This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This Thanksgiving, stay away from the cans and make your own elegant homemade Fresh Cranberry Gelatin Mold with the flavors of orange and Grand Marnier.
I sort of cheated with this recipe. How, you ask? Well, I took my original recipe for my fresh cranberry sauce and the only thing I did was bloom a little gelatin in a mixture of water and cranberry juice and add it to the cranberry sauce to create the shape of the mold. I suppose its kinda like cheating because its not an entirely new recipe, but the original cranberry sauce is so darn good, there was no way I was going to change it.
You can definitely add the gel-ified cranberry sauce to a larger mold and have one big one for the table, but I saw these super cute mini bundt pans at the store and thought they would be great for little mini cranberry sauce molds. If you’re setting a big beautiful table for a holiday meal, its much better to have several of these within an arms length of everyone so nobody has to wait for it to be passed around. The same goes for herbed butter – so make lots of those too to go on your freshly baked rolls.
The bottom line – if you like to spoon your cranberry sauce – make the original. If you like to slice it – make this. Either way, it will make an impressive presentation for your guests and I guarantee they will love it!
If you have leftover cranberry sauce, you can also make a batch of my crescent roll brie bites or an easy cranberry martini!
Pin this now to save it for later
Pin ItFresh Cranberry Gelatin Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- zest from one orange
- juice from 2 large valencia oranges about 3/4 cup
- 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries rinsed
- 1/8 cup Grand Marnier
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cranberry juice
- one 0.25 ounce packet unflavored gelatin
Instructions
- In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar in the juice from 2 large valencia oranges with the zest from one orange and 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice. This has to be what heaven smells like.
- Stir in the 12 ounces fresh cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 minutes). Turn heat to low and add 1/8 cup Grand Marnier, stir, and cook for another minute or so.
- While cranberry sauce is cooking, add 2 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cranberry juice to small bowl and sprinkle one 0.25 ounce packet unflavored gelatin on top. Give it a swirl and allow the gelatin to bloom for at least 5 minutes.
- Once the cranberry sauce is done, add the gelatin mixture and stir well to combine.
- Lightly spray a mold pan (I used three small ones) with oil and add the hot cranberry sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to set and fully cool in refrigerator, at least 2 hours.
- To serve, cover with plate and invert. If sauce doesn't come out easily, slide a butter knife around edge to release before inverting. Serve cold.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was definitely a hit, especially with my daughter in law at Thanksgiving. I substituted orange juice for the Marnier, but the orange flavor I found a bit intense, what with the fresh oj and orange zest already present, so will simply omit that. Also – the .25 oz. I found not sufficient to gel the recipe even with just 1 12 oz bag of cranberries, did anyone try increasing this amount, if so, by how much? Will a doubled recipe fill a typical round bundt style gelatin mold? Thanks.
For fresh cranberry mold, do you use hot or cold water to mix with the gelatin? Thanks
I just used cold water and it worked fine.
1oz packet, or .25oz packet?
Oh dear! I’m terribly sorry about that! Recipe should have read 0.25oz. There are 4 in the box (1oz total) and I misread the amount. Recipe has been updated.
What are brown sugar coupons?
Ack! I have no idea how the word coupons got in there. I edited the recipe. Thanks!
Would this need to be doubled for a regular sized bundt pan? Can’t wait to make this for thanksgiving!
Sorry for the late reply. I think it would be very shallow in a regular bundt pan unless you double the recipe. Did you try it?