com
Ingredients
- 4 medium Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered & sliced
- 1 (12 oz) package fresh cranberries
- 5 tbsp brown sugar (or more to taste)
- 1 tsp grated orange zest
- 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
- 1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
Instructions
- Place all of the apple pieces and cranberries in a large bowl and stir in brown sugar and orange zest.
- Pour orange juice into the bottom of a large crockpot (slow cooker) and add the apple mixture.
- Cover, turn the crockpot setting to Low, and cook for about 8 hours, stirring occasionally and breaking up the apple slices and cranberries with a wooden spoon as they soften.
- Stir in crystallized ginger. Taste and add an additional tablespoon or two of brown sugar if you find the sauce to be too tart.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
I adore crystallized ginger! That totally sold me. Love this.
Lovely combination – love it, might have to be on the Thanksgiving table!
i did something similar with just cranberries…the apples are such a great addition though! and crystallized ginger?! be still my heart
I will have to try this cranberry sauce. Adding apples and crystallized ginger sounds like a yummy idea.
oh boy this sounds great I love crockpot recipes going to try this one with a dash of Amaretto in it too! Thanks this is an awesome time saver for me!
I love the practicality of involving the slow cooker in Thanksgiving prep. The crystallizes ginger is an especially nice touch!
My eyes are processing the beauty…..
I love apples in my cranberry sauce! I will have to try ginger next time too!
this is gorgeous! i love adding ginger in with the cranberries – and homemade is the only way to go when it comes to cranberry sauce.
This is such a good idea for the busy holiday cooking season when stove and oven space is at a premium!
I love that this is a crockpot recipe. So easy! And as you said, frees up my counter for all the pies I’ve got to make. Love it!
Perfect for Thanksgiving and sounds so easy to prepare. I would love to give this a try.
That looks delicious. Perfect for our Thanksgiving at the beach. Come visit. We have a terrific cranberry couscous.
Slow cooker dishes always win! Love that you added apples. I’m use to cranberry sauce being just that – not with apples. This is one of my favorite combinations
Love that recipe! I made something similar last year and it was so good and actually would work just as well as a dessert with ice cream on top.
Variety!
Awesome – i do make Turkey for Thanksgiving but i also make ribs and the ribs go first
For cranberry i made this cranberry and orange molds that are our of this world – i make extras just so i can eat them for dessert too 
http://delishhh.com/2010/11/22/cranberry-orange-molds-indian-trail-cranberry-orange-mold/
Perfect! I’m firing up all of my slow cookers for Thanksgiving — just need to find a place to plug them in!
I’m all about the slow cooker this year. This looks SO delicious!
I’ve been loving my slow cooker lately – can’t wait to try this for Thanksgiving!
I’ve been looking for a good cranberry sauce recipe and this is it. I love everything about it: the low sugar , the apples, the orange juice, the ginger, and the crock pot. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m a fellow UT blogger! I finally got around to commenting and I just love your blog! I have some crystallized ginger in my pantry that I need to use up!
You had me at crystallized ginger!
Growing up we only ever had the jiggly canned cranberry stuff, which I avoided like the plague. But this… this looks amazing! I’m on side dishes this Thanksgiving, so we will definitely be giving this a try!
This sounds absolutely delightful!
Looks gorgeous and I’m sure it tastes amazing.
I love crystallized ginger!
wow! This looks so wonderful Dara!!
This does look scrumptious – and I bet it tastes delicious right out of the bowl with a spoon! However, I have to admit, that when it comes to that old traditional meal, it is the plain old homemade cranberry sauce I crave – every time. I have made so many others… and am definitely tempted to make this one – but maybe to go with cheese as an appetizer. It looks that good – easily!
V
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, BTW!
This looks incredible!! Love the crystallized ginger!
That certainly does look delicious. I’ll bet it’s power packed with sweet flavor!
The crystallized ginger is a fabulous touch! I may have to make a teeny batch just for myself…..mmmmmmm.
Fantastic cranberry sauce recipe, Dara. Love the addition of the crystallized ginger. Yum.
Oh this sounds delish. I am a huge fan of cranberry sauce, any type and flavor!
I have never really cooked with fresh cranberries! But this sauce I can imagine would go great with so many things!
The ginger sounds like it be so good with the cranberries and orange!
I bet this does smell just amazing while it’s cooking!! Can’t wait to give it a try, cranberries are one of my favorites.
Love the addition of ginger. It would add sweet and a little heat. Perfect with roasted turkey!
I love homemade cranberry sauce and this recipe sounds wonderful!
I think my favorite thing to make the past several years is cranberry sauce; there are so many options for flavoring it. This is one of my favorites…but you should not be surprised to hear I’m going to try adding a bit of vodka…sort of a ‘cosmopolitan’ cranberry sauce. I must say…just so you know and don’t see me sloshed over the computer screen…I love to cook with the booze but rarely actually drink it. Except maybe on Friday.
Love crystallized ginger! What a divine flavor combination not to mention stunning looking dish! Just beautiful.
A gorgeous seasonal classic! GREG
I had no idea cranberry sauce could look that frickin good. That first image is so pretty, Dara! Loving these recipes as we enter the holiday season (you know we had our thanksgiving but christmas is just around the corner) so these are all so helpful and full of new ideas.
Well, you know how much I love crystallized ginger. This would be a hit with me!
I made this last night. It smelled so good while cooking. I put it on high and was planning to stir it about every 45 minutes but I forgot about it at one point and went about 90 minutes without stirring and it burned (I was still able to salvage it though!). At that point it was cooking for 4 hours. If I would make it again on high, I would use a timer to remind me to stir or cook it on low.
Anyway, it is extremely delicious! I added about 7 tablespoons sugar total and may add more. I am freezing it until next week for Thanksgiving.
Thank you!!!!!
Hope, thanks so much for letting me know. I have cooked it on High in the past without any troubles, which makes me wonder if different brands of crockpots heat a little differently. I’ll be sure to make a note in the recipe about frequent stirring.
This cranberry sauce looks amazing! Do you think I can make it with frozen cranberries? I live in Australia and sadly, cranberries are something that do not grow here! I’m American and am going to attempt making my first ever Thanksgiving dinner for my Aussie friends. And for an extra challenge I’ve decided to do it in a country where they don’t have all the ingredients I need
Help please!
Hi Lauren, I admire your tenacity in making a Thanksgiving dinner while living abroad. Good for you! I don’t see why you couldn’t make this with frozen cranberries, but I have never actually tried it myself. I would defrost the cranberries first and then make the sauce as directed. Let me know how it turns out!
Thank you! I’ll try it and report back! Lucky for me, my friends will have nothing to compare it to
How long will this be good for? I would like to make some and put in jars for gifts before we let out for the Thanksgiving holidays.
I would like to know how long after making the crockpot cranberry & apple with orange and crystallized ginger will keep in the fridge. Please let me know soon. Thank you. Mary.
Hi Mary, I’ve stored it in the fridge for up to 5 days. It also freezes really well. I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you so much for getting back to me so fast. I’m making this for a work Christmas dinner on the 14 th. I’m looking forward to trying this.
I made this for my work Christmas dinner and it was a hit even with the one that were not fond of cranberries. I will be making this every year. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
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