A delicious and sweet white chocolate cheesecake with cranberry sauce layered throughout. With sweet, tangy, rich, and delicious cheesecake-like this, your holidays will be set.
Cranberries and white chocolate are a perfect pairing and adding the rich and creamy cheesecake to the mix are just wonderful. The gingersnap pie crust at the bottom adds a little spice and helps to tone down that sweetness just a tad, and it is very much recommended as opposed to a graham cracker crust.
For more cheesecake recipes, check out my No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake, No Bake Cool Whip Cheesecake, Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake, and Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes.
Why This Recipe Works
- It's perfect for holiday parties. This is the perfect holiday cheesecake to bring to the table the next time everyone gathers together for a traditional holiday meal.
- It's great for using leftover canned cranberry jelly. Doing a pantry challenge and finding odds and ends? This recipe is perfect for using up the leftover can of jellied cranberries you forgot in the pantry or the leftover cranberry sauce you made from scratch this year.
- Simple ingredients. We don't need much to make a tasty cheesecake, and this recipe is simple, basic, and delicious. You may have some of the needed ingredients on hand already, so grocery shopping may be minimal.
🥘 Ingredients
For the gingersnap crust, you will need:
Gingersnap cookie crumbs- Just buy a box of gingersnap cookies and mash them into crumbs inside a Ziploc or food processor.
Melted butter- To help adhere the crumbs into a solid mass.
Sugar- Adding a little sweetness and caramelization that helps to solidify the crust.
For the filling, you will need:
Jellied cranberries- You can also use 1-2 cups of leftover homemade cranberry sauce or canned whole cranberry sauce.
White chocolate baking chips- We need a 12-ounce bag of white chocolate chips or 2 cups of chopped chocolate.
Half and half- You can also use milk or heavy cream.
Cream cheese- Giving us a rich cream cheese flavor are 3 blocks (8 ounces each) of cream cheese.
Eggs- We need 3 large eggs.
Vanilla- Vanilla extract helps to give us a good flavor base to work off of.
For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make cranberry white chocolate cheesecake with these simple step-by-step instructions:
Place a large baking sheet on the very bottom rack of the oven. Fill ½ way with water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine all of the crust ingredients until crumbly and then press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
In another bowl, melt your chocolate chips with the half and half in 30-second intervals in the microwave. Stir between each until smooth. You can also melt them in a pot on the stove over low heat. Let cool.
In another microwave bowl or pot, heat the cranberry jelly until soft and no longer chunky. Let cool.
In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth.
Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well until smooth after each addition.
Pour the white chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract into the cheesecake batter and blend until smooth.
Pour half of the cheesecake batter into the prepared pie crust.
Spread most (if not all) of the cranberry sauce onto the layer of cheesecake.
Pour in the remaining batter and spread smooth.
If desired, drop the remaining cranberry sauce in small dollops or drops and then use a toothpick to swirl around for a cool design.
Bake for about 55-60 minutes until the cheesecake has set. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cheesecake.
Let it cool four about an hour or two on the counter and then cover and place it in the fridge for several hours (at least 4) or overnight to chill before serving.
🍴 Recipe Tips
Make sure that you don't overmix the crumb crust. As you can see in some of my photos, I did exactly that. When you overmix the crust you create a solid mass that doesn't enjoy being cut and removed from the pan as easily. This makes serving a tad more difficult.
The cranberry flavor isn't overwhelming but is much more like a savory afternote from the white chocolate which is nice. For a stronger cranberry flavor, you can add more cranberry sauce, but try not to exceed 2 cups in total. A fresher sauce will obviously give a stronger flavor.
Make this cheesecake the day before so it has plenty of time to chill and solidify.
💭 FAQs
Yes, this white chocolate and cranberry cheesecake recipe could be made in a 10 inch instead of a 9 inch. Just note that the baking time will be less and the cheesecake will be thinner, so keep a more watchful eye and pull it from the oven when it passes the clean knife test.
Yes. This can be made, chilled, and then frozen for up to 3 months. Allow it to chill completely overnight before wrapping it in plastic wrap and storing it in an airtight container. Let thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.
More great Christmas recipes to try
- Peppermint Shortbread Cookies
- Easy Christmas Pretzels
- Christmas Tree Pretzels
- White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn
📖 Recipe
Cranberry White Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients
Gingersnap Crust
- 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs ($1.00)
- 4 Tablespoons melted butter ($0.36)
- ⅓ cup sugar ($0.07)
Filling
- 1 can (14oz) Jellied cranberries ($1.74)
- 2 cups White chocolate baking chips (12 ounce bag) ($1.99)
- ½ cup Half and half ($0.50)
- 24 ounces Cream cheese, softened ($5.94)
- ½ cup Granulated sugar ($0.11)
- 3 large Eggs ($0.24)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract ($0.02)
Instructions
- Place a large baking sheet on the very bottom rack of the oven. Fill ½ way with water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a bowl, combine all of the crust ingredients until crumbly and then press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
- In another bowl, melt your chocolate chips with the half and half in 30-second intervals in the microwave. Stir between each until smooth. You can also melt them in a pot on the stove over low heat. Let cool.
- In another microwave bowl or pot, heat the cranberry jelly until soft and no longer chunky. Let cool.
- In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well until smooth after each addition.
- Pour the white chocolate mixture and the vanilla extract into the cheesecake batter and blend until smooth.
- Pour half of the cheesecake batter into the prepared pie crust.
- Spread most (if not all) of the cranberry sauce onto the layer of cheesecake.
- Pour in the remaining batter and spread smooth.
- If desired, drop the remaining cranberry sauce in small dollops or drops and then use a toothpick to swirl around for a cool design.
- Bake for about 55-60 minutes until the cheesecake has set. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the cheesecake.
- Let it cool four about an hour or two on the counter and then cover and place it in the fridge for several hours (at least 4) or overnight to chill before serving.
Shirley Peacock says
Steps 3 and 8 are very confusing to me. I just don’t understand what you are telling us to do with the jellied cranberries. Would you please explain exactly what you are telling us to do with them? Thank you for your help!
Nicole says
sure thing shirley! step 3-- warm up the jellied cranberry sauce so that it is less thick and more like a soft or runny jelly. step 8- spread enough cranberry sauce on top to cover the top of the cheesecake layer. You can use all of the can if you really want a strong flavor or you can just use some of it. I'll edit the recipe card to reflect this so that it's more clear 🙂
peter fjeld says
What temperature for baking? Can I Use a water bath?
Nicole says
It'll be baked at 350 degrees F. and yes, a water bath can be used.