Creamy Cranberry Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce

A devine combination of sour cranberries and sweet caramel sauce

When you think of Finland, what is the first thing that comes into your mind? I have lived most of my life in Finland and the first thing I think of is the nature and in particular the many lakes and the forests. The forests in Finland have so many beautiful edible treasures to offer and all of this for free. Since when I was creating this recipe, Finland´s Independence day was approaching, I thought I want to create something that would celebrate the things I love so much about Finland-The berries of the forests.

The star of this recipe, is the sour cranberry. And since we love combining sour flavours with sweet flavours, I thought I would add some delicious homemade caramel sauce. Just to mention, this caramel sauce is also the easiest caramel sauce that you will ever make (and I created it by accident, because I ran out of white caster sugar) :D You see, sometimes great things are made by accident.

For the cookie base in this recipe I used Spekulatius cookies, as I have fallen in love with them here in Germany and since I didn´t have any gingerbread cookies on hand. But for the true finnish experience I would suggest you make the base with gingerbread cookies.

If you have a look at the Step-by-Step video tutorial you will see I am truly not kidding when I say this cheesecake is suuuuuper creamy!! :)

Serve this Creamy Cranberry Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce as a dessert on your Christmas Dinner and I promise, your guests will fall in love with it!

P.S. This Cheesecake should be made a day before serving, which makes your planning even easier :)

Step by Step Video

RECIPE

Creamy Cranberry Cheesecake

with Homemade Caramel Sauce

INGREDIENTS

120g spekulatius (gingerbread, original digestive) cookies
50g melted butter

300g cranberries
50ml water
150g sugar
500g cream cheese (at room temperature)
3 eggs
200g crème fraîche (at room temperature)
20g corn starch or flour

200g raw cane sugar (unrefined)
100g butter
100ml whipping cream (30% fat)

200g crème fraîche
50g cranberries

DIRECTIONS

Cook the cranberries with sugar and water covered in a small pot over medium heat until they have softened. This will take about 10-15 minutes. Puree the cranberries with an immersion blender if you like and leave to cool completely.
Crush the cookies with a standing mixer or using a rolling pin like I did (see video) and mix well with the cooled melted butter.
Cover a 20cm baking tin with parchment paper and spread the cookie crumb evenly over the base pressing with your hand (see video).
For the filling mix the cream cheese and the cooled cranberry puree with a hand mixer until well combined. Then add eggs one at a time mixing for about a minute after each addition. Now add the crème fraîche and vanilla paste and mix well. Sift in the corn starch and mix again shortly until it has combined. (TIP: The cream cheese, crème fraîche and the eggs should all be at room temperature.)
Heat the oven to 180°C bottom top heat.
Pour the filling over the cookie base and even out the top. Then drop the cake tin a couple of times on the table to release any air bubbles (see video).
Lower the oven temperature to 160°C bottom top heat. Take a big oven proof dish with high borders, place it on the bottom shelf of the oven and carefully fill it with about 1,5 litres of boiling water. Then put an oven rack on top and place the cheesecake on it.
Bake the cheesecake for 50 minutes. Then open the oven door a little (just so that your oven mittens will fit in between) and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another 30-40 minutes. (TIP: Stay away from the oven door when you open it, the steam that has build in the oven from the water can burn you very bad.)
Remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow to cool completely in room temperature. Then cool in the fridge overnight.
To make the caramel sauce,melt the raw cane sugar in a small pot over medium heat. In this recipe you only want to melt the sugar and not cook it further like when making caramel sauce with white sugar. Once the sugar has melted add butter and mix well until combined. Then remove from the heat, add the cream and mix well until combined. Allow to cool.
Mix two tablespoons of caramel sauce with 200g crème fraîche with a hand mixer in a small bowl until combined.
Take the cheesecake out of the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes (do this step only if you are serving the cheesecake right away). Remove the cheesecake from the cake tin, cover it with the caramel crème fraîche, decorate with some cranberries and some more caramel sauce. You can optionally cut the cheesecake and only then pour some caramel sauce on each cheesecake piece before serving.

TIP. If you are planning to serve the cheesecake later, decorate it but leave the caramel sauce out. Then you can store it in the fridge until serving. Remember to remove it to room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving. Cut the cheesecake into pieces and pour over some caramel sauce. You lightly heat the caramel sauce if it is too thick for pouring.

In the kitchen with Elisa