These No-Bake Cranberry Cheesecake Bars are here to save your holiday and free up your oven for all of your other turkey day essentials! With a buttery graham cracker crust, a super simple and decadent cheesecake filling, and a tart cranberry swirl that will knock your socks off, you and your guests will love this dessert.
The truth is, we’ve never met a cheesecake we didn’t like. There’s just nothing like the marriage of flavors from the rich, slightly-sweet cheesecake layer, perfectly tart cranberry topping, and our favorite buttery cranberry crust. When we were brainstorming on Thanksgiving desserts this year, we knew we wanted to put a festive spin on our triple-berry cheesecake bars after y’all loved them so much last year!
What is cheesecake supposed to taste like?
Cheesecake is delicious, y’all! It is slightly sweet, slightly tangy, and REALLY yummy! Even if cream cheese isn’t your thing, we say that these no-bake cheesecake bars are still worth trying!
If you’ve been around here long enough, you know we LOVE cranberries! They bring the most amazing touch of brightness to dishes with their tart, lightly sweet flavors. Over the years we’ve made Cranberry Agua Frescas, Cranberry Sauce, Bacon Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing, Cranberry Bison Meatloaf, and Slow Cooker Cranberry Pork Shoulder, so it was high time to take cranberries to dessert!
Let’s talk about how easy these cranberry cheesecake bars are! It’s as simple as crushing your favorite gluten-free graham crackers into crumbs and using your favorite grass-fed butter to make the perfect graham cracker crust. The cheesecake filling comes together with the rich combination of dairy-free condensed milk and cream cheese which makes it literally one of the tastiest AND easiest desserts you’ll have on the menu this holiday season. This dessert is naturally egg-free, but you can also easily make it totally dairy-free by subbing coconut oil in the crust, and using a dairy-free cream cheese like this one. The final piece is a quick cranberry sauce that comes together in no time, and balances the sweetness of the cheesecake filling with just the right amount of tart. We hope you love these cranberry cheesecake bars as much as we did!
What is the best cream to use for a cheesecake?
We opted for regular cream cheese here, but feel free to use Kite Hill dairy-free cream cheese if you’d like! The choice is totally up to you. We just recommend going with a full-fat version of whichever you choose.
Cranberry Cheesecake Recipe Tips
Here are a few tips and tricks to make sure that your cheesecake bars turn out perfectly every single time!
- Let the Bars Chill in the Fridge – be sure to let your cheesecake bars chill for at least 4 hours in the fridge before serving. This will really help them set!
- Use a Berry Jam – if you don’t like cranberries, know that you can still use this recipe, just omit the cranberries, and top the bars with a berry jam instead!
- Use Dairy-Free or Regular – feel free to use dairy-free condensed milk and cream cheese here or regular! Either one will work, so the choice is really yours!
How to correctly chill a cheesecake?
It’s super easy, y’all – to chill a cheesecake, you’ll simply pop the whole thing in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours!
How to store cranberry cheesecake?
These cheesecake bars store in the refrigerator beautifully! Just cover them, pop them in the fridge, and pull them back out when you’re ready to enjoy. If you’d like to freeze your cheesecake bars, that works too! Frozen cheesecake is actually a really delicious cold treat!
Video
No-Bake Cranberry Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
For the Cranberry Sauce Topping
- 4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the Graham Cracker Crust
For the Cheesecake
- 11.25 ounces dairy-free condensed milk
- 2, 8 ounce packages cream cheese softened (use an equal amount of Kite Hill for dairy free)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice about 1 small lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the cranberries, orange juice, maple syrup, and cinnamon to a saucepan with matching lid over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes, until the cranberries have popped and the sauce has thickened and reduced. If the sauce is still thin, continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes, until desired consistency is achieved.
- For the graham cracker crust, place the two boxes-worth of graham crackers into a food processor and pulverize until you have fine crumbs. Adding 4 tablespoons-worth of softened butter pieces at a time, pulse the food processor with the butter. Continue for the rest of the butter, until the graham cracker crust comes together in a flaky, slightly-crumbly dough.
- Pat the graham cracker crust into the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan and slightly up the sides to create a 1/4 inch thick crust.
- For the cheesecake filling, add the condensed milk, cream cheese, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to a large bowl, then beat with an electric mixer or stand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until mixture is smooth and fluffy.
- Pour the cheesecake filling on top of the crust, smoothing to even it out, then pour the cranberry sauce over top.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, then slice and serve!
Nutrition
I’m so excited to try this! Have you tried with blueberries/raspberries, etc? How did it turn out? Thank you!
The crumbs from 32 ounces of graham crackers and 1.5 sticks of butter seems like a lot. Is this accurate?
My husband and I really enjoyed this. It is sweet and tart, and the buttery crust is delicious. Only thing I noticed is the cheesecake filling didn’t seem as thick as what is shown in the picture. Also, the instructions were confusing at first where it says 2 boxes of Graham crackers, about 16 oz. I wasn’t sure if it meant one box of 16 oz, or 2 boxes 16 oz. Each.
Hi Megan! We are so glad that you enjoyed these cheesecake bars. We are sorry the filling wasn’t what you were expecting. It’s so hard for us to know what was different there since we’re not there in the kitchen with you. We’ll also make sure to clarify in the instructions that it’s 2 boxes of graham crackers or 16 ounces total. Thank you for bringing that to our attention and sharing your experience with us! -Team FF
Looks yummy – can you use dairy condensed milk? We don’t have any allergies.
Of course! Enjoy!
Does this freeze well if made in advance? Thanks
I wouldn’t recommend freezing the cheesecake, I think it’ll affect the texture when it defrosts. The cranberry sauce will freeze great though!
For the question about dairy free condensed milk in Canada, I have found a coconut milk condensed version at my local Loblaws and also saw it today at Marshall’s in the food section. It is a bit pricey for a small tin.
It is really easy to make your own too! Combine a can of coconut milk with about 1/3 cup coconut sugar or regular sugar if you don’t want the darker color, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for about 15 minutes until it is reduced by at least half.
Can you use regular condensed milk? I cannot find dairy free here in Canada 🙁
We haven’t tried it personally but I think that would work!
yes there is dairy free coconut condensed milk. check superstore organic section. all health food stores carry it like community foods in Calgary Albert’s. even bulk barn carries it. good luck !
I made these for a dinner party and they were so delicious! Even better the next day. Thank you for the recipe.
Is it supposed to be 1/2 cup lemon juice for the cheesecake? It says 2 cup/1 small lemon.
It is two tablespoons!