Molded Cranberry Sauce

This is a Williams-Sonoma recipe, so you know it's good. It is a tangy, but not too tangy, side for that turkey dinner that sticks in your mind from year to year. It makes a beautiful molded gelatin that will enhance the table as well as please the palate. I've made this two years in a row for Thanksgiving, and this will be year three - just can't imagine serving canned cranberry sauce ever again. I use a metal mold rather than the ceramic one the recipe calls for, and it works out fine. However, I suppose there is a chance that the acid in the cranberries causes some leaching of metal. Since hubby is diabetic, I substitute Splenda for the sugar and add it after the boiling has completed.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1  lb fresh cranberries
• 1  cup sugar
• 2  tablespoons sugar
• 2  oranges, zest of
• 2⁄3 cup  fresh orange juice
• 1  pinch salt
• 2⁄3 cup cold water, plus
• 2  tablespoons cold water
• 1 (1/4ounce) envelope unflavored gelatin

Directions

1. Lightly coat inside of ceramic cranberry mold with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In large saucepan over med. high heat, bring cranberries, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, salt and 2/3 cup water to boil. Reduce heat, simmer, stir some for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mix 2 tablespoons water with gelatin. Let stand until gelatin softens and swells.
4. Spoon 1/2 juices from cranberries into gelatin. Stir to dissolve. stir gelatin mixture into cranberries then into mold. Cool to room temperature. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
5. To unmold, dip the mold bottom into warm water almost to the rim. Run a small knife around the inside of rim then invert the mold onto a platter, shake gently and lift off the mold.