With the fourth of July coming up, everyone likes to make all manner of patriotic colored foods. Hey, I get it, and I do it, too. It’s fun :). We make Punch Bowl Cake, red/white/blue layered spritzers for the kids, and one of my favorites are the red, white, and blue layered jello jars. Now you need to add Cranberry Cheesecake Bars to that list!
This is a decadent dessert that you might not think of this time of year because of one of the ingredients. I never limit cranberries to Thanksgiving though, because they are so stinking good. So I got to thinking, reckon how many of us have a can of cranberry sauce in our pantries right now? I bet a lot of us do. I checked when I was getting ready for this post and I had three! What better way to use it right now than to make these pretty, easy to serve, cheesecake bars with a ribbon of red and white running right through the center?
And you know that I REALLY love about taking these to a Fourth of July get celebration? They come out of the pan looking as pretty as they do in that photograph up there! Seriously!
Ready? Let’s get in the kitchen!
You’ll need: All purpose flour, oats (quick or old fashioned), brown sugar (light or dark), butter or margarine, white morsels (white chocolate chips), cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, vanilla, cornstarch, and one can of whole berry cranberry sauce.
Mix your oats, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl. Stir them up good.
Now add in your butter and cut that in there with a fork or a pastry cutter until it is good and crumbly.
Like this.
Stir in your morsels.
Now take out 2+1/2 cups of this and set it aside. That will be your crumb topping later.
Press the rest into a 9×13 pan that you’ve sprayed with cooking spray.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until it is fluffy – or until it decides to give up and do whatever you want.
Add in sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Mix that up until smooth and creamy.
If you didn’t let your cream cheese sit out like you were supposed to, it might be a little lumpy still. But hey, life happens.
Spread this over the top of your crust.
Dump your cranberry sauce into a bowl or measuring cup like I’m using. Add cornstarch.
Stir that up really good with a fork to blend.
Now if you are thinking this out in your head you might be thinking that this isn’t going to be an easy task but it really is. Once you start stirring that fork around it all blends together surprisingly fast.
Spread this over the top of your cream cheese mixture.
Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture on top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
Original photo courtesy of Ocean Spray
Ain’t they perty?
Now technically you are supposed to not only allow these to cool completely but also cover and refrigerate them before serving. You should definitely, definitely do that. Always follow instructions, right? But I will tell you that eating one warm, straight from the pan, is a pretty awesome experience as well. 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 +1/2 cups quick or old fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter or margarine, at room temp
- 2 cups white morsels chips, such as Nestles
- 8 ounces cream cheese at room temp
- 14 ounce sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 14 ounces Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- In large bowl, combine flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly and then stir in white chips. Set aside two and 1/2 cups of this mixture to use for the topping later. Press the rest into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan to form a crust.
- In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add in sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat again until smooth and creamy. Pour over crust.
- Stir together cranberry sauce and corn starch with a fork. I know it seems like it won't stir together before you get started but it is really very easy. Spread this over the top of the cream cheese mixture and then sprinkle the reserved crumbs over the top of that.
- Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely (but they are delicious warm! Don't ask me how I know this...). Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into bars and enjoy!
“Look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion, and up with gratitude.”
~Zig Ziglar
Special thanks to my friends at Ocean Spray. I fell in love with this recipe and reached out to them for permission to share it. They were even gracious enough to let me use their final photograph!
Yum 
LOVE!!!
Christy this recipe looks yummy, my only concern is the oats. I don’t care for the texture of them , could I substitute something else, say graham cracker or vanilla wafer crumbs? Thanks.
Hey Vickie! I think either of those would work. They will absorb liquid a little more than oats but I don’t think this will really effect the outcome. Keep us posted!
We are not real crazy about lemon and I noticed it takes 1/4 cup. (I know, we are crazy!) Is there something you can recommend for a substitution for it?
You really don’t taste it in the cheesecake filling, especially when spread out over such a large recipe. But let me think on it. 🙂
Good morning Christie,
This recipe looks soooo good. Could you use Jellied Cranberries instead? I tried your recipe for Strawberry Freezer Jam and it is wonderful. The Instant Pectin sure saves a lot of time.
