White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake

Graham Cracker Crust

Graham Crackers – You’ll need about 1 ½ cups of graham crumbs here, or about 12 full sheets of crackers. If you don’t have graham crackers where you live, an equal amount of crushed digestive biscuits works well as a substitute.

Butter – Salted or unsalted butter is fine here. You’ll melt it for the crust, so it doesn’t need to be at room temperature first.

Sugar – Just a bit of white sugar helps to sweeten the crust.

Cinnamon – A little ground cinnamon added to the crust gives a nice flavor.

Cranberry Sauce

Cranberries – Use about ¾ of a standard 12oz package of fresh cranberries. Reserve the rest for the sugared cranberries if you want to make them.

Water & Sugar – To make the sauce, you’ll combine some water and white sugar to simmer the cranberries in.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

White Chocolate – Use two 4oz white chocolate baking bars here. Baking chocolate melts better than using chocolate chips, but you can make those work as well in a pinch.

Heavy Cream – I like to melt the chocolate with hot heavy cream. You’re basically making a white chocolate ganache, but I find it stays more malleable that way than just melting the chocolate in a double broiler or microwave.

Cream Cheese – This is a tall cheesecake, so you’ll need four 8oz blocks of full-fat, block-style cream cheese. Do not replace it with cream cheese spread or low-fat cream cheese.

Sugar – Use some more white sugar here to sweeten the cream cheese. This cheesecake uses less sugar than other ones I make, since you also have the white chocolate in it.

Sour Cream – A bit of sour cream adds a tangy flavor and keeps the cheesecake from tasting overly rich and heavy from all the cream cheese.

Vanilla – A heavy splash of vanilla extract balances the flavors and enhances the white chocolate.

Eggs – Use 3 large eggs and 1 yolk at room temperature for the cheesecake.

Optional Sugared Cranberries

Cranberries – Use the reserved 4oz of fresh cranberries here.

Rosemary – This is optional, but you can also sugar some fresh rosemary for added decorations while you make the cranberries.

Water & Sugar – Like the sauce, you’ll use water and white sugar here. After coating the cranberries and rosemary in sugar water, you’ll also roll them in more sugar.

Make Cranberry Sauce & Melt White Chocolate

Pour the water into a medium saucepan and place on the stove over high heat. Once simmering, add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the cranberries and lower the heat to a low simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries pop and start to break down.

Continue cooking, stirring and using a wooden spoon or spatula to smash the cranberries. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the cranberries are broken down and the sauce is thickening. Once it is ready, pour the sauce into a heatproof bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.

If desired, you can blend the sauce until smooth or push through a fine mesh strainer to remove the skin and seeds. It is easier to swirl this way, but not required.

Chop the white chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Microwave the heavy cream for about a minute, or heat to simmering in a small saucepan. Once hot, pour over the chocolate and let sit for a few minutes, then stir into a thick but pourable ganache. Set aside to cool.

Make the Graham Cracker Crust

Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C and spray a 9” springform pan with cooking spray or butter and set aside.

In a food processor, add the graham crackers and pulse until you have small crumbs. Add the sugar and cinnamon and pulse 3-4 times to mix. Finally, pour in the melted butter while pulsing until you have a crumbly mixture that is the texture of wet sand.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can break up the graham cracker sheets into a large plastic storage bag partially sealed. Use a rolling pin to smash the crackers into small crumbs. Dump into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar and cinnamon, then pour in the melted butter, a little at a time, and mix until fully incorporated.

Pour the graham mixture into the springform pan and use your hand to evenly distribute the crumb mixture across the bottom and a little way up the sides. Use a measuring cup to gently pack the graham crust into the bottom and sides of the pan.

Place the springform pan into the center of the oven and bake for 10-14 minutes until lightly browned and you can smell it cooking. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool a little bit. Lower the oven to 325°F / 160°C.

Make the Cheesecake Filling

While the crust is baking, start working on the cheesecake filling. Fill a saucepan with a couple cups of water and bring it to a low simmer.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, add the softened cream cheese. Beat on a low speed for 2-3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and continue mixing for another 1-2 minutes until fully incorporated.

Now add in the white chocolate, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Mix at a medium-low speed for another 1-2 minutes until thoroughly combined, scraping down the sides and bottom once or twice while mixing.

Finally, add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time and mix at low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix or mix at a higher speed once you add the eggs.

