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.
CRANBERRY JELLO SALAD
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 (½ cup), crushed pineapple (with juice), cranberry sauce and orange juice and zest (if your orange juice doesn’t make ½ cup add water to reach ½ 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.
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
Instructions
- Use a silicone bundt pan or spray a metal one with vegetable oil spray.
- Microwave ½ 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 (½ cup), crushed pineapple (with juice), cranberry sauce and orange juice and zest (if your orange juice doesn't make ½ cup add water to reach ½ 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.
Nutrition
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I am trying to make this but the recipe says one cup water. So it says to add in 1 cup of boiling water and then later it says add rest of water? That is confusing how much water total am I adding? Help I’m trying to make this for tomorrow’s meal.
Hi Desiree sorry I missed the question. It was a typo in the recipe, only a half cup is boiling, the rest is room temperature. I’m sorry for the delay I know it is beyond the timing for when you made the recipe.
My box of jello says 0.3 ounces. Recipe says 6 ounces, Did you mean 0.6 ounces or 2 small boxes? Also again in step 3 do you add 1 cup boiling water followed by another 1/2 cup in step 4 OR 1/2 cup in steps 3 and 4. Thanks for the clarifications
I’m so sorry, but I’ve never seen a box of jello that size. Are you sure? The only boxes I’ve seen are in 3 ounces or 6 ounces.
The water issue was corrected.
Could this be made in a 9×13 dish and not molded? Thanks
Yes absolutely!
Can I substitute mandarin oranges for the pineapple? One of my guests is allergic to pineapple.
Yes absolutely
I’m curious as to why you don’t use Cranberry flavored Jell-O?
My Mother always used it, I use it, albeit is a chore to find now-a-days, but …
Search the ‘Net, you can find it and it tastes sooooooooo much better!
Hi! Its for the extra flavor.
Do you cook the cranberries or put them in whole uncooked
The recipe calls for a cranberry sauce, I’m sorry for any confusion.
I made this for Thanksgiving. It was very tasty!! I did add a little bit of orange juice to it to make up for only getting half the juice from the orange. It had a nice raspberry, cranberry, pineapple and orange flavor to it. I highly recommend this recipe!! You won’t regret it!!
Thanks for coming back to let me know, Courtney.
I was so looking forward to this but it didn’t set at all 🙁
Oh no!
My recipe didn’t set it either. It was delicious, but I had to serve it as a “chutney” with our baked ham for Christmas. I’m thinking the extra 1/2 cup of orange juice was too much liquid???
Make sure the boiling water dissolves all the jello powder, if it’s not fully dissolved then you’re going to have trouble with setting.
Question. In ingredients list is 1 c water. But in the directions say to add 1/2 c water and 1/2 c. Orange juice adding enough water to make 1/2 c. So to be clear, you add a total 1 1/2 c water and 1/2 c orange juice? I think you need to clarify your directions.
Sorry for the confusion. I’ve edited the recipe card to read more clearly.
Every holiday table needs a jello salad. LOVE THIS.
Oh my this is heavenly! Love the flavors of raspberry and cranberry together!
This is such a pretty addition to the table, delicious too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
What holiday is complete without the jello salad? This is great and looks so festive. It’s a great addition to any holiday table.
I couldn’t agree more!
Do think I could add pecans to the jello without changing the recipe? I enjoy things with nuts in them.
You can add pecans if you’d like.
Tasty and beautiful! Cant wait to make it again for Friendsgiving this weekend!
Glad you liked it!
This is a must at Thanksgiving!! Love the crushed pineapple & orange flavor with it!
Now that’s a classic I haven’t had in a while! I know it will be delicious! Printing now.
Let me know how you liked it!
My mother-in-law makes this Jello salad every year. It’s delicious. Always a crowd favorite, she never has any leftovers.