Cranberry Jello Salad

Cranberry Jello Salad is a holiday favorite molded jello dessert, with raspberry jello, cranberry sauce, pineapple, and orange zest. 

Fresh Cranberry Jello Salad is extremely easy to prepare and you can even make your own Cranberry Sauce for this recipe. Check out my Dessert Recipes if you are looking for more easy, delicious holiday party recipes like creamy retro desserts with whipped cream.

This Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, spruce up your holiday table with a festive and beautiful dessert. Cranberry Jello Salad is as impressive to eat as it is to look at, and is an incredibly easy recipe to follow. Even though gelatin salad isn’t a traditional dessert in a lot of houses, Cranberry Jello Salad may just end up being one of your family favorites.

The best thing about this recipe is that if you feel like spending the additional time to make this more homemade, you can make the cranberry sauce. Making fresh Cranberry Jello Salad with your own homemade Cranberry Sauce will take this recipe up a notch. 

You can also change up the flavors and add ins based off of the general flavors of what you’re serving it with. Feel free to experiment with it to come up with your family’s perfect recipe that will become a tradition for years to come. If you add a few more spices to the mix you can even use this as a sauce in place of cranberry sauce.

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD

• Use a silicone bundt pan or spray a metal one with vegetable oil spray.
• Microwave one cup of water until it boils, about 90 seconds.
• Add your raspberry jello to a large bowl and add the boiling water to it, whisking well until jello is fully dissolved.
• Add in the rest of the water (1/2 cup), crushed pineapple (with juice), cranberry sauce and orange juice and zest (if your orange juice doesn’t make 1/2 cup add water to reach 1/2 cup) and whisk well to combine.
• Add to your bundt pan, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until it has become firm.
• To remove from the mold, dip the mold in hot water for about 10 seconds then put a plate upside down over the mold and flip carefully.

MORE HOLIDAY DESSERT SALAD RECIPES

Ambrosia Salad

Watergate Salad (Pistachio Delight)

Easy Fruit Salad

Winter Fruit Salad

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VARIATIONS ON CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD

• Add ins: You can stir in all sorts of fresh fruit to experiment with the overall flavor, or add some chopped nuts like  pecans, walnuts, or cashews to give the salad an extra crunch. Other fun ideas to try out are Cranberry Jello Salad with apples, Cranberry Jello Salad with celery, or even Cranberry Jello Salad with mandarin oranges.
• Flavor: Feel free to experiment with the flavor of the Jello, or even layer two kinds of Jello together. Try Raspberry-Cranberry Jello Salad or Strawberry-Cranberry Jello Salad to start. Strawberry and raspberry compliment the cranberry flavor extremely well due to their natural sweetness.
• Toppings: Serve your Cranberry Jello Salad with a dollop of Homemade Whipped Cream or Cool Whip that just take minutes to make.

FAQ FOR CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD

• What does fresh pineapple do to jello? Pineapple has a chemical called bromelain in it that keeps Jello from setting.
• Why can you use canned pineapple in a jello salad but not fresh pineapple? While gelatin will never set correctly if you use fresh pineapple, the heat from canning pineapple will deactivate the enzymes in bromelian. You can use canned pineapple in jello dishes.
• Do you spray jello molds? Yes, you should spray your jello mold with vegetable oil cooking spray to stop it from sticking.
• How do you get jello out of a mold without breaking it? Put a plate or cake stand over the open part of the mold, turn it plate side down and run the bottom under hot water until the Jello releases and lands on the plate.

EASY HOLIDAY BREAKFASTS TO TRY:

Easy French Toast Bake

Gooey Monkey Bread

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Honey Bun Cake

HOW LONG IS CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD GOOD IN THE FRIDGE?

• Serve: This dessert is best served chilled, both because it tastes better and also because it stays together better this way. Don’t leave the salad out for longer than about 2 hours.
• Store: You can keep your Cranberry Jello Salad in the fridge for up to a week before it will get saturated with moisture and fall apart.
• Freeze: Do not. This dessert is best eaten fresh or out of the fridge, but Jello looses its texture and gets really nasty if frozen.

5 from 9 votes

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Cranberry Jello Salad

Cranberry Jello Salad is a holiday favorite molded jello dessert, with raspberry jello, cranberry sauce and pineapple.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Cranberry Jello Salad

Prep Time 12 minutes

refrigerate 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 12 minutes

Servings 12 Servings

Calories 91 kcal

Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

• 6 ounces raspberry jello
• 1 cup water
• 14 ounces whole cranberry sauce
• 20  ounces crushed pineapple , (do not drain)
• 1 orange , juiced and zested

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Use a silicone bundt pan or spray a metal one with vegetable oil spray.

2. Microwave one cup of water until it boils, about 90 seconds.

3. Add your raspberry jello to a large bowl and add the boiling water to it, whisking well until jello is fully dissolved.

4. Add in the rest of the water (1/2 cup), crushed pineapple (with juice), cranberry sauce and orange juice and zest (if your orange juice doesn't make 1/2 cup add water to reach 1/2 cup) and whisk well to combine.

5. Add to your bundt pan, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or until it has become firm.

6. To remove from the mold, dip the mold in hot water for about 10 seconds then put a plate upside down over the mold and flip carefully.

Nutrition Facts

Cranberry Jello Salad

Amount Per Serving

Calories 91 Calories from Fat 9

% Daily Value*

Fat 1g2%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Sodium 11mg0%

Potassium 108mg3%

Carbohydrates 23g8%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 21g23%

Protein 1g2%

Vitamin A 67IU1%

Vitamin C 15mg18%

Calcium 17mg2%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.