Perfect for a festive gathering, these cranberry cream cheese crostini make for a fun Christmas appetizer or for holiday celebrations! Super simple to make, we use seasonal cranberry sauce and fridge and pantry staples for a holiday appetizer both kids and adults will love!
Do check out my whipped ricotta crostini for another cute party food favorite!
With all the busyness of holiday celebrations, it's always good to have a few easy appetizers up your sleeve don't you think? These Christmas cranberry crostini feel so festive with the cute red cranberry sauce topping, creamy cheese and a good crunchy crostini.
Drizzled with honey and sprinkled with herbs, these cranberry crostini (also known as 'small toasts') are perfect for holiday celebrations and you can either follow the recipe below for the topping or perhaps use my refined sugar free cranberry sauce recipe if you prefer.
If you're planning your menu for Christmas party food or holiday celebrations I think you'll love to see my cream cheese stuffed peppers, beet hummus, cottage cheese tzatziki and my cottage cheese dip for more fun ideas!
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⭐ Why this recipe is so good
Festive cranberry flavors. Appetizers with cranberry sauce always feel so seasonally appropriate and have a delicious tart sweetness.
Uses holiday ingredients. Whether you make your own cranberry sauce without orange juice, or use one from the store, it's easy to find the ingredients come the festive season!
Quick and easy. Just a few simple steps to make the crostini, and no fancy kitchen equipment required.
🥖 Ingredients
All the ingredients and their quantities are set out in the recipe card below.
Some notes on a few of them:
- Cranberries - you can use either fresh or frozen cranberries to make the crostini topping.
- Brown sugar - to add some sweetness to offset the slightly tart flavour of cranberries.
- Cinnamon - optional for those on a low histamine diet (if tolerated), but adds a nice flavor if you are good with it.
- Bread - I suggest to use a good quality baguette and slice thinly on the diagonal.
- Cream cheese - I suggest using one without any added flavorings and with as few additives as possible.
- Extra virgin olive oil - we brush the baguette with oil before baking so that it gets nice and crispy.
- Honey - we use a good drizzle for the best touch of sweetness.
- Fresh thyme - adds a really nice herby flavor (and looks so pretty too!).
📖 Variations on the recipe
Swap baguette for rice cakes. While they won't technically be holiday crostini, we can make holiday rice cakes using the same toppings and they would be gluten free.
Swap honey for maple syrup. Both are delicious as a touch of sweetness.
🔪 Step by step instructions
Making these Christmas crostini is very simple, and we use festive ingredients and pantry staples that are easy to find in stores.
All the instructions are set out in the recipe card below, but these photos will help guide you.
Step 1: Slice the baguette
Slice your baguette on the diagonal so you have fairly thin slices (image 1). Brush with olive oil and bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes or until light golden brown.
Step 2: Make the cranberry sauce
Add cranberries, water, brown sugar and cinnamon (if using) to a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat. Cook on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until the cranberries have mostly broken down to a syrup (image 2). Set aside to cool.
Recipe tip: to help the cranberries break down, press against them with the back of a wooden spoon.
Step 3: Spread the cream cheese
Spread the cream cheese over the cooled crostini (image 3).
Step 4: Spoon on the cranberry topping
Spread the cranberry sauce onto the crostini (image 4). Drizzle with a little honey and sprinkle over fresh thyme leaves to serve.
💭 Recipe tips and notes
- Slice the baguette fairly thinly so you have a mini crostini perfect as an appetizer - we want cute finger food not an open sandwich!
- Cook the cranberries down so they have a syrup-like texture, with some whole cranberries but mostly sweet syrup.
- Don't skip the sugar! Cranberries are naturally quite tart to taste, so a little sugar is needed to balance the flavors.
📋 Frequently asked questions
We use baguette to make crostini.
You could easily swap the cranberry sauce for my mango compote or my cherry compote. Just make sure they aren't too thin in consistency, so cook down a little so they are chunky and don't have excess liquid.
🍽 More fun appetizers
Choose from so many fun appetizers here to serve at a Christmas party, including my spicy baba ganoush, cauliflower hummus, herbed ricotta balls and my quinoa seed crackers, as well as these recent recipes:
I’m always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes! And please do leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐ if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Christmas Cranberry Cream Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
For the cranberry sauce
- ½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1-2 teaspoon brown sugar adjust to preferred sweetness
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon optional
- ½ cup water
For the crostini
- ¼ baguette thinly sliced on a diagonal into 6 pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 tablespoon cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon honey
- fresh thyme
- pinch salt optional, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 360F / 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Thinly slice the baguette and brush both sides of the crostini with a little olive oil. Bake your baguette slices for 6-8 minutes or until they are light golden brown. Set aside to cool.
- Add the cranberries, sugar, cinnamon (if using) and water to a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture turns largely syrupy in texture. Set aside to cool.
- Spread the crostini with cream cheese and then top with the cranberry compote. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle over fresh thyme leaves and add a pinch of salt if using.
Notes
- Adjust the amount of sugar using to your preferred level of sweetness. Cranberries are naturally tart and need sweetening up, so taste test the compote while cooking (be careful not to eat it when it's too hot!) and add more sugar to your preference.
- For those on a low histamine diet, try and use a cream cheese that has as few additives as possible.
- If you prefer not to use bread, then rice cakes or oat cakes are a good gluten-free alternative.
- Please note that nutritional information is offered as a courtesy. It is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance
All ingredients score 0 on the SIGHI list with the exception of:- bread, which scores 1 on SIGHI and a ? as a liberator. Be attentive to any additional ingredients that may be problematic.
- cinnamon scores 0 on the SIGHI list, but is higher on other lists.
- cream cheese scores 0, with additional notes you may wish to read.
Sarah says
This looks so yummy, Which cream cheese do you use?
throughthefibrofog says
I just use the Tesco own brand. I suggest looking for one with as few additives as possible.
Sarah Mehmet says
OK great thanks 😊
Sheryl Chan says
I love this! Looks so delicious - I love cranberries. And your photos are lovely - not sure why you'd say otherwise 🙂
throughthefibrofog says
Thanks Sheryl! So hope you like it 🙂
Katie Clark says
I love cream cheese, so being DF has been sad. But, they are really creating better DF products. I found a DF cream cheese last week that has that tart bite to it that the others I've had in the past didn't. I also love cranberries. This looks like a yummy dessert or breakfast (or appetizer).
throughthefibrofog says
There are some great df cheese options now aren't there, and more and more are coming to market it seems. Glad you like the ingredients combo!
Shruti Chopra says
This seems like a really nice combination of flavours and beautiful looking too! Creamy - crunchy - tangy - sweet - it's all there!!
throughthefibrofog says
I love how you describe my recipes Shruti! I need you to do my recipe notes!!! Hope you like this one, perfect for the holidays I think when we all have cranberries in the house 🙂