Cranberry Cheesecake Bowl
Freeze-dried cheesecake filling over crushed graham crackers, with a cranberry sauce that thickens in the pot.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 149
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 6 min
- total time
- 11 min
- water
- 200 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried cream cheese powder | 1/2 cup | sold for baking; sour cream powder works too |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Sugar | 3 tbsp | for the filling |
| Cornstarch | 2 tsp | 1 tsp filling, 1 tsp sauce |
| Vanilla powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Graham cracker crumbs | 3/4 cup | |
| Butter powder | 1 tbsp | or 2 tsp real butter if it is cool out |
| Dried cranberries | 1/2 cup | |
| Sugar | 3 tbsp | for the sauce |
| Powdered lemon or citric acid | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- Boil 120 ml of water. Add the cranberries, sauce sugar, lemon powder, and 1 tsp cornstarch. Simmer two minutes until the berries plump and the liquid pulls together. Pour it into a mug or cup and set it aside.
- Wipe the pot. Off the heat, stir the graham crumbs and butter powder with 1 tbsp of water until damp and crumbly. Divide between two bowls and press flat.
- In the pot, whisk the cream cheese powder, milk powder, filling sugar, remaining cornstarch, vanilla, and salt into 80 ml of cool water. Add water in stages or it lumps.
- Warm the filling gently for a minute, stirring, until it thickens to pudding. Do not boil it.
- Spoon the filling over the crumbs and top with the cranberry sauce. Give it ten minutes to firm up if you can wait.
The original is baked in a springform pan inside a slow cooker, which is not a thing you carry. Eggs, sour cream, and a water bath all disappear here. What replaces them is cornstarch: it sets the filling without heat, so you get pudding texture instead of custard. Cream cheese powder and milk powder rehydrate into something close enough to the real thing that nobody complains.
The cranberry sauce does most of the work. Dried cranberries simmered with sugar and acid rebuild into a real compote in two minutes, and the acid is what keeps the whole bowl from tasting like sweetened chalk. Cook the sauce first so the pot only needs a wipe between steps.
Packing
Three bags: filling powders, graham crumbs with butter powder, cranberry sauce mix. Label them, because two of the three are white powder and sugar.
Variations
- Skip the crumb layer and eat it as a pudding. Saves a bowl and two minutes.
- Orange drink powder in place of the lemon.
- Add a spoonful of powdered peanut butter to the filling if nut allergies are not a concern.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/slow-cooker-cranberry-cheesecake