Brandied Orange and Cranberry Sauce

I've hunted for cranberry sauce that was "slap your grandma in the creek" good for many years. This one seems to be it. Though easy to make, any one of three things can degrade the result so heed the following: If you don’t have the brandy, don’t bother making the recipe - it's still ok, but brandy pulls out some vital flavor in this mix. Use a good fine zester and avoid the white part of the rind, which means you may need about 8 medium sized oranges. Finally, don’t undercook or overcook the sauce and you're most likely to undercook it (helpful huh?) Oh, in my opinion the sauce benefits from resting at least one day before serving.

This is awesome. Try using 1/3 cup, instead of 2/3 cup, of orange zest using a microplane grater. Frozen cranberries are fine, just rinse immediately before use, no need to thaw. I also like to add 1/4 teaspoon orange oil along with the brandy at the end. I recommend using a medium saucepan to avoid overboil. This is fabulous on top of Brie. Mix 8 oz cranberry sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon Meyer's dark rum and 1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg. Spread this mixture evenly on top of an 8 oz Brie round that has some rind trimmed from the top (leaving a 1/3 inch border on top). Sprinkle with some chopped pecans on top and bake Brie at 500 degrees for 5 minutes. Great served with water crackers and apple and pear slices. If you don't want to use rum, you can substitute orange juice. Enjoy!

okay, if you make this--please concentrate on making the zest FINE... i made the mistake of grating the orange rind and it was WAAAAYYY TOO much and waaaay too thick. as a new bride i was very concerned about the sauce that i promised to do for my in-law's and my first t'giving together..and i ended up staying up until 3 am, gingerly removing the extra zest with tweezers!! i am NOT kidding! please make it FINE, THIN or whathaveyou. either way, i also agree with the other reviewers: that you may want to reduce the amount to 1/3 cup. now all that said: THIS IS AMAZING STUFF. it's glorious and you'll want more (my mother-in-law took some home--so the tweezering was obviously WORTH IT!). ENJOY!! you will! **review update: I tried this again for Christmas and didn't have any brandy so I used Liquor 43 (a vanilla liquor), it was just as OUTSTANDING.... also, I used about 1/4 cup of zest and it was just as good!

I love cranberries so I thought I would give this a try for Thanksgiving. I added half of the orange zest suggested and it was just enough orange flavor. Also, as most people have said, you will probably need to cook it a little longer. A huge hit with my husband's grandfather, I thought he was going to eat the whole bowl! I will definitely make this again!!!!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm good. I have now made this 5 times and it is absolutely scrumptious. If you don't like it you didn't make it right. Zest is not enormously long strings that need to be picked out or cut up. Use a zester. It benefits from being cooked too long but not cooking long enough will not enhance it. Don't worry that you might be cooking it too long. Take a little time, don't change anything and it will be well worth it. By the way, rind and zest are not the same thing, this recipe should not contain any rind, only zest. It takes a bunch (8 or so) oranges to do this right and the particles of zest will be small and will blend with the cranberries if done right. Its worth the effort.

I'm not a big fan of canned cranberry sauce, and when I decided to use this recipe for Thanksgiving I had no idea it was going to turn out so yummy. Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe. The orange and brandy really brought out the flavor, although I did cut back on the orange zest. Wonderful recipe, and much prettier than the canned alternative.

I try a new cranberry-sauce recipe every holiday, and this one has gotten far and away the best reception. Unlike the other reviewers I *increased* the zest and was pleased with the results. (Expect to cook it down a bit longer than indicated, though.) If you manage to have any left after the meal, you'll find it's also wonderful on vanilla ice cream. A winner!

The only change I made was reducing the orange zest to 1/3 cup. It required 4 oranges to get this amt. This was an "AWESOME" recipe. Everyone loved it!

I agree with what's already been said: outstanding, but use less zest. Everyone bragged about it at dinner yesterday. I HATE tinned cranberry relish, but really like this recipe.

This was great. All the kids loved it!! I didn't have a citrus zester so I used a grater. It worked except that I would have used the smallest size the grater. I used the medium side and I think the orange was too large. I tried it without the brandy.....use the brandy!!! It definatel brings out the flavor. My kids even ate some with our Thanksgiving leftovers!!!

