Simple Cranberry-Clementine Spread

Make this beautiful buttery cranberry sauce with only four ingredients. It is a perfect side dish for your Holiday dinners, complimenting many main dishes. But it also tastes fantastic, served as a fruit spread on desserts, for breakfast or a family brunch party.

HOW TO MAKE THIS DELICIOUS CRANBERRY SAUCE/SPREAD

Clementines: It is that time of the year when fresh cranberries and clementines beautifully give color to the produce section at grocery stores. Clementines are especially sweet around the Holiday season and naturally balance the tartness of the red berries. As a liquid, I use one cup of fresh clementine juice to help pop open the cranberries over the stove. With clementines as the sweeter variation amongst citrus fruits, I often don't have to add any additional sweetness.

Coconut sugar: I love my cranberry sauce on the more tangy side, but the rest of my family likes it a tad sweeter, which I accomplish by adding some coconut sugar. This type of sweetener is now available at almost every grocery store (even at Walmart and Home Goods). Otherwise, get it here online. I prefer to use it over honey or maple syrup because it just adds a mildly sweet taste to the sauce rather than overpowering it.

Butter or coconut butter: It is the real butter in the end that balances out the sweet and tart flavors and adds that irresistible creaminess to this sauce. It is just the magic in this recipe. Make sure to use unsalted butter. And for my vegan friends, a good quality coconut butter works just as well.

Fresh cranberries: Cranberry season is short—from October to January— and I try to buy them fresh during that time of the year. But you can get frozen bags year-round, and they might even be cheaper.  Buy them in bulk by the end of the season when they are on sale and freeze them for later use. To use frozen cranberries for cooking, only rinse them in cold water and use them like fresh cranberries in recipes.

For storage, I prefer to use mason jars with an airtight lid. After cooking, I immediately transfer the sauce to the jars. Once slightly cooled, seal them and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.

OTHER WAYS OF ENJOYING CRANBERRY SAUCE

A good cranberry sauce is so much more than a simple condiment on a fancy Holiday table. At home, I enjoy it in a variety of ways. I literally can't stay away once I have a jar or two in the fridge. I have a weakness for that lovely sweet-tangy taste.

Here are just a few ideas for using fresh cranberry sauce in everyday healthy recipes:

• The consistency of this homemade sauce is almost of a lovely fruit spread and taste great on toasted farmer's bread with butter, French toast, or as a topping on your Sunday pancakes or waffles (try it out with my Gluten-Free Buckwheat Waffles with warm Cinnamon and Vanilla.)
• My daughter loves our peanut butter and cranberry sandwiches. It goes well with any nut butter.
• It adds a delightful sweetness as a topping on Bulgarian probiotic or coconut yogurts. Add pecans and chia seeds, and you have a quick breakfast recipe for during the week.
• Serve a couple of spoons to my flourless rich chocolate brownies. Dare even to add some vanilla cream.
• I have used it as an extra layer of topping on my No-bake Mascarpone Fruit and Amaretto Tart.
• It is divine with seed crackers and a soft ash goat cheese—a lovely crowd pleaser. I am crazy about the super seed crackers from Mary's Gone Crackers.
• Add it as an ingredient in my Sweet Rhubarb-Rosemary Biscuits. Replace the rhubarb compote with the cranberry sauce. It adds such a unique flavor, and these biscuits are super easy to make.
• Use it to add sweetness to your Banana Nice cream. Check out my Chocolate Raspberry Nice Cream recipe and substitute the cranberry sauce for the raspberries.

These are just a few suggestions, but reasons enough to make this recipe more often than only around the Holiday season.

Check out our Video: my daughter loves to help me in the kitchen and pretend that she is feeding her stuffed animal friends while cooking. As the cranberry-clementine sauce is simmering on the stove, I keep an eye on it while playing our safari tour.

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(Note: this post was initially published in February 2017. This post has been updated to include new info and photos)