articles

Homemade Cranberry Sauce: Less Sugar, More Flavor

Your family will love this lower sugar homemade cranberry sauce

By Heather Williams, Edited by Elisa Posniack, Publisher Macaroni KID NW Bergen County, NJ December 18, 2023

Cranberries are a very tart fruit. Many store-bought types of cranberry sauce and cranberry juice have a large amount of added sugar. After testing several ways of making homemade cranberry sauce with less sugar, I came up with a simple recipe that is the perfect combination of sweet and tart. This recipe uses 100% juice instead of water and less sugar than a typical recipe.

You can change up the flavor by using different types of juice, adding zest (orange, lemon, lime) and/or different spices.

My family loves this cranberry sauce so much that I typically make a double batch.


At Macaroni KID, we skip the fluff and get straight to the good stuff. No need to scroll through pages of unnecessary content — our recipes are easy to find. Now let's get cooking!


Homemade Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 package fresh cranberries (12 ounces)
  • 1 cup 100% juice – we typically use pomegranate blueberry juice
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

  1. Rinse cranberries in cold water and remove any stems.
  2. In a medium pot, combine cranberries, juice, and sugar.
  3. Cook over medium-high heat, bringing mixture to a boil. 
  4. Boil for about 5 minutes or until most of the berries have popped open and the mixture has thickened. Be sure to stir often.
  5. Carefully taste-test as it boils. If you prefer a sweeter sauce, you can add some additional sugar, either 1/4 or 1/2 cup.
  6. Carefully pour cranberry sauce in a bowl and set aside to cool.
  7. Serve once cooled or store in the refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will naturally thicken as it cools.

This recipe originally appeared on Macaroni KID EATS!