Like it or not Cranberry Sauce is part of almost every holiday menu. This Cranberry Apple Chutney puts any cranberry sauce to shame with a tart & sweet flavor explosion. Impress your guests with this easy homemade version of a holiday classic.
The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made the night before and chilled so it’s ready for your holiday dinner. You could even make it a few days ahead if needed. Fresh cranberries combined with apple is such a fantastic combination and really will impress the family. I’ve never been the biggest fan of canned Cranberry sauce so I knew I wanted to create something better.
A cranberry apple chutney has a great balance of flavor and texture that is really versatile. Not only is this a wonderful holiday recipe but I’ve found that it works great as a condiment for pork chops. The leftover chutney can actually be blended with mayo to make an insanely delicious cranberry mayo for those leftover turkey sandwiches. I don’t know about you but I almost love the leftovers more than the actual dinner. I combine 1 cup of mayo with about a 1/3 cup of the cranberry apple chutney and blend.
Everyone’s taste buds are different. I highly recommend tasting this recipe before you chill it to make sure it’s to your liking. I won’t get offended if you think it needs an extra quarter cup of sugar or a squeeze of lemon. This recipe was created to my palate and what I thought my family would prefer. We try not to go crazy on the sweetness so I used less sugar than I’ve seen in some other recipes. I also used a combination of sugar in the raw as well as some local raw honey. This gives the chutney some depth of flavor as well as some of the health benefits of using local raw honey.
This is another personal preference call you’ll have to make. I cooked the cranberries and apples at the same time even though the cranberries take less time to cook. This gives the apple just a bit of bite left. I think to have a true chutney you need to have some chunks and some texture. I love to add a cinnamon stick to the cranberries to let the flavor cook into the sauce and then remove it after about five minutes.
As soon the cranberries burst the sauce will begin to thicken. Make sure to cut off the heat early so the chutney doesn’t overcook and become too soft. I add the sugar in the raw first so it can dissolve into the cranberries and apples and then add the honey at the end to sweeten the chutney to my taste.
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