Layered Cranberry Salad Recipe
To be honest, this easy cranberry salad recipe, with its sweet & tangy cream cheese topping, is probably more of a dessert, but we serve it as a side dish at all of our holiday dinners... SO good, a MUST TRY recipe!
Servings: 16 servings
Ingredients
For the cranberry jello:
- 2 (3-ounce) packages raspberry jello or 1 6-ounce package
- 1 ½ cup boiling water
- 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple in 100% juice not in heavy syrup and not fresh*
- 1 (14-ounce) can whole berry cranberry sauce
- ¾ cup cranberry juice
- 1 cup roasted pecans chopped and divided
For the cream cheese topping:
- 1 (8-ounce) block cream cheese softened at room temperature*
- 1 cup sour cream
- ½ cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Dissolve the raspberry Jell-O in the boiling water.
- Remove from heat and add the crushed pineapple (juice and all), whole berry cranberry sauce, cranberry juice, and your choice of nuts to the Jell-O mixture. Reserve a small amount of the nuts to sprinkle on top. Mix well.
- Pour into a 9"x13" glass baking dish and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
- For a lump-free cream cheese topping, first cream together the cream cheese and sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Then add the sour cream and whip until smooth.
- When the cranberry jello mixture is firm, spread the cream cheese topping over the top. Garnish with additional chopped toasted walnuts or pecans. Refrigerate for about an hour to allow the topping to firm up.
Recipe Notes
CRUSHED PINEAPPLE IN 100% JUICE
- DO NOT use fresh pineapple in this recipe! Fresh pineapple contains an enzyme that will prevent the gelatin from setting up.
- If you accidentally purchase crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, you can still use it. Just dump the contents of the can into a strainer, rinse under cold water, and drain lightly before adding it to the gelatin mixture.
- Soften the cream cheese at room temperature rather than in the microwave. Microwaving it can change the consistency, resulting in the cream cheese topping not setting up properly.
Nutrition
Serving: 1square | Calories: 48kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 1mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g
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