Cranberry Cheesecake Bars
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Cranberry cheesecake bars are a delectable cross between cheesecake and crumble. The delicious layers include a crumbly base, a cream cheese filling, a sweet but tart cranberry filling, and then a buttery streusel topping.
Cranberry cheesecake bars are “amazeballs” according to my niece who tasted them recently. I mean, I do tend to agree! This is a decadent dessert that is so stinking good. If you like cranberry sauce, crumble, and cheesecake, this dessert was made for you.
This cranberry cheesecake bar recipe came to fruition one day when I was thinking about 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?
We start with a crumble topping and base made with butter, brown sugar, flour, white chocolate chips, and oats. Oh yes, there is chocolate, because white chocolate and cranberry are just a match made in heaven! Then we need our cheesecake filling, which is a deliciously creamy combination of cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract (like my cherry cream cheese pie). The final piece of the puzzle is cranberry sauce. All that’s left to do is add the remaining crumble topping and bake!
These cranberry bars come out of the pan looking as pretty as they do in that photo up there! Seriously! Take a bite and you’ll get the scrumptious combination of cranberry flavor with cream cheese filling and the topping’s crumble texture. Sounds absolutely delicious, right?
Let’s get in the kitchen!
Recipe Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Quick or old-fashioned oats
- Light or dark brown sugar
- Butter or margarine
- White morsels (white chocolate chips)
- Cream cheese (here’s how to easily make homemade cream cheese)
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Lemon juice
- Vanilla extract
- Cornstarch
- Whole berry cranberry sauce (or you can make homemade cranberry sauce by going here)
How to Make Cranberry Cheesecake Bars
Mix your oats, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl.
Stir them up well.
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 baking dish 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 well 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 cheesecake layer.
Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture on top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
Ain’t they pretty?
Now technically you are supposed to not only allow these to cool completely but also cover and refrigerate them before serving (up to 24 hours in advance).
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!
Storage
The best part is you can store your cranberry cheesecake bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
Use any kind of oats, including quick oats, old-fashioned oats, or rolled oats.
Check out these other cherry recipes:
No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake Balls
Cherry Crumb Cake With Cake Mix
Easy Crescent Cherry Cream Cheese Cobbler
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups quick or old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup packed dark or light brown sugar
- 1 cup butter or margarine at room temp 2 sticks
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
- 8 ounces softened cream cheese
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 14 ounces Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly and then stir in white morsels. Set aside 2.5 cups of this mixture to use for the topping later. Press the rest into the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish to form a crust.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1.5 cups quick or old-fashioned oats, 1/4 cup packed dark or light brown sugar, 1 cup butter or margarine at room temp, 2 cups white chocolate chips
- 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 the crust.8 ounces softened cream cheese, 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Stir together cranberry sauce and cornstarch 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.14 ounces Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce, 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the center is set. Cool completely, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into bars and enjoy!
Nutrition
“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!
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. 🙂
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!
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?
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.
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. 🙂
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!
LOVE!!!