Pour half of the mixture over the slightly cooled crust. Add a few randomly spaced dollops of the cooled cranberry sauce to the cheesecake batter. Use a knife or toothpick to swirl the cranberry sauce around. Fill with the rest of the cheesecake filling and repeat with the rest of the cranberry sauce.

Bake the Cheesecake

Wrap some foil around the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan and place it into a deep roasting pan. Pour the hot water into the roasting pan and fill until no more than half-way up the outside of the springform pan. Place into the center of the oven and bake until only the center of the top of the cheesecake has a slight jiggle to it, about 75-95 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes – 1 hour 35 minutes).

Once the cheesecake looks done, turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside to cool for an hour. Prop the door slightly open during this time. I usually place the handle of a wooden spoon to block the oven door from closing.

After an hour, remove the cheesecake from the oven and place on a wire rack to finish cooling to room temperature, about another hour or so. After removing it from the oven, you can run a knife around the outside of the cheesecake to separate it from the pan before it cools completely.

Once cooled completely to room temperature, wrap the springform pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely chilled and done setting, at least 4-6 hours. Overnight is best and the flavors will continue to develop.

Make the Sugared Cranberries

While the cheesecake is baking or cooling, you can make the optional cranberry and rosemary (if using) decorations.

Place the reserved cranberries and a few sprigs of rosemary into a heatproof, nonreactive mixing bowl and set aside.

In a saucepan, add equal parts water and white sugar and place over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and mix until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. It should be warm to hot, but not boiling hot so that the cranberries don’t burst.

Once cooled slightly, pour the sugar-water over the cranberries and rosemary and stir to make sure everything is well coated. Let the cranberries sit in the mixture for 15-20 minutes and then use a slotted spoon to remove them and place on a lined baking sheet (I usually use wax paper).

Let the cranberries and rosemary sit at room temperature for an hour. They should be really sticky, but no longer wet to the touch.

In a mixing bowl, add the remaining sugar and a handful of cranberries at a time and toss in the sugar until fully coated. Return the sugar covered cranberries and rosemary sprigs to the baking sheet and let sit for at least another hour. If you find some with wet spots that weren’t coated well with the sugar, you can toss them some more.

The sugared cranberries and rosemary can sit at room temperature for a few days, so you can make this the day you make the white chocolate cranberry cheesecake, and then decorate the following day.

Decorate the Cheesecake

After chilling for a few hours or overnight, remove the cheesecake from the refrigerator. Open the springform pan gently, making sure none of the cheesecake is sticking to the sides.

Decorate the top with whipped cream and sugared cranberries and rosemary sprigs however you would like to. For clean slices, run a sharp knife under hot water, wipe clean, and make a slice. Repeat that process between each slice as you serve.

Crusts – Graham cracker is a pretty standard crust, but if you don’t have access to them, digestive biscuits make a good alternative. Other options include a gingersnap crust like in my pumpkin swirl cheesecake, or a chocolate graham crust like I made for my Bailey’s cheesecake.

No Cranberries – If you’re not a fan of cranberries, or they stopped selling them before you could make the cheesecake, most other berries can be switched in. Raspberries and blackberries are particularly good here, though blueberries and strawberries can also be used.

Orange – A lot of cranberry sauces utilize orange in them, like in my easy cranberry sauce. This adds a nice flavor to the cheesecake as well. I wouldn’t use juice in the cheesecake batter, but you can swap out a few tablespoons of water when making the cranberry sauce with fresh squeezed orange juice. In the cheesecake filling you can add 1-2 teaspoons of orange zest as well.

❄️ Storing & Freezing Cheesecake

After baking and cooling your cheesecake, it needs to be stored in the refrigerator. You can keep the cheesecake in the springform pan while chilling overnight and wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap. Once it has done its initial chilling phase, remove the ring from the pan.

You can store the white chocolate cranberry cheesecake in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. Keep it wrapped in plastic wrap to keep the outside from drying out and to keep the cheesecake from absorbing other fridge odors.

Cheesecake can also be frozen whole or in slices. If freezing whole or mostly whole, remove any decorations from the top and wrap the entire cheesecake in two layers of plastic wrap and again in foil. It can be kept frozen for 1-2 months but is best eaten within a month. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

If freezing individual slices, place them on a sheet tray or plate and set in the freezer for about an hour or until mostly frozen. Wrap each slice in plastic wrap and again in foil and place them in an airtight freezer container.