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Blackberry Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry Blackberry Sauce

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

Cranberry Blackberry Sauce

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13 Comments
  • Glenna
    November 14, 2008

    Ooooh….yes, I really like the idea of the blackberries and the allspice. I’m going to forward this recipe to my Aunti Miranda who’s in charge of our cranberry sauce this year….Thanks for the recipe!

  • CookiePie
    November 14, 2008

    That sounds delicious, and it looks beautiful too!

  • Katie
    November 14, 2008

    What a great combination of flavors! A lovely color, too.

  • curry recipe
    March 20, 2009

    this taste so good! thanks for sharing the sauce.

  • asian recipes
    March 20, 2009

    the photo make this recipe looks so nice! Thanks for sharing.

  • cheap p90x
    May 19, 2010

    this recipe to my Aunti Miranda who’s in charge of our cranberry sauce this year….Thanks for the recipe!

  • SherBear
    November 24, 2010

    Took it to a new level with orange peel and fresh nutmeg! Started with too much water so I drained the excess for syrup for crepes!

  • Amy@ flowering tea
    January 7, 2011

    This Blackberry Cranberry Sauce recipe is just perfect, less sugar is much better.

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