Thanksgiving is this week and I have been up since 4:45 in a frenzy over what to serve for dessert. It took a lot to stop myself from polling my family members via text in the early am about it. We love pie, but we opt to leave it off our Thanksgiving table. Do we stick with something semi-traditional and go with apple crisp? Or turn Thanksgiving on it’s head and go with a crowd-pleasing skillet cookie?
Lucky for me, the rolls are baked and the cranberry sauce is resting comfortably in the freezer just waiting to be taken out the day before and enjoyed.
Ever since we started hosting Thanksgiving over 10 years ago, I’ve made homemade cranberry sauce. It’s one of my favorite dishes to experiment with. We keep things pretty traditional when it comes to the rest of the meal, but since not everyone in my family even eats cranberry sauce I like to take a little liberty with some of the flavors. Enter my favorite liquor; bourbon.
Bourbon has wonderful warm, sweet tones and mimics vanilla in many recipes. It gets added in the initial cooking phase so any alcohol gets cooked out removing any harshness.
To contrast the warm flavors of the bourbon, I’m using candied ginger to add a little bit of spice. Just a little bit to amp up the flavors and make this cranberry sauce out-of-this-world delicious.
If you’re looking to try something a little different on your Thanksgiving table, check out this cranberry sauce. And have an incredible holiday this weekend, friends. If you have any amazing plans or recipes you’re excite to try, tell me about them in the comments below!
Ginger Bourbon Cranberry Sauce
- 1 12 Oz Bag of Cranberries
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Water
- 1/4 Cup Bourbon
- 1 Tbsp Crystalized Ginger, chopped
- 1 Tsp Vanilla
- 1/4 Tsp Salt
- 1/4 Tsp Cloves
Combine the cranberries, brown sugar, water, bourbon, and ginger in a medium pot over high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to cook, stirring every minute, until the cranberries have split and reduced down. This takes about 10 minutes on our stovetop, but you may want more or less time depending on how you like your cranberries.
Remove from the heat and add the vanilla, salt, and cloves. Chill before serving and enjoy!
You can make this a week or two in advance then freeze the sauce in an airtight container.
