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Making homemade cranberry sauce, that is low in sugar, is easier than you think! Pair this cranberry sauce with your roasted turkey for a fantastic holiday meal, I guarantee that you’ll never buy canned or jarred cranberry sauce again. I am going to show you how to make a low-sugar, delicious cranberry sauce for the upcoming holiday meals – or heck, anytime you want!
Low Sugar Cranberry Sauce with Splenda Stevia
Confession time: I am in full Thanksgiving mode. Thanksgiving is usually a pretty big deal in my family as it’s the last holiday we share with my parents before they Snowbird off to Phoenix. We always see them at Christmas but Thanksgiving means it’s the last chance we’re all getting together for two-and-a-half to three months, so we go all out with our Thanksgiving dinner.
This Thanksgiving I have a lot of relatives who are choosing to eat low-sugar, so when it came time to come up with a recipe featuring the new Splenda Stevia I knew exactly what I was going to make. My dad is a fiend for cranberry sauces and relishes to go with his Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. Coming up with a low sugar cranberry sauce that he enjoys would be pretty much the best recipe I could ever create – because I know he’s going to make it whenever he and Mom have turkey from now on. (This also cements my position as the favorite child, so it’s a win-win.)
For those of you that love Splenda AND Stevia, here is a closer peek at the new products! I especially love the Splenda Stevia liquid sweetener (the little bottle) Mike and I use those in our coffee all the time! I even have one in the car console for road trips, I kid you not. I’ve had restaurants put sugar in my coffee by mistake (which will always give me a headache) so now we usually doctor our takeout coffees with liquid Splenda Stevia and only get cream in the coffee. Those little liquid Splenda Stevia bottles are a travel lifesaver for me.
Each bottle of Splenda Stevia Liquid Sweetener contains the same sweetness as 80 packets of Splenda Stevia – 1 squeeze equals the sweetness of ½ packet of Splenda Stevia No Calorie Sweetener. Try and imagine packing 80 packets of Splenda into your car LOL!!! There’s my road trip tip for the day! For those of you traveling for Thanksgiving, you can thank me later!
The Splenda Stevia also comes in packets (the box), a table top jar and granulated in the big bag. You can check out all of the products on their website HERE.
Traditional cranberry sauce is very high in sugar, in fact most recipes are going to ask you to put in an entire cup of white sugar as the first ingredient. This is because cranberries are crazy tart so this makes perfect sense. But what if we take the Splenda Stevia and use it instead of the white sugar in the recipe? Splenda Stevia is a no calorie sweetener, non-GMO and it gets its sweetness from the stevia leaf. It is sourced from the sweeter, cleaner tasting part of the leaf so there’s no bitter aftertaste.
Let’s take a look at how we can lower the sugar content of the cranberry sauce using the granulated Splenda Stevia (in the larger bag).
Low sugar cranberry sauce ingredients
- Splenda Stevia – we are going to cut out ALL of the white sugar in this recipe! You are going to use the Splenda Stevia cup for cup, so one cup of the Splenda Stevia instead of white sugar.
- Water – you need water to boil down those cranberries.
- Cranberries – you can use fresh or frozen whole berries in this recipe.
- Orange Juice – You can add in fresh orange juice if you don’t mind the extra natural sugars in the cranberry sauce.
- Orange Zest : you can use zest instead of orange juice to keep the natural sugars down.
- Cinnamon – my favorite spice to add as it really compliments the sauce. You can also use nutmeg or allspice!
- Vanilla – This is a personal preference in your cranberry sauce and all depends on how you like it. The vanilla makes it a little “dessert” tasting.
This sauce can be adjusted to your liking with allspice, nutmeg or more orange flavor if you like. You can also adjust the amount of Splenda Stevia you use, my Dad prefers tart sauces so I’m suspecting he’s going to adjust this recipe to 3/4 of a cup of the Splenda Stevia. Fresh orange juice is delicious but does add natural sugars, the orange zest will be perfect for adding orange flavor instead. Consider this a base recipe to start perfecting your own low sugar cranberry sauce!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
Homemade Low Carb, Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup Splenda Stevia
- 3 1/2 cups frozen or fresh cranberries
- 2-3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest - more to taste if cutting out the orange juice
- 1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract - if desired
- Orange peels/cinnamon sticks for garnish if desired
Instructions
- Combine the water and Splenda Stevia and place on a stove on medium-high heat. Once the Splenda Stevia is dissolved, add in 3 cups of berries, reserving 1/2 cup for later if you love whole berries in the sauce.
- Boil for 10-15 minutes until the berries start popping and dissolving into the mixture. Crush them even further using a wooden spoon against the side of the pot. Cook until the mixture is thickened and has reduced down into a lovely sauce.
- Add in the whole cranberries and the orange zest at this point and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
- Once the large berries are softened, remove from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon and optional vanilla adjusting to taste.
- Store in a closed container in the fridge and serve chilled.
Nutrition
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Tess says
I’d like to know if packets can be used; I figure they may be more swettness than 1-1, so would 1/3 c of Stevia emptied from packets work?
I add a bit of OJ to water, cinnamon & about 1/4 c. Orange liqueur as well.
Linda Gray says
I didn’t even use a whole cup of Splenda Stevia and the finished product , had an aftertaste from overload of sweetener! I’m going to try and add more water and cook it down again.