Low(er) Sugar Cranberry and Apple Sauce

Home made Cranberry and Apple Sauce

One of the best things about making your own food is that you become conscious of what goes into processed and restaurant foods. And nowhere is this more relevant than when making Cranberry Sauce. If you look around at recipes you will see that making cranberry sauce involves a LOT of sugar.

Right now we are getting ready for a Healthy Thanksgiving at my place next month. And there's no way we're serving up a sauce containing that much sugar! So we set out to make our own healthier version, trying to make a delicious sauce using only a fraction of the sugar. This is what we came up with, and it's pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

When you are making an effort to eat healthier and reduce the added sugars in your diet, it can be tempting to simply switch to "alternative" sweeteners like rice malt syrup, agave or stevia. But sometimes this can impact the flavour... One of my top tips for when you are making sweet dishes is to cut right back on the amount of sugar you use, and "boost" the sweetness with stevia.

Ingredients

2 cups frozen cranberries
2 green apples, finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice
Juice of 4 oranges
1 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or powder
6-8 drops Stevia liquid

Method

Place all ingredients except Stevia in a saucepan. 
Simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours
If sauce reduces too much add more orange juice
When sauce is cooked, blend using a stick blender and strain through a sieve.
Taste, and boost the sweetness with a few drops of Stevia if needed.