November 22, 2016

Thanksgiving is a North American tradition we've been delighted to embrace. How awesome is a holiday that's celebrating food and gratitude? Also new to us, and equally easy to adopt, are the Thanksgiving trimmings: Turkey, sweet pumpkin pie (we eat pumpkin as a savory dish in New Zealand) and of course cranberry sauce.

The cranberry is native to North America and about 98% of the global production is from the US and Canada with almost half of that grown in Wisconsin alone. It's a healthy little fruit, and you can read about all those health benefits over at The Best Pickist.

It's thought that cranberry sauce was unlikely to be part of the first Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, since of course one of the key components, sugar, was still very much a luxury item back then. It's also unclear as to when cranberry sauce became such an essential Thanksgiving accompaniment but there are documented cranberry recipes and references dating back to the early 19th century and the popular side dish is assumed to have started gracing Thanksgiving feasts around then.

Now with Thanksgiving just around the corner I've been enjoying checking out great Thanksgiving recipes and I've become fascinated with different versions of traditional dishes - these three vanilla cranberry sauce recipes were too good not to share:   

Vanilla Orange Cranberry Sauce

1/2 cup Heilala Vanilla Syrup

1 orange, and

1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries

Pour the vanilla syrup into a saucepan. Zest the orange and set aside. Juice the orange and add that to the vanilla syrup and heat the vanilla/orange mixture until boiling.

Add the cranberries, stir, and bring back to boil for 2 - 3 minutes until some of the cranberries pop.

Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest. Allow to cool for an hour or so, pour into a lidded jar and store in the refrigerator. It will thicken as it cools.

I found this recipe at Shockingly Delicious.

Vanilla Spice Cranberry Sauce

1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries

1 large pear, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Heilala Vanilla Syrup

1 teaspoon ground ginger

zest of 1 lemon

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon cider vinegar, and

a pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to boil stirring constantly.

Reduce the heat to low and keep stirring until the sauce thickens and some of the cranberries pop. About 10 - 15 minutes.

Cool completely and remove the cinnamon stick before serving.

Vanilla Bourbon Cranberry Sauce

14 oz of fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

2 tablespoons bourbon, and

1 tablespoon Heilala Vanilla Extract

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to boil stirring constantly.

Reduce the heat to low and keep stirring until the sauce thickens and some of the cranberries pop. About 10 - 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

I found this recipe at Eat, Live, Run.