Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Moist mini cranberry orange meatballs are full-flavored and perfect finger food for the holidays served with party picks.

After Thanksgiving, I had leftover jellied cranberry sauce and wasn’t sure what to do with it.

I knew I wouldn’t let it waste, so I created a mini meatball recipe for Mrs. CBB and me.

With each bite, you taste the juice from the tender meatball with hints of orange zest and cranberry in a homemade BBQ sauce.

Crockpot Cranberry Orange Meatballs

Cooked in the crockpot, these mini cranberry orange meatballs are perfect for transporting to a Christmas celebration or keeping warm on your counter.

Other Uses For Cranberry Sauce

Over the years, cranberries have been part of many recipes on Canadian Budget Binder.

Cranberries are nutritious, and we always have leftovers from Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter celebrations.

What are cranberries?

Cranberries are small, hard, round, red fruits with a flavor that many describe as both bitter and sour. They grow on vines in freshwater bogs, mostly in the northern United States and southern Canada. They’re related to blueberries and wintergreen.

Web MD

• Add cranberry sauce to your morning hot breakfast cereal.
• Include cranberry sauce in plain yogurt with keto granola.
• Bake with leftover cranberry sauce – Keto Cranberry Orange Muffins.
• Make a healthy smoothie with spinach, oat milk, yogurt, cranberry sauce, and bananas.
• Turkey burgers with Thanksgiving fixings as the condiments.
• Add cranberries to your favorite salad dressing.
• Cranberry topped no-bake Cheesecake
• Grilled Cheese with leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.
• Vanilla bean ice cream with warmed cranberry sauce topping and crushed cookies.
• Leftover Thanksgiving Pot Pie with cranberry sauce topping
• Keto Cranberry Custard Bars
• Cranberry orange breakfast muffins Low-carb, Keto
• Italian biscotti made with cranberry and orange
• Cranberry Apple Crisp
• Glazed Carrots with Cranberry Sauce
• Chicken and cranberry sauce
• Tinned Cranberry Sauce, sliced, then dipped in chocolate

How To Make Mini Cranberry Orange Meatballs

Cranberry Orange Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup of ketchup
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup jellied cranberry sauce
• 2 tablespoons of fresh chives or spring onion greens
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• zest of one medium orange or half cup
• juice of the medium orange
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with equal parts water (thickener)
• 1 cup cold water

How To Make Cranberry Orange Sauce

• Add all of the ingredients into an 8-quart crockpot and stir.
• Once the meatballs are baked, add them to the sauce and cover.
• Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

Italian Meatballs Ingredients

• 1lb Pork mince
• 1lb Lean Beef or Veal mince
• 1 medium onion chopped fine
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon of onion powder
• 1 cup of Fresh Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padana Grated- Not the stuff in the jars or pre-grated. Please don’t use that stuff.
• 1 cup of freshly grated Romano Cheese
• 2 tablespoons of dry parsley flakes
• 1 egg
• 2 cups of Italian breadcrumbs (I prefer the ones seasoned with cheese and parsley)
• 1 teaspoon of water

How To Make The Meatballs

Scoop mini meatballs with a melon ball size scoop

1. In a large bowl, add the following ingredients:
2. Minced beef, grated cheese, garlic, onion, egg, spices, breadcrumbs, and water
3. Mix gently with clean hands until combined. (do not overmix)
4. Once you mix everything, I like to take a bit, fry it, and taste it.
5. If it needs more flavor, now is the time to add it to the bowl and gently mix.
6. Remember, you can always add but can’t take away.
7. Once seasoned, I roll it into small uniform meatballs (60), or you can make large ones.
8. Place them on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet.
9. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
10. Drop the meatballs into the crockpot with the cranberry orange sauce.
11. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

How To Serve Mini Cranberry Orange Meatballs

We served the mini meatballs with wooden party sticks or toothpicks.

The next day, I made quinoa and served the meatballs on the side.

Alternatives might be pasta, rice, or cous cous, then top with the meatballs and sauce.

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Fondant Fancies

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Fondant Fancies also known as French Fancies are tiny sponge cakes filled with jam and topped with fondant and icing. Perfect for any occasion.

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Ingredients

• 2/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup caster sugar or granulated sugar
• 3 eggs beaten
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour or all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup ground almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam sieved
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 250g tub marzipan
• For the icing
• 1/4 cup vegetable fat/lard
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 5 cups icing sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 190oC/375oF
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then beat in the eggs and 2 tablespoons of flour.
3. Fold in the rest of flour, almonds and vanilla essence also known as extract.
4. Spoon into well greased tin
5. Bake for 20mins
6. Once baked let the cake cool.
7. Heat the apricot jam and lemon juice in a pan then brush over the cooled bottom of the cake.
8. Roll out the marzipan and trim into rectangle the same size as the sponge.
9. Cover the top of sponge, then cut into six or seven 4cm/ 1 1/2″ fingers then cut evenly into 4 rectangles (or diamonds)
10. To make the icing, melt the fat, lemon and 60ml water (Tip- use the measure from a mixture bottle it’s a lot easier to work out).
11. Add 1 1/2 cups icing sugar and bring to the boil
12. Remove from the heat and gradually add the rest of the icing sugar until smooth. If you find its too thick add 1 tablespoon of warm water.
13. Sit the cakes on a wire rack placing a sheet of parchment underneath. Then spoon the warm icing sugar over each cake until completely covered.
14. If you find you don’t have enough icing to coat the cakes remove the surplus from the tray and melt over a pan of simmering water.
15. Let the icing cool before decorating.

Did you make this recipe?

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