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Easy homemade cranberry jam recipe that can be ready in less than 15 minutes. Made with 1 cup of cranberries and a few simple ingredients. This sweet and tart jam is delicious with toast or biscuits, it’s the perfect addition to a cheese board, and heavenly when spooned over creamy desserts.
You’ll always find a bag of cranberries in my refrigerator during the fall and winter months. In fact, I will often freeze any that I have left to use in recipes like this cranberry jam throughout the year.
Cranberry jam is so easy to make. It is a delicious spread made with just a few ingredients and can be ready in minutes. You don’t even need pectin to thicken the jam!
Why This Recipe Works
- Tart cranberries, a touch of sugar, and a splash of orange juice come together beautifully in this delightful cranberry jam. This jam takes just minutes to make and is perfect to enjoy on your holiday table or to package in a little jar to give as a gift.
- You’ll find the flavor of this cranberry jam to be perfectly balanced – not too tart and not too sweet. It’s the perfect topping to spoon over ice cream or other creamy desserts.
- The gorgeously vibrant red color is absolutely perfect for the holidays.
- You don’t need any fancy equipment to make cranberry jam. It cooks in minutes without any pectin!
What You Need
Ingredient Notes
- Cranberries: Use fresh or frozen and thawed cranberries. Cranberries are very healthy and are a good source of vitamin C and vitamin E. They are a great source of fiber, manganese and provide antioxidants.
- Sugar: Cranberries are very tart, I recommend using granulated sugar to counteract the tartness.
- Orange juice and orange zest: You will only need 4 tablespoons of orange juice in this jam recipe. You could use 1 small orange to squeeze for juice and use the skin for the zest.
- Water
- Cinnamon: I use ground cinnamon but you could add a cinnamon stick to the cranberries while they cook for added flavor and spice.
How To Make This Recipe
- Place all of the ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally and cooking until the cranberries are tender and pop open. This will take about 8 to 10 minutes. As the mixture cooks, it naturally thickens to a more jam-like consistency.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cranberry jam will keep in the refrigerator for three weeks. You can freeze jam by pouring the cooled jam into a clean jar with a lid. It will keep for 6-8 months in the freezer.
Spread on biscuits or scones.
Topping for pancakes, waffles, or french toast.
Add to oatmeal.
Serve with crackers on a charcuterie tray or cheese board.
Use as a topping for cheesecake, pound cake, or custard.
Spoon over pork tenderloin.
Give as a gift.
Cranberry sauce is thicker than cranberry jam. Cranberry jam is also sweeter than cranberry sauce.
Expert Tips
- Cranberry jam should be stored in a covered jar or in an airtight container. It can be kept for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you’d like to make more to give as gifts.
What To Do With Leftover Cranberries
If you’re wondering what to do with leftover cranberries, you might want to freeze them.
This cranberry jam recipe is a small batch recipe. You will only need about a cup of fresh cranberries, which makes it an ideal recipe to use if you have cranberries leftover from another recipe.
To freeze cranberries:
- Rinse the cranberries under cool running water and drain in a colander. Sort through the cranberries and pick out any that are mushy or green. Throw those away.
- Dry the cranberries with a clean dish towel.
- Spread the cranberries out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze for at least 2 hours. Transfer the frozen cranberries to freezer bags or containers, seal or cover, and immediately put back in the freezer. They will keep in the freezer for up to 1 year.
You may also like to try our Small Batch Cranberry Scones recipe.
For this small batch cranberry jam recipe, I use a 1-quart saucepan. For best results, use a pan of similar size. If you would like additional information on the dishes I use in our “recipes for one”, please visit our FAQ page.
For examples of the dishes we use, please visit our Store page.
If you’ve tried this cranberry jam or any recipe on One Dish Kitchen please let me know how you liked it by rating the recipe and telling me about it in the comment section below.
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Recipe
Small Batch Cranberry Jam
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 4 tablespoons orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon orange zest
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a 1-quart saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
- Reduce heat to a simmer; stirring occasionally, continue cooking until the cranberries are tender and pop open, about 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and cool before transferring to a jar or bowl.
- Enjoy when cool.
Notes
- Cranberry jam should be stored in a covered jar or in an airtight container. It can be kept for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you’d like to make more to give as gifts.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Excellent recipe! Thanks for literally getting me out of a “jam” (when I couldn’t find any in stores) 🙂
I just finished a tiny jar of cranberry jam with gin and lavender that was a gift. This recipe should work well as a base for concocting a trial batch to replace it. Thank you!
The other 2 in the gift were “fig with port wine and walnuts”, and “plum with star anise and vanilla”. Your recipe should work as a basis for those as well, so thanks again
Oh, that sounds wonderful!!
This is a great recipe! I made it last year for my Christmas Eve charcuterie, and my family requested that I make it again for New Year’s Eve this year! Super easy and tasty with crackers and cheese!
Where did you that cute container for the cranberry jam?
From a Texas thrift shop many years ago.
Made it last night with leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving and oh I LOVE IT! Thank you for this super simple but delicious recipe! Sending lots of love and prayers your way.
Thank you. I’m so glad you love the recipe.
Today, I’m making this cranberry jam for the third time! I made it twice last year and will make it several times this year. It’s wonderful on cream scones, English muffins, and vanilla ice cream. Cranberry is one of my favorite flavors and I love having fresh jam on hand. Great way to use extra cranberries but the recipe is so good I bought an extra bag of fresh cranberries this year to make jam. Thank you for the keeper!
I’m so glad you love the recipe, Laurie. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know.
I am looking for a cute gift to give to my coworkers in my office. Some of them work opposite shifts than I. Can I prepare this like I was canning them. And put in small mason jars and seal the lids like would normally do for canning?
Will that make them shelf stable outside the frig?
Thanks so much for the info.
Hi Gina, I really don’t know the answer to your question. I’ve never experimented with canning this jam.
This is a delicious, easy recipe. I just made two batches (3 cups of cranberries each), adding more sugar to the second batch. I poured the warm jam into warm half pint jelly jars and processed in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. Each batch yielded 3 half pints.
The jam turned out great. It tastes delicious. Thanks for sharing an amazing recipe!
What’s the shelf life of cranberry preserves?
Cranberry jam will keep in the refrigerator for three weeks. You can freeze jam by pouring the cooled jam into a clean jar with a lid. It will keep for 6-8 months in the freezer.