I’ve noticed, over the past few years, that recipes for cranberry sauce are calling for less and less sugar. Maybe it’s just the type of cranberry sauce that I’ve had, but cranberries have such a great natural tartness to them that I’ve never tasted a cranberry sauce that was too sweet. I far prefer cranberry sauces that are a little on the sweeter side because they tend to have a more balanced flavor and complement other dishes better than super-tart sauces.

For my holiday cranberry sauce this year, I decided to up the sweetness factor by adding some lovely sweet blackberries to the sauce, not by adding in more sugar. The blackberries didn’t hide the tartness of the cranberries, but they did contribute a slightly jammy feel to the whole dish and sweetened everything up. It goes well on turkey, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and anything else you have on a holiday plate - and by this I mean that there is no need to push too-tart sauce off to the corner of your plate and hope that it doesn’t contaminate the flavors of the rest of the meal by running onto other foods.

I added a tiny bit of allspice into the sauce to give it a little something extra (one of my tasters said “this tastes just like Christmas!”), but if you’re not a fan of allspice you can leave it out or use cinnamon in its place. Fresh or frozen berries can be used to make this sauce, too.

Blackberry Cranberry Sauce
12-oz bag cranberries
2 cups blackberries (approx 12-oz)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice

Place cranberries in a medium saucepan and fill about 1-inch deep with water. Cook over medium-high heat until cranberries start to pop. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until popping slows. Add in blackberries, sugar, salt and allspice. Stir well and cook over medium heat until sauce comes just to a simmer and starts to thicken.
Use a potato masher to gently crush the berries, the cook for an additional minute.
Pour sauce out into a heat resistant dish, cover and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Berries will keep, refrigerated, for at least a week.

Makes about 4 cups

Name

Mail (will not be published)

Website