Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or frozen (not defrosted!) cranberries
1 medium-large Stayman-Winesap apple, small dice (skin-on)
1 cup Honeycrisp apple cider
1 cup sugar (to taste)
1 short cinnamon stick (or long if you really like cinnamon!)

Directions:
Place the cranberries, apple cider, sugar, and cinnamon sticks in a medium saucepan and, stirring occasionally, cook for 20 minutes over medium-high heat to reduce and thicken. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve.

My thoughts:

Not to be confused with cranapple sauce which would be applesauce (ick) spiked with cranberries, this a cranberry sauce with just a hint of apple. We actually used an apple we picked way back in October–our poorly insulated enclosed porch comes in handy in these situations–and some unfiltered (soft) apple cider I picked up at Trader Joe’s. It’s on the sweet side so we used a little than a cup of sugar so start with a scant cup and work your way up as needed to cut the tartness. It’s a very satisfying whole berry cranberry sauce yet super simple. We served it with a sort of meat pie we made with a layer of chicken, mushrooms, celery and onions with a light gravy, topped with stiff mashed potatoes then a layer of stuffing made from an old loaf of bread from our local Italian store, mushrooms, onions, and celery but you can serve it alongside anything.

I used the leftovers to make this cranberry sauce crumb cake.

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