Best Crockpot Recipes ~ Thanksgiving Apple Cranberry Compote

This tasty apple cranberry desert is the perfect finish to your Thanksgiving dinner or any fall dinner!  Such a simple recipe that your whole family will love.

If you have never heard of a compote before, let me give you a little history. A compote is a desert originating form 17th century England which is made of fruit in a sugar syrup. The compote can be served alone (like we are doing) or is the base of many other recipes including apple tarts.

What is unique about our compote is that we are using cranberries to give it a flavorful fall taste.

Thanksgiving Apple Cranberry Compote

Total Cooktime: 5-6 hours


What you will need:

• 6 cooking apples, peeled, slice
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
• 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cups port wine
• Sour cream (optional topping)
• Whipped cream (optional topping)
• Vanilla ice cream (optional topping)

Here's a tip:  If you dread peeling, coring and slicing apples like I used to you may be interested in an Hand Crank Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer . This brilliant kitchen tool has saved me countless hours peeling apples by hand!

In your crockpot combine the apple slices and cranberries. Sprinkle the sugar over this mixture. Then add the orange peel, water and wine stiring to mix.

Cover your crockpot and cook the apple cranberry mixture for 5-6 hours on low or just until the apples are tender and the cranberries are no longer firm.

Serve warm in individual bowls. The traditional way to top a compote is with sour cream but you can also use whipped cream or even ice cream.


Family Verdict:  This tasted really good.  I have tried some new things such as adding walnuts to give it a little crunch. Something to think about...the determining factor should really be the cranberries. About 4 hours in you should check to see if the cranberries' softness is to your liking.

Diabeticly Friendly Version:  If you want to make this recipe a little more diabetically friendly you could substitute Splenda sugar for the 1 cup of sugar in the recipe.

I would love to hear your experiences with this recipe including anything you have done to alter it to suit your family's tastes!

Enjoy!