Cranberry Sausage Bites

Oven-roasted smoked sausage is topped with a slice of aged cheddar cheese and dressed with cranberries. The big-bite combination of salty sausage, and creamy cheese, with sweet and bitter cranberries, is delightful!

Whenever I see an appetizer on a stick, something tells me that it’s going to be delicious! I don’t know why that is, but if I see food on a toothpick or skewer, I’m definitely trying it! When I put together these Cranberry Sausage Bites I just knew I’d need to pierce the whole thing with a pick of some sort, otherwise, they were not only messy to pick up, but that beautiful cranberry had a mind of its own and kept sliding off!

Skewering from the top down not only holds everything in place, but it helps to keep hands clean. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any of my guests touching things in my house with sticky fingers. What is it about food on sticks that appeals so greatly to the masses? Think of any carnival or summer fair you’ve been to. Now, think about all of those lineups of hungry people at those brightly coloured food trucks. How many of those food trucks serve food on sticks?

Is it a cleanliness issue? Do we love food on sticks because it eliminates the need for us to get our hands dirty? I can certainly see the appeal at a fair or a festival. (We all know there are so many germs on those rides!) Pulling food off of the stick with our teeth certainly helps to keep the germs on our hands from spreading to our food.

FOOD ON STICKS

I think it goes a little deeper than that. Preparing food on sticks is primitive really. Many, many years ago, before the invention of skillets and grills, meat was mainly cooked on sticks over an open fire. In many cases, that skewered rabbit or chicken was passed around the fire and every family member took a bite to help fill their bellies.

But, we’ve come a long way since mankind needed to cook meat that way. So, why the appeal still? Personally, I think it has continued to maintain its popularity simply because it’s fun. I can remember being a kid and eating those battered hot dogs on a stick and dipping it into ketchup or mustard. It was such a change from the everyday fork and knife routine that I’m not sure if the battered hot dog was as good as it seemed at all or if it was just that it was on a stick!

I’ve gone on and on here talking about sticks so I’m going to stop now and tell you all about this appetizer and how you can make it in your home this holiday season, but first, I want to tell you about what you can expect from Lord Byron’s Kitchen this Christmas. I know we’re just about to kick off the month of November, but I have a lot of Christmas-themed recipes to share with you this year, so I’ve got to get started early. So, before we get to a list of ingredients and instructions for this Cranberry Sausage Bites recipe, let me tell you about this series and more!

LORD BYRON’S 12 CHRISTMAS APPETIZERS SERIES

Another holiday series, Lord Byron? Yes – why not!? Welcome, Dear Reader, to the second of my annual holiday recipe series for this season! I’m calling this one Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Appetizers. This series will focus on easy-to-make appetizers that are both delicious and festive.

I will try to keep the recipes in this series quick and easy too. Most of them will require some baking, but they won’t be too complex that you can’t whip the up just before your guests arrive. Some are just assembly-type recipes, while others can be prepared in advance.

Just like every other holiday series that I’ve shared over the years, this series will see a new recipe shared every day for the next 12 days – even on Saturday and Sunday! You might be asking yourself, how many Christmas recipes could one possibly have or need? Well, I say you can never have too much of a good thing. And, I love having lots of choices. Who wants to prepare the same holiday appetizers year after year?

SUBSCRIBE NOW SO THAT YOU NEVER MISS OUT ON NEW RECIPES!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to Lord Byron’s 12 Christmas Appetizers series! Even though this is the second series for this holiday season, you can always take a look back at previous years if you just cannot wait until the next recipe is published. Some of my favourites from previous years are my 12 Edible Wreaths of Christmas, my 12 Bars and Squares of Christmas series, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! Like in previous holiday recipe countdowns, I like to mix up the recipes in the series so that there is something for everyone. Are you ready!!??

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Sausage – Buy smoked sausage so that you get even more flavour. It pairs well with the cheese and cranberries.
• Cheese – Just about any brick-style cheese will work here. I’m using white aged cheddar, but you can use your favourite flavour.
• Cranberries – You can prepare fresh cranberry sauce at home or you can buy canned. If you buy canned, make sure it’s not the jelled type, but the type with whole cranberries in it!

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY SAUSAGE BITES

Place the sausage slices onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place it in your oven and turn the oven on to 425 degrees F.  (There is no need to preheat the oven first.)  Once the oven reaches 425 degrees F, bake the sausage for 2-3 minutes and remove it from the oven.  The sausage should be lightly browned.  Transfer the sausage to a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb the grease. Allow the sausage to cool for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, slice the aged white cheddar so that each piece is roughly one-inch square and about ½ inch thick.  Next, transfer the canned whole cranberries to a bowl and use a small fork to gently pick out the best-looking cranberries.  Set those aside.

Once the sausage has cooled, transfer them to a serving plate and top each circle with a piece of cheese.  Top that with one of the cranberries and a little bit of the sauce.  Pierce from the top down with a cocktail pick or toothpick to secure all three components together.  Garnish and serve.

O CRANBERRY, CRANBERRY, WHEREFORE ART THOU CRANBERRY?

Have you been reading my blog for any length of time? If you have, you will already be aware of what I’m about to discuss. If you haven’t, it’s important that you understand how frustrating it can be to be a food blogger at times. Food bloggers are always working ahead of schedule. When it comes to Christmas recipes, for example, we are baking cakes and cookies as early as September!

We do this so that we can test the recipes to make sure that they will work for you at home. The recipes need to be plated and styled. Photographs need to be taken. We have to write up the post and make sure we please the folks at Google, otherwise, our recipes run the risk of being buried in cyberspace somewhere. There are many other steps that I’m skipping here, but all of it is to say that we need the time to get the recipes out to you a few weeks before you need them.

Now, as a huge fan of Christmas baking – the 200+ Christmas recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen are proof of that – there’s one thing that frustrates me every single year. There’s a tremendous lack of things like fresh cranberries for many months of the year. Don’t even get me started on holiday confections like Hershey’s chocolate or candy canes! Luckily, here in Ontario, we happen to have a little town called Bala, which is the cranberry capital of Ontario. It makes finding them during the off-season a little easier!

MAKE YOUR OWN CRANBERRY SAUCE AT HOME

For these Cranberry Sausage Bites, you want chunky cranberry sauce. If you can’t find the canned variety in stores, it’s very easy to make your own if you happen to have fresh cranberries on hand. Most of the fresh cranberries I find in grocery stores come in a bag that usually weighs about twelve ounces. I like to wash the cranberries well under cold running water before using them.

Scoop out a whole cup of the cranberries and set them aside. Transfer the rest to a saucepan with one cup of granulated sugar, two tablespoons of water, and the zest from half an orange. Cook everything together over low heat, keeping in mind to stir often, for ten minutes.

Increase the heat to medium. The sauce will come to a boil and the cranberries will burst open. This will take about another ten minutes. At this point, reduce the heat to low and add the cup of cranberries you had previously set aside. Stir them in and turn off the heat. Set aside to cool. The sauce will thicken more as it cools.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!

Finally, as I stated previously, every day I will be posting a new recipe. If you miss one, don’t fret. You can find my entire collection of Christmas Recipes right here! There are over 200 Christmas recipes and counting. There’s something for everyone! Cheers!