Cranberry Cheesecake Spread

This small, slightly sweet, crustless cheesecake is topped with cranberry relish and studded with pecans. Serve it with sweet wheat crackers, gingersnaps or sugar cookies for a pretty holiday appetizer or light dessert.

Cranberry Cheesecake Spread with Cranberry Sauce on top and a garnish of pecans, viewed from above.

Fresh Cranberries vs Can-berries

I love fresh cranberries. Every year I am excited to see them show up on the produce aisle as the holidays approach. I can’t help but admire their beautiful ruby color and seldom resist adding them to my cart. I like having them on hand at home, as a garnish or flavor inspiration. They are pretty and easily add a touch of seasonal color to a dish.

Most years I end up making some into a fresh cranberry relish. While I enjoy it, I may be the only one to taste it at our Thanksgiving dinner. The rest of my family prefers to eat jellied cranberry sauce, the kind that comes from a can. They like it in the shape of the can with the ridged can marks still decorating the sides. They smile as they confidently insist “Can-berry” sauce is an important part of the Thanksgiving menu. We make a place for it at the table every year.

I admit that the simple dependable flavor of canned cranberry sauce has its merits. Still, the personality of fresh cranberries continues to intrigue me. While sharply provocative, fresh cranberries keep good company with ingredients that are both sweet and savory. Their piquancy nudges a variety of flavors to reveal themselves in new ways. In their company spicy peppers, or ginger, come into balance and sweets resist growing stodgy. Chewy nuts or crisp jicama highlight the texture of fresh cranberries while taking the flavor in a mellower direction. Creamy cheese or yogurt offer rich smoothness as a tempting foil to their color and sharp flavor. Having come to know them, I want to invite fresh cranberries to our celebration too.

Cranberry Cheesecake Spread

Since I can’t resist bringing them into the mix, I needed a new way to welcome fresh cranberries onto our holiday menu, a way that doesn’t compete directly with a long-standing family favorite. What I came up with was an appetizer, or maybe a light dessert. It is something to serve while family and guests are hungry and waiting for the Thanksgiving feast. Or, it could be a part of the menu in the weeks before or after Thanksgiving, when the flavors of the season are most welcome.

Cranberry Cheesecake Spread is a small, crustless, slightly sweet cheesecake. It is made from traditional cream cheese with the addition of non-fat Greek Yogurt. The batter is marbled with the cranberry relish of your choice. I used the recipe for Bourbon Vanilla Cranberry Relish to make mine. You could use Cathy’s Cranberry Tangerine Chutney or another cranberry relish from your own list of favorites. I also added an optional scattering of toasted pecans.

Once the cheesecake spread cooks and cools, top it with more cranberry relish and nuts, if desired. Then garnish and serve with gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, sugar cookies or crackers for a pretty holiday appetizer or light dessert.

Cranberry Cheesecake Spread

Course: Appetizers, DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

12

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

35

minutes
Total time

55

minutes

Serve this slightly sweet Cranberry Cheesecake as a spread for crackers or cookies. It makes a pretty and delicious holiday appetizer or light dessert.

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon butter

  • 3 Tablespoons graham cracker crumbs

  • 8 oz package cream cheese

  • 5 oz container non-fat Greek yogurt

  • 1 egg

  • 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • Bourbon Vanilla Cranberry Relish ( or other Cranberry Relish of your choice)

  • 1/2 cup pecan pieces, toasted

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 375F.
  • Use 1 Tablespoon butter to generously grease the bottom and sides of a 6-inch spring form pan. Add the graham cracker crumbs, tilting and tapping until the crumbs thoroughly cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Set aside.
  • In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the yogurt and egg, beating until well combined. Add the brown sugar and vanilla. Continue mixing until smooth.
  • Pour filling mixture into the prepared pan.
  • Randomly drop 1/3 cup of the cranberry sauce on top of the cheesecake batter with a tablespoon. Tap the pan on the counter top to settle the batter. Insert a butter knife straight down into the batter, not quite touching the bottom of the pan, and drag it back and forth at 1 to 2 inch intervals, front to back then side to side. Repeat as necessary to achieve a marbled effect in the batter.Cranberry Cheesecake Spread batter in a 6-inch springform pan marbled with cranberry sauce before baking.
  • Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes or until done.
  • Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
  • Loosely cover and refrigerate until completely cooled, several hours or overnight.
  • Remove sides of spring form pan. Settle cheesecake onto a serving plate.
    Cranberry Cheesecake Spread on a glass platter without the cranberry sauce topping.
  • Before serving top with remaining cranberry relish and pecans.
  • Serve with ginger snaps, vanilla wafers, shortbread cookies or crackers.
  • Enjoy!

Those bright berries are such a study in contrasts. Though of a singular color, a bag of fresh cranberries will generally contain a palate of rich hues. At least a few of the berries will sport shades of deep crimson. A few others are likely to be almost snow white. Their weight is also a puzzle. A bag of cranberries feels weighty in my hand yet the inside is light and pithy and, when dropped, they blithely skitter across my kitchen floor.

11 Comments

  1. Yum! That looks very delicious! Love savory stuff like this! I can relate to the cranberry sauce in the shape of the can. I now make my own too, but growing up we wouldn't have recognized cranberries in any other form.

  2. Treehouse Chef

    Very Unique! My family also did the cranberry can thing with the lines on the side. What a hoot!

  3. Kathy Walker

    I am in love with cranberries. The variety of dishes that one can make intrigues me…your dish intrigues me. I can already imagine the wonderful flavors. I made a sad appetizer to take to work last week…I have to make up for it. This will be it!

  4. This is so pretty, I love that cranberry color every time. Happy Thanksgiving Lisa!

  5. That was funny on the can shaped cranberry sauce. I know certain members of my family would prefer that too, instead of the yearly attempts I make to be creative with chutneys and interesting cranberry relishes.

  6. How simple but OMG how festive and wonderful looking…

  7. the southern hostess

    What a stunner!

  8. Valerie Harrison (bellini)

    This is a dangerous kind of dessert where you can have just a few gingersnaps with delicious cheesecake spread…or the whole thing with anbag of gingersnaps.

  9. an alternate title could be "how to get people to eat cranberry sauce" because this would certainly do the trick. it looks amazing, lisa!

  10. That is the perfect appetizer for Thanksgiving!

  11. Wow, Lisa, this looks so, so good. I'm going to try it with the cranberry chutney recipe I just posted. This is so festive! I know what you mean about the canned cranberry jelly. Sometimes I like a big slice of it on a turkey sandwich.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.