No-Bake Cranberry Cheesecake

5 from 3 votes

No-Bake Cranberry Cheesecake stands out with its vibrant cranberry swirl and creamy filling, making it an appealing choice for any festive occasion. This recipe combines tart cranberries and rich cream cheese in a homemade graham cracker crust, it's both simple to prepare and visually stunning!

Prep Time40

Chill Time3

Total Time3 40

Course: Dessert, No-Bake Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cranberry Cheesecake, No-Bake Cranberry Cheesecake

Servings: servings

Calories: 412kcal

Author: Jessica & Nellie

Ingredients

Cranberry Swirl

8 oz cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar divided

Filling

1 pint whipping cream
24 oz cream cheese room temperature
3.4 oz box of cheesecake flavored pudding vanilla will work, too

Crust

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 TBSP butter melted
1 TBSP sugar

Instructions

Graham Cracker Crust: Crumble the graham crackers into a fine crumb. Place the whole crackers in a ziplocked bag and use a rolling pin to grind them into a sand like mixture.
In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar (you can omit the sugar if you are using unsalted butter). Press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan. Place it in the freezer while you get the filling ready.
Note: This ratio also works great for Oreo crusts and other cookie crumb crusts.
Cranberry swirl: In a medium size saucepan, combine the cranberries and ¼ cup of sugar. Cook the mixture on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries become soft. Mash the cranberries until they become jam-like. You can add a tiny bit of water to this and run it through a blender if you prefer a smooth mixture. Let the cranberry mixture cool completely in the pan before proceeding.
Cheesecake Filling: Whip 1 pint of whipping cream with ¾ cups of sugar until stiff peaks form. I use my stand mixer for this, it typically takes about 5-7 minutes for stiff peaks to form. Then transfer the whipped cream to a separate bowl.
Back in the stand mixer, cream the cream cheese until smooth. It is very important that the cream cheese is at room temperature here to achieve a smooth filling.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to cream. SLOWLY add in the pudding mix, stopping to scrape the sides a few times before all the pudding mix is added.
With the stand mixer on low speed, slowly incorporate the whipped cream into the cream cheese mix. Stopping and scraping down the sides as needed. Once all the whipping cream has been incorporated, your filling is done.
Assembly: Grab the crust from the freezer and begin layering the cheesecake. Start with a layer of cream cheese filling, spread it across the bottom of the crust. Add a layer of cranberry, spreading it across the filling layer as evenly as possible, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Follow with another layer of filling, then cranberry, so on and so forth until all the ingredients are used.
Chill: Place the cheesecake in the fridge and chill it overnight before serving. Or if you are in a time crunch, you can quickly set the cheesecake by placing it in the freezer for a few hours. When ready to serve, slice & enjoy!

Notes

Leftover cranberry cheesecake should be stored in the refrigerator and it will last up to 5 days. It should be covered tightly to maintain freshness.

Freezing is an option, but it may affect the texture upon thawing.

Nutrition