Gluten Free Cran-Raspberry Cheesecake

The holidays are approaching and we have a simple and delicious recipe to share that is sure to impress! Gluten Free Cran-Raspberry Cheesecake is a perfectly refreshing dessert any time of year. It is even better during the fall season when raspberries are at their peak. Did you know that fall is harvest time not only for raspberries but cranberries too? The sauce for our topping is made of a combination of the two. The berries pair perfectly while adding festive color and flavor to our no bake cheesecake filling and gluten free crust!

As thanksgiving approaches I think of family dishes that were always part of the festivities. My Grandma Onie was not known for her baking. She made “hockey puck” biscuits as my Dad use to call them. She did cook and make a few things that became family favorites that were quite good. She would make sweet breads in a variety of flavors for each of her three boy’s families. She and my Grandpa would deliver bread to each family on Christmas day. I always hoped we’d get the loaf of zucchini bread! It was my favorite as well as the cranberry sauce she made every Thanksgiving.

Her cran-raspberry sauce was probably a recipe she found in a magazine. She would clip coupons on Sundays and cut out recipes that caught her eye. Her recipe was a mix of raspberry Jello, whole cranberry sauce, mandarin oranges and chopped walnuts. Some years she might have snuck in some canned pineapple too. I could eat it with just a dollop of whipped cream on top, it was that good! As Thanksgiving approaches I had been thinking of her and the simple dessert she made ever year. It was always served in a white milk glass bowl, which I now have. I thought a quick version of her sauce might make a nice topping for cheesecake and it turned out to be perfect for our no bake cheesecake!

Since many seem to be short on time these days, including myself, I wanted to come up with a quick dessert recipe including some family favorite flavors with just a few ingredients and a shorter prep time. I came up with a no bake cheesecake placed in a gluten free crust (made of Corn Chex Cereal and coconut flour) topped with my version of a simplified cran-raspberry sauce. It is simple to make but is sure to impress! No one needs to know how quick these are to put together...it will be our little secret!

The recipes below make enough for 2 of our 5” small tart pans. You can double or triple the recipe and use different styles of bakeware depending on how many servings you need to make. The 5" tart pans made a large single serving. You could share, but they are so good you will want to eat it all!

Gluten Free Corn Chex Crust
1 1/3 cups Corn Chex Cereal, finely crushed
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a microwave. Place the Corn Chex in a quart size freezer bag and crush up. The back of a measuring cups works well to crush up the pieces. Pour the crumbs into a small mixing bowl and add the coconut flour and sugar. Mix until blended then pour in the melted butter. Stir until it all combines and then divide the mixture between the two tart pans. Press the crust into the bottom of each tart pan. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. When the edges start to brown they should be done. Let cool before filling with the cheesecake. This crust is nice as it is not too sweet. It also held up to the cheesecake mixture well and did not get soggy. Even 24 hours later one of the tarts still had a crisp crust.

No Bake Cheesecake Filling
10 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup thick coconut cream (we like Trader Joe’s brand)
zest of 1 lemon
½ tablespoon vanilla bean paste

In a small bowl place all the ingredients and mix until combined and there are no clumps of cream cheese. Scoop the filling into a disposable frosting bag that has a jumbo open star frosting tip. This filling makes just enough to pipe a swirl of the cheesecake filling into each of the 5" red tart pans. Place in the fridge to chill. Now you are ready to make the cran-raspberry sauce!

Cran-Raspberry Sauce
½ cup whole cranberry sauce (we used Ocean Spray brand)
3/4 of a 6oz container of fresh Driscoll raspberries, pick out the pretty ones to use as a garnish
pomegranate seeds for garnish, optional
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts, optional

In a small bowl add the whole cranberry sauce and mash up some of the berries using the back of a spoon. Add in the raspberries and chop them up with the spoon. Chopping up the berries made the texture of the sauce thicker for the topping on the single serving desserts. If you like nuts you can add in 2 tablesspoons of chopped walnuts to the sauce at this point. Add the sauce to the top of the cheesecakes right before serving. Garnish with some pomegranate seed if you like. If you like other berries you could add in some strawberries too.

If you are looking for a simple and delicious dessert to make this holiday season we hope you try making our Gluten Free Cran-Raspberry Cheesecake recipe! It is so good no one would even guess that it is gluten free! It is relatively low in added sugar making it a slightly healthier dessert to make compared to traditional holiday desserts. If you give it a try let us know what you think!

Enjoy and happy baking!

~the girls
Esther & Shauna

This post was written, styled and photographed by Esther of The Bakers Party Shop. If you share a photo from our post a link must be displayed back to this post and credit given to The Bakers Party Shop. All photos and content are copyright of The Bakers Party Shop & The Bakers Confections, All rights reserved 2015.