These Healthy Grain Free Cranberry Cheesecake Bars are so festive and perfect for the holidays! They're made with a homemade shortbread crust, protein-rich cheesecake center and topped with a naturally sweetened cranberry sauce. 

this RECIPE

This post is sponsored by Nancy’s Yogurt, all opinions, recipe and photography are my own. 

Cranberry cheesecake bars are delish!

These bars are crazy good and so much fun for the holidays. 

This special treat has a crumbly, thick, buttery, shortbread-ish cookie crust, a delicious vanilla, protein-rich, creamy cheesecake center and a delectable, slightly sweet, cranberry topping with hints of orange and cinnamon.

You'd never know this cheesecake is packed with a special protein-rich food. 

Most cheesecakes are filled with cane sugar and some even have condensed milk! These are not necessary at all in my opinion.

They usually contain a base of non-organic cream cheese and eggs - and so many of them these days use fat free or reduced fat cream cheese.

But my friends, fat-free and reduced-fat is an old school thought! I grew up in the 80's when everything was being marketed to us as fat-free and low-fat, but what they pushed on us was false info.

Hopefully by now people are starting to catch on and know that quality WHOLE, full fat is the way to go. And butter is not bad my friends. Yep, it's true. Fat is NOT our enemy.

Here's the deal, traditional foods do not include low-fat or fat-free ingredients that have been stripped of their nutritional value.

Healthy fats like grass-fed butter, ghee, avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, etc. are indeed healthy.

I am so happy that one of my favorite brands for cultured dairy, Nancy’s, has whole milk cottage cheese. High protein, cultured WHOLE milk organic cottage cheese is an option now!

It’s very hard to find quality, authentic, cultured, WHOLE MILK cottage cheese these days. Pretty much everything on the market is fat free, low fat and lacking in live cultures.

If you don't see this whole milk version at your local grocery store, make sure to request it. Most stores do listen to customer requests.

Nancy's Organic Cultured Whole Milk Cottage Cheese is high in protein! One serving is 14 grams of protein! 

A bunch of protein from whole milk cottage cheese goes into these healthy cranberry cheesecake bars.

I grew up using Nancy’s products and always loved the tanginess and creaminess of their yogurt. Their whole milk sour cream became my absolute favorite along with their cream cheese too.

I love that this company has been focusing on sustainability and organic practices for many, many years. I also love that they are family owned and operated in Eugene, Oregon {since 1960}.

Plus, they offer TRUE live probiotic cultured products with billions of live active probiotic cultures! Isn't that great?!

Probiotics are wonderful for gut-health!

WHERE TO FIND NANCY’S COTTAGE CHEESE

You can find Nancy’s Organic Whole Milk Cottage Cheese and other Nancy’s products at a store near you by entering your city or zip code into their store locator. In Northern California, Nancy’s products can be found at most Raleys and Bel Air Markets, Sprouts Farmers Market, Nugget Markets, Whole Foods Market and many natural foods co-op grocery stores.

Check out these other delicious recipes that I’ve created for Nancy's: Healthy Spinach Artichoke Chicken Casserole, Grain Free Chai Spiced Pear Coffee Cake, High Protein Raspberry Cheesecake Smoothie, High Protein Golden Milk Smoothie, Healthy Raspberry Swirl Frozen Yogurt, Healthy Low Carb Cauliflower Breakfast Casserole, Healthy Chicken Broccoli Casserole, and Healthy Gluten Free Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Strata. 

These cranberry cheesecake bars are so easy to make and can be made ahead of time.

Make these delicious cheesecake bars up the day before you have company coming over for any holiday festivities. They're sure to please!

Healthy Grain Free Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

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Healthy Grain Free Cranberry Cheesecake Bars

Yield: 9-12 squares

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

These Healthy Grain Free Cranberry Cheesecake Bars are so festive and perfect for the holidays! They're made with a homemade shortbread crust, protein-rich cheesecake center and topped with a naturally sweetened cranberry sauce.

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Ingredients

For the Crust:

• 1 cup cassava flour (<-- this is the only cassava flour I use and recommend) 
• ¼ cup maple sugar {<-- this is the only brand I use}
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt (<-- this is my favorite sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoon grass-fed butter, ghee or palm shortening

For the Cheesecake:

• 8 oz. Nancy's organic cream cheese - room temperature
• 1 cup Nancy's organic whole milk cottage cheese
• 2 pastured or organic eggs
• ¼ cup maple sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅛ teaspoon almond extract - optional
• Pinch sea salt (<-- this is my favorite sea salt)
• 1 tablespoon cassava flour (<-- this is the only cassava flour I use and recommend) 

For the Cranberry Sauce:

• 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• Juice and zest of 2 small oranges
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ¼ cup light-colored local or raw honey (not wildflower)

Instructions

For the Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 8x8 baking dish with unbleached parchment paper leaving an overhang on all sides. Set aside.
2. Add all crust ingredients to a large mixing bowl and using clean hands, mix until the mixture becomes crumbly but sticks together when pressed in your hands. Pour into the lined baking dish and press the mixture down to evenly to flatten it. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the edges are light golden brown. Let the crust cool at room temperature. 

For the Cheesecake

1. In a high-powered blender, add the cream cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, maple sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, salt and cassava flour. Blend on low speed just until fully combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Pour over the cooled crust and bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until the cheesecake has cooked through. Cool at room temperature.

For the Cranberry Sauce

1. While the cheesecake is cooling, make the cranberry sauce. Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 10 minutes until the sauce begins to slightly thicken. Remove from the heat, discard the cinnamon stick and allow to cool for 15 minutes before pouring over the top of the cooled cheesecake. Immediately place the cranberry topped cheesecake in the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least 2 hours, best overnight. 

Notes

• Storage: Place in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
• I only use Otto's Cassava Flour, you can also find it on Amazon.
• Maple sugar is pretty easy to find these days at natural food stores. It can also be found online. If you prefer to use a different sweetener, any dry sweetener should work fine. 
• I use this organic palm shortening. 

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 386Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 253mgCarbohydrates: 61gFiber: 2gSugar: 45gProtein: 5g

This nutritional information was auto-generated based on serving size, number of servings, and typical information for the ingredients listed. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, please calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients and amounts used, using your preferred nutrition calculator. Under no circumstances shall the this website and the author be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on the given nutritional information. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.

Are you on Pinterest? I pin lots of yummy real food recipes + more there. I have a board just for Gluten Free Treats. Come follow along. 

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