Thanks so much for all the wonderful recipes.
You sure can Dianne. Just make sure that you use the cornstarch like you do with the whole berry.
I was wondering if you don’t use all of a can of sweetened condensed milk (another recipe) how long can you keep it in the fridge before it spoils? I have a couple of recipes that I used only a part of a can and am not sure how long sweetened condensed milk will keep. Love your cookbooks AND your recipes AND your stories. Thank you for the day brighteners!
Oh my goodness, thank you Nancy!! I personally would try to use it within a week if at all possible.
Could this be put in the freezer for a few days before serving?
I have made this recipe – or very similar many times. I love to use canned pie filling in place of the cranberries. Cherry or blueberry are sooooo good!
Yes, just about any kind will work as a substitution!
Christy, love this recipe. I was wondering how do you think it would work if I added some blueberry pie filling on top of the cranberry layer for red, white and blue. I think the flavors would work great just not sure about another layer of a fruit with liquid if it would mess things up. By the way when you put “Ain’t they perty?” it made me think of my daddy as I heard him say many times, “That shore is purdy, yep P-U-R-D-Y, flat out purdy !” He always made a point of spelling out purdy. Thanks for good memories being jostled.
I am not sure Marsha, I think it would work, but is one of those things that we just aren’t going to know for certain until it is tried. If you happen to get around to trying it let me know!
Christy, I tried it. I mixed cornstarch in the blueberry pie filling just like the cranberry sauce. The rest I did like you said in your recipe. It worked out great and was tasty! The tartness of the cranberries and the sweetness of the blueberries was a good contrast.
Thanks for letting me know Marsha!! I am so glad it turned out. I thought it would, and hoped it would but well, you just never know sometimes. 🙂
This is my son’s favorite Thanksgiving dessert. It is so delicious and is always a hit when taken to pot luck meals. So simple, but super good.
They are a favorite around here too Melba!
For those of us who can’t do so much sugar just a reminder, there is no reason this recipe couldn’t be converted to sugar free. With very little work you can make the crust with a sucralous brown sugar substitute. Make a real cheese cake filling with cream cheese, vanilla, lemon juice, vanilla, eggs and more sucralous. You could also use the xylotol sweetener. When I have made sugar free cheesecake people love it and never notice it doesn’t have sugar.
🙂 Absolutely Beth!! Thank you!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. This looks absolutely delicious. Thanks!
I hope you enjoy them Wayne!!
I will be making these to take to my daughter’s for Thanksgiving. It looks so yummy!! I love your emails & cookbooks. Thank you Christy for sharing this!
Thank YOU Gale!! I hope everyone enjoys the bars!
I enjoy your post so much. Makes giggle and feel at home. Reminds me of sayings that my grandmother and great grandmother would say. 🙂
I am so glad you are enjoying the posts Barbara, I LOVE having you here!!!
Hey Christy, my DH and daughter will love you forever, I don’t eat a lot of cranberry jelly, but this year I made my own from organic cranberries, and I happen to have frozen blueberries (hand picked by me in the wild) so could make up a cornstarch blueberry filling from those and have red white and blue too!
I just want to say that using sweeteners like sucralose and others might not be the best, the sucralose can cause irritation of the bowel and diarrhea in some people, like my brother, and aspartame is in bad repute at the moment, stick with real sugar, and just add a whole lot less. My cranberry sauce is very low in sugar, about half what the package called for, and that is more than I usually add. You can make your own cranberry sauce easily, simply get the package of cranberries either fresh or frozen, add them to a pot, add as little as 1/4 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of water, a shake of salt and bring up to the boil, when the berries start popping you can take it off the heat or let it cook longer, it will set like nobody’s business (to use a saying my grammy said) without any pectin.
I love the combination of orange and cranberry. I am going to try substituting orange juice for the lemon. Also a little grated orange zest in the cream cheese part. Looks so good.
Can you use fresh cranberries.