We found this recipe one Thanksgiving while looking for home made cranberry recipes. THIS recipe is the reason I joined allrecipes.com!!! All I can say is that I don't think I can ever go back to the canned stuff again. My husband either! I made it for him last year and he went back for seconds after years of the canned stuff. The orange zest is a bit much. We use only a tablespoon or two at most. We cut the orange juice in half as well so that the taste is not to tangy and the cranberry taste can come through.

This is really good! Just be absolutely sure you don't use the pith! (the white part). I did use about half the amount of zest as others recommended, and I also added a stick of cinnamon to step two and removed it at the end. Oh, and DON'T THROW AWAY THE ORANGE WATER that you worked so hard to make!! Substitute it for water in whatever recipe might taste better with a hint of orange, or add an equal amount of sugar to it, heat to dissolve and you have a wonderful orange simple syrup. You can use it to make recipes, or even mix with your leftover brandy to make some really good cocktails (I added mine to our batch of sangria we make every year and it came out extra delicious :)

I changed mine - added chopped fresh pineapple and chopped fresh ginger. Instead of all the orange zest I used a grater on the skin of just one orange, used orange juice for all the liquid, and added one tablespoon orange marmalade. I also used half white and half brown sugar. DELICIOUS!

A winner - even non cranberry people liked it - but if you don't want all the juice -- whisk together 1Tbs cornstarch and 2 Tbs cold water and slowly add to hot mixture and whisk to thicken.

I tried this with dried orange rind. Not a good idea. Well, it would have been OK if I'd used about 1/4th the amt of orange rind...

This is a great cranberry sauce. I don't use grated zest. Instead I use a vegetable peeler to slice some of the orange peel into long strips. After boiling in step 1, I cut/chop some of the orange peel into small pieces. I discard the extra peel. I don't measure my cranberries. I just use 1 whole bag of fresh cranberries. In step 3, I boil for a lot longer (15 mins??). I like my cranberry sauce to be very thick. I usually use an orange flavored brandy.

This was fantastic! The Brandy and orange zest added a wonderful kick...the flavor did improve/mellow after refrigerating for a day or two. It was a hit at our Thanksgiving Table. We will definitely be making this again!

OMG. this was so easy and so very delicious. Every one who tasted it, loved it. will definitely be making this many times. my new fav cranberry sauce. I didnt use as much zest, only 1/3 cup was plenty for my taste. all else fit well.

I have been making this for several years and it is wonderful! Be sure to take the time to use fresh orange zest and not dried orange peal - much better! I make this and can it so that we can have great sauce throughout the year. WONDERFUL!

If I could give this six stars I would! It was soo good and made the best leftover turkey sandwhiches ever! I remembered to cut down on the orange zest after I was already boiling all of it! So my liquid was full force buy I pulled out the solid zest and added that to the Cranberry Orange Loaf recipe I made which people had suggested more zest for. Both turned out great and created a nice balance for no waste! I alsu used some of the left over cranberry sauce (I made a double batch) for the Cranberry Pork Roast in a crockpot. Wow!

The person that said you can't go back to store bought was absolutely right!!! This was simple, delicious, quick, I can't say enough. I tried it on Thanksgiving and ended up making several jars and giving them as Christmas gifts. PERFECT!!!

I used half the sugar and it was still fantastic. A big hit at Thanksgiving.

I used 1/3 c dried orange zest and 1/3 fresh grated orange zest with 3 12 oz. bags of large Maine cranberries. The sauce is fantastic after only one day and its still two days until Thanksgiving! Unbelievably tasty.

This was very good and we all enjoyed it with our Thanksgiving dinner. I followed the advise of others and made it two days ahead. Good recipe. Thanks for sharing.

I followed others advice and used less zest, the zest from just 3 large oranges. I would recommend that everyone uses ORGANIC oranges for the zest, as they don't have a wax coating like regular commercial ones do. I used a flat fine grater to remove the zest. I cooked it the sauce for significantly longer to get the right consistency, around 20 minutes I would imagine. My boyfriend found it too sweet and so I added probably another tablespoon and a half of lemon juice.

This is the best cranberry sauce I've ever had! The flavor and texture are amazing and compliment turkey and stuffing perfectly. I will never serve the stuff out of the can again!

I left out the brandy, but it was still awesome. For someone who doesn't like Cranberry sauce I really liked it. Made it for Thanksgiving and we had no leftovers.

