Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip

Get your taste buds ready because cranberry cream cheese dip combines the sweet, tart, and salty for a delicious fall friendly appetizer dip that looks beautiful and tastes amazing!

 

Whether you use this recipe as a dip, a spread, or a stuffing for the inside of won-tons or pinwheel sandwiches, this Cranberry Cream Cheese dip is a beautiful mix of cranberry tart and the sweet taste of sugar and jam. A perfect combo with cream cheese, eating with pretzel crisps adds the bit of salt that just takes this recipe to the next level. What you see in the images is only HALF the topping of the recipe, it makes in total 2 bricks, so is a good sized appetizer for a party. 

Cranberry Cream Cheese Spread

• 1 package, 12 oz, frozen whole cranberries (no sugar added), thawed OR 1 bag of FRESH cranberries
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup apricot preserves or jam
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 bricks, 8 oz, cream cheese, softened
• buttery crackers or pretzel chips for serving
• fresh mint to garnish, optional

RELATED RECIPES: Marshmallow Fruit Dip,  Pumpkin Fluff Dip, Buffalo Chicken Dip without Ranch, Mexican Spinach Dip, Dill Pickle Dip, Greek Dip, Booty Dip, Veggie Dip with Greek Yogurt

MORE CRANBERRY RECIPES: Apple and Cinnamon Spiced Cranberry Sauce, 3 Ingredient Cranberry Sauce 

Common Appetizer Questions

1. What do you dip Cranberry Dip with? I recommend serving with pretzels, Ritz Crackers, or even a veggie dipper like celery sticks. Personally I also love bits of Italian or French bread torn up to dip with!
2. Instead of a block, can you ball the Cream Cheese? The easiest way to ball up cream cheese is to place on plastic wrap, shape, and put in fridge to firm for an hour or two. You can see more info on this in my chocolate chip cheese ball dip recipe.
3. How much dip does this recipe make? This recipe makes enough cranberry pour for 2 blocks of cream cheese, or if you like a lot of cranberry on top, to re-pour as people eat the cream cheese down. 
4. Are there any other ingredient changes I can make? A lot of people love the flavors of jalapeno and cranberries together, so you could easily dice fresh jalapenos and combine with the cranberries for a Cran-Jalapeno dip. Additionally, instead of cream cheese, you could also use a other soft cheeses like goat cheese or brie as the base. 
5. Can fresh cranberries be used – YES! Simply use fresh cranberries in place of thawed frozen ones, follow recipe as instructed.

Let’s Get Started on that Cranberry Dip! 

Add cranberries, sugar, preserves and water to a large saucepan.

Heat saucepan over medium high heat until boiling.

Mixture will begin to bubble and get frothy as it heats and you may hear the cranberries sizzling and pop.

Continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until berries are popped open and mixture begins to darken.

Remove from heat and stir in pecans.

Let set too cool and refrigerate to cool completely.

Once cooled, stir cranberry mixture so its pliable.

Gently press a spoon in the center of the cream cheese to create a divot.

Spoon mixture on top of cream cheese and serve with crackers or pretzel chips.

Makes 2-3 appetizer bricks.

 

As always, thank you so much for visiting my site and trying my recipe! If you enjoyed this recipe (or have changes that you made that are amazing), I want to hear about it! Just leave me a comment or find me on TikTok and Pinterest. Thank you for supporting my site and interacting with me. I love sharing my cooking and I love you!

~Trisha