Do you have any holiday cranberry sauce to repurpose? You will love the way your kitchen smells when you pull these Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars out of the oven! These cookie bars will melt in your mouth. They are gooey on the inside and crispy on the sides. Adults and kids alike will appreciate you so much when you bring these irresistible bars to your next holiday get-together!
These gooey Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars are laced with Cranberry sauce and cream cheese, the perfect way to repurpose your cranberry sauce after the holidays, or a reason to make cranberry sauce any other time of year! These cookies are easy to make and only require a few ingredients!
These cookies can be made with cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, or cranberry jam. Homemade, or you can also use store-bought cranberry sauce in this recipe. Cranberry sauce is generally a condiment served alongside food at Thanksgiving or Christmas in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. If you don’t have cranberry sauce accessible, I suggest using lingonberries, currant jam, or any other fruit compote or jam that has a bit of a tartness to it.
Here is a list of ingredients you need for these Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars
All-Purpose flour
Salt
Baking Powder
12 tablespoons butter you can use salted or unsalted butter
Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
4 ounces of cream cheese
One tablespoon sugar
One teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4-6 ounces leftover cranberry sauce, relish, or jam
Optional: orange zest or lemon zest would be a delightful finishing touch!
Optional Ingredients: You can add nuts, white chocolate chips
Equipment needed
9×13 baking pan
parchment paper
Recipe note: You might notice no baking soda in the recipe. I didn’t want these cookies to rise as much as a traditional cookie. I tried to keep these gooey and chewy.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- Cream butter, sugar, and eggs in a medium-sized mixing bowl with an electric mixer.
- In a separate bowl, stir flour with salt and baking powder.
- Add the flour mixture into a large bowl to make the cookie dough.
- Make the cheesecake filling. In a small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract
- Line your baking dish with parchment paper. Drop dough onto the baking sheet and spread it out to fill the entire thing. The cranberry sauce and cream cheese mixture will be the second layer that you will swirl into the cookies.
- Drop or spoon spoonfuls of your cranberry mixture and the cheesecake mixture randomly on top of the cookie bars. This will make up your cranberry and cream cheese layer.
- Use a toothpick to swirl the cranberry sauce and cream cheese mixture around the cookie dough.
- Bake cookie bars in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven, let cool, and serve once they have reached room temperature.
You will love the sweet cheesecake flavor, and the tart cranberry sauce swirled when you take a bite of these cookie bars! My family loved these! These would make an excellent treat to gift to neighbors or teachers for the holidays and make a great addition to your holiday dessert table! You will love these yummy cookies! You will want to make multiple batches! You will want to triple your typical cranberry sauce recipe, so you have enough leftovers to make these! These cookies taste amazing with creamy cheesecake folded into them!
Storage
You can store these cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days, and you can freeze them in an airtight container for up to three months.
Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars
Do you have any holiday cranberry sauce to repurpose? You will love the way your kitchen smells when you pull these Cranberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars out of the oven! These cookie bars will melt in your mouth. They are gooey on the inside and crispy on the sides. Adults and kids alike will appreciate you so much when you bring these irresistible bars to your next holiday get-together!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 12 tablespoons butter 1 and 1/2 sticks
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4-6 ounces cranberry sauce or jam
Instructions
-
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
-
Cream butter, sugar, and eggs in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
-
In a separate bowl, stir flour with salt and baking powder.
-
Add the flour mixture into the giant bowl to make the cookie dough.
-
Make the cheesecake filling. In a small bowl mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract.
-
Line your baking dish with parchment paper. Drop dough onto the baking sheet and spread it out to fill the entire thing.
-
Drop spoonfuls of cranberry sauce and the cheesecake mixture randomly on top of the cookie bars.
-
Use a toothpick to swirl the cranberry sauce and cheesecake mixture around the cookie dough.
-
Bake cookie bars in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
-
Remove from oven, let cool, and serve once they have reached room temperature.
These cranberry cheesecake bars are the best! Let’s pretend like we’re not counting calories this holiday season! We don’t need to talk about the nutrition facts. If you tried this recipe, I would love to hear how it turned out for you! Please comment below or tag me on social media and let me know how they turned out for you! You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok.
If you like these cookie bars. You should try:
Moose Tracks Cookie Bars
Orange Juice Cookies
Mint White Chocolate Chip Cookies