Gets rave reviews every time! People really look forward to me bringing it to Thanksgiving. I'm a little concerned about calories so I reduce the sugar to 1.5 cups and it works just fine. Also, don't bother buying orange juice. Instead, use the juice from the oranges you just zested.

There are many Cranberry Sauce recipes. This is one of the best and will be on my table every Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday.

Easy and delicious. I added a little cinnamon. I was a little confused by the directions about reserving the zest and it really didn't say when to add it, I guess it was suppose to go with the reserved water. Didn't have brandy so use orange liquor. Came out fantantic. I picked this recipe because my daughter's name is Claudia also and I figured it had to be good. Thanks, already in my recipe book.

This was the first time that I have made cranberry sauce and it came out great! The orange zest gives it such a great flavor and the entire dish was gone. Everyone was asking for the recipe. I will make this dish every Thanksgiving from now on.

this is the sauce that we're REQUIRED to bring every year now. :) like most of the reviewers, we use about half the zest required, just because it takes so dang long to get that much! also, it takes us about 30-40 minutes to let all the berries pop, rather than the 10 it calls for. just keep a close eye on it so that it doesn't burn. it's SO good, though! and i just love having a signature dish to bring now. :) ETA: I got a microplane this year and WOW! I did the zest in about 10 minutes and with no injuries! Get one if you love this recipe but hate the zesting!

this recipe was very time consuming (2/3 cup orange zest is a LOT!) I have made different versions of orange-cranberry relish before, but did not enjoy this recipe with the brandy and lemon juice

My sister and I whipped this recipe up the night before Thanksgiving and it was a winner. My taste rating is a 4 star because I thought it was just a little off, but everyone liked it so well...that I couldn't bring myself to give it a lower rating. We did have to zest the orange using a grater as I could not find my zester. Anyway, you won't miss with this recipe.

What a perfect compliment to a Thanksgiving dinner! Didn't have any brandy, though, but was still wonderful and had people fighting over the leftovers, and who got to take it home!

This cranberry sauce is so good. My sugar boiled over so I didn't get to simmer it for three minutes, but it didn't seem to matter.

This is great cranberry sauce! I did not use the brandy and it was still really good. Note: I think it needs to be cooked for a little longer than the recipe requests.

The best cranberry sauce I've ever had.

A nice zesty addition to the holiday menu.

this is one of the best homemade cranberry sauces i have yet to taste. as i grew up my grandmother and mother always had the canned one which was good. but i made this for the first time 2 years ago and will never go back to canned again. every Thanksgiving my family requests this sauce.

I've made this recipe a few times now and it always gets rave reviews from my guests. A definate keeper.

Oh my goodness!! I Just made this for Thanksgiving and it is the eve before. Just out of the pot, it fabulous. Full of flavor, I can only imagine what a day of sitting will do to the flavors. I used 4 medium naval oranges for the zest and then hand squeezed the juice of all the oranges. I alos used apricot flavored brandy..that is all I had for brandy. Just Amaziing! Thanks for a super easy recipe!!!

This was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. I had fresh cranberries straight from the grower. I had so many I made a double batch. I only had 2 oranges, I used a very fine cheese grater that I bought in Italy. It's actually too fine for cheese but worked beautifully on the oranges. I didn't have near 1/3 cup but it was still very concentrated flavour. I cooked my batch extra long and kept testing consistency on a cool plate. I got the consistency perfect, I've made my own cranberry sauce many times and know you don't want runny sauce. Just keep cooking it down until it sets up nicely on that cold plate. I also used the fresh juice from the oranges and topped it off with purchased juice. I've never added lemon juice before; it made a really nice addition. This is a keeper recipe.

The orange flavor was just too strong. The color was beautiful. I will make again, with a lot less rind.

I've made this 2 years in a row for the holidays and my family wants leftovers to take home every time!

I agree with everyone else cook it a little longer and don't put as much zest in. But it was easy and wonderful.

I know that when my husband goes back for third helpings, the dish muct be a winner. I used a very high grade of brandy and it was sublime. Absolutely wonderful!

Yum. I kind of made up my own recipe to this, and it turned out great... 1 Cup Orange juice 1 Cup Brown sugar 12 oz package cranberries 1 cinnamon stick And a little water to cover cranberries....Yummmmmy!

