If Christmas had a flavor all to itself, it would be this Vegan Cranberry Cheesecake!
Cranberry cheesecake is a recipe that I make every year during the cold winter season when cranberries are aplenty.
The seductive combination of tart and sweet cranberry compote spiked up with anise, cinnamon sticks, orange and vanilla
All marbled through the creamiest New York Style Cheesecake you will ever meet!
Somewhere along the line though, I started to modify the recipe and or the look and it.
And it has become sort of “a thing” that I have to change it slightly every year
Sometimes I use a cookie crust like in my original gingersnap crust from my 2016 version and other times I use a cake base like the cranberry sponge version of 2019
Here’s the original rendition of my very first vegan cranberry cheesecake from 2015!
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Notes for Success:
For the sponge cake base you will need a taller pan 7″ x 3″ is great, otherwise the standard 7″ x 2″ for a cookie crust is fine
Vegan lactic acid will give your cheesecake the authentic tang characteristic of all cheesecakes, but if you do not have that or do not want to buy it, apple cider vinegar will also work
Tofutti Vegan Cream Cheese is the only brand I will use for my BAKED recipes *not sponsored
I had not had success with any other brand in BAKED recipes; for some reason some other brands I’ve tried have broken down into an oily mess when baked.
Until more recently I tried Violife again and it works! ALthough I still prefer the Tofutti brand
When measuring cornstarch I cannot stress enough that a kitchen scale is the best way to go.
Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume/spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Many times people have complained that their custard is like rubber and they don’t know why!
Vegan Cranberry Cheesecake
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- *Or use sponge cake as listed in the recipe below
- Graham Crackers or Gingersnap Cookies 1½ cups (140g)
- Vegan Butter melted 4 tablespoons (56g)
For the Cheesecake Batter:
- Vegan Cream Cheese 2-8oz packages (454g)
- Melted Vegan Butter 2 tablespoons (28g)
- Granulated Sugar ¾ cup (150g)
- Cornstarch 3 Tbs (24g)
- All Purpose Flour 2 Tablespoons (15g)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
- Plant Milk scant 1 cup - 7 fluid ounces (207ml)
- Vegan Lactic Acid 1½ teaspoons
- Or 1½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar
For the Cranberry Compote:
- 1 -16ounce Bag Cranberries (fresh or frozen) (454g)
- Granulated Sugar 1½ cup (300g)
- Cranberry Juice or White Wine 1 cup (237ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Star Anise Pods 4
- Cinnamon 1 teaspoon
- Orange Zest and Juice from 1 large orange
- ½ Recipe Mocha Buttercream *optional for garnish
- ½ Recipe Cranberry Cake for the base *optional
Instructions
- First decide what kind of crust you want to use for your cheesecake, if it is Cranberry Cake be sure to bake that ahead of time, but you will only need 1/2 recipe for 1 layer of cake
- Otherwise for traditional cookie crust ~ crush the cookies in a food processor to fine crumbs then add the melted vegan butter & process until it resembles wet sand
- Pres the crust into the greased & parchment lined 7" x 2" cake pan and refrigerate until needed
- If you are using the cake for the base, pace it into a greased & parchment lined cake pan that is 7" x 3"
- Next prepare the cranberry compote In a heavy bottom sauce pot, combine all the liquids with the sugar and spices and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Squeeze in the juice of the orange and the zest
- Add the cranberries and then return to a boil.
- Lower the temperature to a simmer for 15 -20 minutes, the sauce will begin to thicken and the berries will begin to pop.
- Discard the anise pods and add the vanilla extract, then with a stick blender (or carefully transfer to a regular blender) puree to desired consistency. I like to leave my chunky.
- Refrigerate to cool and it will thicken as it gets cold and you can prepare the rest of the cheesecake
- For the cheesecake combine all the ingredients together in a food processor and process smooth, scraping the sides and making sure that is is ultra smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared crust and then take approximately ¾ cup of the pureed cranberry compote and swirl through the batter *optional step if you prefer to use it all for the topping
- Bake in preheated 350°F oven in a water bath for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour turn the oven off and let it cool inside the oven for another hour.
- Cool on the counter the rest of the way, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours before un-molding.
- Prepare the optional mocha buttercream recipe for garnish and then use the remaining cranberry compote for the topping
Notes
Cranberry cheesecake must stay refrigerated and will stay fresh for up to 1 week
Gretchen,
Do you have a separate channel on Youtube titled: “Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery”? Or is everything still on your original channel?
Thanks!
Hi Sue, I did not create a new channel on youtube, it will be the same. I have not uploaded any new videos recently though since I am still settling in with my move back to New jersey! Im going to get started this week though! Thanks!
Man Gretchen. I grew up watching you since I was little. And I learned so much from you, when you were in Woodland Bakery, till now. I have a lot of your old recipes screenshoted because I would always use them. And now I can’t even view any of those videos anymore. I had even messaged you once saying how when I grow up I was going to visit you at Woodland Bakery and buy a whole bunch of treats. I would often binge watch your videos a lot because I loved watching them. You are such an inspiration, but I’m really disappointed that I can’t view or see any of the old content anymore. I understand that your vegan. But not all your viewers are vegan. I just wish you would’ve left all the content up.
Hi Jenny thank you so much for the support over the years, you like many others are quickly ASSUMING the reason the videos are no longer available is because I went vegan like.. yesterday?? and decided I didn’t want to share the NON vegan recipes anymore. Not true, as I have been vegan for almost 5 years now so if that was the case I would have shut it down then.
Truth is I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore
I had always said I would continue to share my recipes for free & give free tutorials on YouTube for as long as I could afford to do so, and well.. I just can’t anymore.
The cost to host such a huge database was close to $400 a month (with the maintenance cost, I needed to hire a tech guy to help keep it running smoothly)
So that cost was severely outweighing any small profits I had been making though running ads on the videos & blogsite.
I have not kept any of the non vegan recipes, since for over 4 years now I have been strictly vegan;
so for me they are of no use. They were all housed in the database and that has shut down.
This blog is much smaller in size and costs me about $30 a month to run, which is why it is still up although I have not made any new videos in several months as I am now working full time to restore all the savings I exhausted keeping the blog(s) open all these years in an attempt to make this a viable business.
At any rate, thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages.
~Gretchen
i had the same disastrous, translucent experience with trader joes vegan cream cheese. has anyone ever baked with kite hill cream cheese?
Hi Gretchen. I learned so much today as to the costs of running a recipe site. Due to your wonderful information, I never bake cheesecake in a springform pan!
Because of this, I do have a question. How do you deal with a baked sourcream topping? Can you bake it after removing the completely chilled cheesecake from the pan?
Thank you for all you have taught me over the last few years and good luck in all your future endeavours.
i had the same disastrous, translucent experience with trader joes vegan cream cheese.
I can’t wait to see what you find in your testing with other brands of vegan cc. The tofutti brand has been my go-to for years but is more and more difficult to find.