Love this recipe. The orange zest gives it an extra kick. I've substituted rum for brandy when I've run out and it tastes great also.

This recipe is okay but not half as good as my Cranberry Relish. I will not make this again. I will Just stick with my recipe that I sell each year at christmas bazaar's.

I made this for Thanksgiving and Christmas - my sister was eating it by the bowl! Thanks - this will be a holiday staple!

I found a version of this recipe in Woman's Day a few years ago, and I never fail to make it. Everyone always thinks of that "jello" sauce out of a can and cringes when I mention cranberry sauce, but they have always loved this one. In that other recipe, take oranges (in this case 4)and cut them in half in a zig-zag fashion and hollow them out, leaving only the peel, like an orange bowl. When the sauce cools, spoon it into the orange halves. Surround the sauce with sliced toasted almonds and serve.

Made this last year and it was a huge hit. I made extra, jarred it and gave it to different family members. Let's just say, my aunt didn't want to share. Only change, 1/3 orange zest, instead of 2/3's! Best Recipe Ever!

My husband wanted homemade Cranberry sauce instead of the canned kind. I don't like cranberry sauce, but after trying this, it was really good.

This sauce was very very good. I would only suggest reducing the apple brandy just a very small bit or perhaps mixing it in while the sauce is still cooking to simmer out some of the alcohol taste. It was just too overpowering. Everything else balances perfectly and this recipe (as is) is definately worth a try!

This is my favorite recipe for cranberry sauce now. I've made it for the last 2 years and everyone loves it. I do use less sugar than what is called for.

I will never again use store bought cranberry sauce. This was excellent! I made it Christmas Eve and it was perfectly "jellied" on christmas morning. Wonderful alternative to the regular cranberry sauce.

Everyone raves about this sauce! I cut the zest down to l/3 c. because I only had 3 large oranges and was getting tired of the zesting process. The flavor was perfect.

I am still eating this long after the turkey leftovers are gone. I put it on my bagel this morning, and I think I will make cheesecake tonight and use the cranberry sauce as a topper for that! Definitely a recipe that should be used for more than just Thanksgiving. Excellent.

Outstanding. 2 people at dinner asked for the recipe. My daughter's boyfriend said it was the best he's ever had and he loved cranberry sauce.

I found this to be a very good cranberry sauce, the orange flavor worked well with the cranberry and the brandy was an excellent finish. Used this at Christmas and everyone who tried it, complimented me.

The best recipe for cranberries I've ever found - really good!

Tip: I boil the you know what out of this stuff. That 10 minutes is not accuracte. I have made this every year for probably 5 years. The accurate boiling time is between 30 and 40 minutes, stirring constantly. The longer you boil it, the more it gels. We like our cranberry sauce very jellied. It makes it a bit labor intensive, but well worth it. Oh - and I am not a fan of orange zest so I exclude it and it is not problem; also, I have forgotten to add the brandy once or twice and it was still awesome (if you are concerned about using alcohol).

LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!

one of our traditions now for thanksgiving. thanks for sharing the recipe. it's DELICIOUS and and a million times better than canned!!!

Excellent recipe. A little time consuming, but well worth it. I decreased the orange zest to 1/3 cup and it was perfect. I also cooked it about three times as long.

I've made many a cranberry sauce over the years and this may be the most crowd pleasing ever.

A rare 5 stars, just perfect! Easy, simple but deep in essence. Take care to measure, measure, measure... then add more brandy. ;)

This is the 4th year I have made it for Thanksgiving. What a big hit!

This recipe was a hit at my Christmas dinner. My mom asked for the recipe and is going to throw her old one away!

I made this for the first time to use at our Christmas in July festivities and it was a runaway best seller!!! I was not able to get fresh or frozen berries here in Queensland Australia so substituted with 2 cans of drained berries. I also reduced the orange zest to 1/3 cup and the sugar to 1 cup. The end result was more like a jelly but I wanted it thick so I boiled it longer than the recipe suggested. The extra sugar present in the canned berries would have contributed to the jelly setting. It had a great flavour and fantastic consistency and everyone loved it!!

This was the best cranberry sauce ever! Cant wait to make again!

This has become a holiday staple. I did not have orange juice so I used the rest of the orange after I used the peel for orang zest, and put the rest of orange/s in the blender to make 2/3 cup instead of the juice. It came out fantastic!!!

at my house, we call these crack berries. people have been known to skip the plate and eat them alone by the bowl.

So delicious!! I added more brandy. Used raw sugar instead. Love this one. Will make again.

I LOVE this cranberry sauce. I used just under 2/3c of orange zest for a double batch, so about 1/3c for a single. It turned out soooo good. My sister even declared it an new thanksgiving tradition. 5/5 would make again.

The best sauce ever! Everybody asked me for the recipe! it’s a Must for the holidays

I substituted bourbon for brandy (I live in kentucky). It was a hit and I was asked to bring it again next year.

Amazing! I have never really enjoyed cranberry sauce. I am embarassed to say I liked jellied cranberries. Not after tasting this phenomenal recipe. Delish

I would reduce the orange zest

Followed the advice of other users and halved the amount of zest. I still had to zest 4 whole oranges to get that much, but I was able to use the oranges for the 2/3 cups of juice required in the recipe. I'm not a big fan of white sugar, so I replaced it with raw sugar. I was worried that there might remain a raw sugar aftertaste, but I didn't notice anything amiss. I also used 1/2 teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamic C powder...available in many health food stores) mixed with 1 tablespoon of water instead of the lemon juice. It does the same thickening work that the lemon juice does but without the lemony flavor. Finally, I used Cointreau orange liqueur instead of the brandy for a final orange kick. It was wonderful. All in all, this was a great recipe that rewards you for the extra time put into it.

Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum - can't wait to try it over ice-cream once the turkeys eaten!

Made it for Thanksgiving and I added a few blueberries to the dish. The children devoured it!

It wasn't clear if you were supposed to leave the zest in with the remaining liquid, so I left it in. Cook time was 20 minutes, not 10. It was too sweet for me and had too much of the orange flavor. Next year I won't be adding the zest back in and will be reducing the sugar. I love my cranberry sauce a bit tart and to taste like cranberry. This tasted like orange to me. But it did gel up real nice and even sealed the jar. :) I'll try this again next year.

Fabulous recipe! It received rave reviews from everyone at Thanksgiving. Even was great the next day as a pancake topping.

Have made this several times and it's always a huge hit.

I liked this cranberry sauce, but my husband didn't like all the orange in it. Next time I will add a lot less orange juice and rind

This cranberry sauce was very tasty but WAY TOO MUCH ZEST…for thanksgiving my boyfriend and I made this and his brother made another cranberry sauce from this site and our sauce won "Battle Cranberry" but the strings of zest were weird to eat! Cut down to only a little and in small pieces or none at all!

I've made this the past couple of Thanksgivings. This is the best cranberry sauce I've ever tasted! The brandy enhances the flavor...so delicious! I never want to have any other cranberry sauce!

A really nice and simple way to make cranberry sauce. This was my first time making this homemade classic and it turned out to be very nice. I would cut, though, a little bit on the orange zest.

Absolutely fabulous!! Best cranberry sauce I've ever had. Must be the brandy !!!

Best I have ever had!!

I actually didn't care for this. It was way too sweet for me and I ended up tossing it out. No one else ate much of it either. Sorry!

Five star flavor!! We like our sauce *thick* and this was a little too thin for my taste. Next time all I will do is cut back on the water a little bit...but it will be back!

Added more brandy to mine, and no, I'm not a lush. The alcohol burns off and the added brandy gives the sauce a boost of an oakey flavor

Homemade Brandied Orange and Cranberry Sauce vs. Canned Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce.... Let's see... Everyone of my guests raved about this recipe... Even the ones who usually turn their nose up at the thought of eating cranberry sauce. Going forward, this recipe will be included on all my holiday menus.

This is delicious, much better than plain cranberry sauce. Make sure to grate the zest very finely.

This is the best! I like to try different cranberry sauce recipes, but stopped with this one. I did cut the sugar a bit, but all the zest is what makes it special. My MIL requests this for every holiday dinner since the first time she tasted it. Even all the kids like it!

Absolutely the best cranberry sauce you will ever taste. Perfectly sweet & perfectly tart - it doesn't get better than this! 2 tablespoons of brandy does the trick! No disappointment here. Thanks for sharing.