This Vegan Cranberry Cream Pie is bright, festive and ready for your holiday dessert table! It's wonderfully sweet, tart, and creamy, with flavor reminiscent of cheesecake but lighter in texture. The pie can also be frozen for a few hours before serving for a consistency more like ice cream! Pair it with our popular vegan pie crust for an entirely vegan and gluten-free holiday dessert.
You could say I fell in love with cranberries last year. It was my first holiday season creating recipes for the blog, and after a couple of batches of Vegan Cranberry Sauce and this Cranberry and Citrus Tart, I was hooked!
First of all, their color is stunning! They're also rock stars at thickening thanks to their natural pectin content and are both nutritious and delicious.
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What does Cranberry Cream Pie taste like?
If you're a fan of tart and tangy foods like yogurt, cheesecake, and citrus, this cranberry cream pie has your name all over it!
Even though it doesn't contain cream cheese, the addition of cranberry sauce to the rich filling made from cashews and non-dairy milk instantly gives this pie the classic tang of cheesecake.
But consistency-wise, this filling isn't as firm as cheesecake. You can probably tell from the photos that it's much lighter and creamier. But here's a really cool thing....
You can pop the pie into the freezer for a few hours (or even longer), and you'll end up with a firmer, ice cream-like, super dense and creamy frozen pie.
Since this is a fairly decadent dessert with plenty of fat from cashews, it won't freeze solid as a rock.
So in essence, this pie is sort of like two-desserts-in-one! Depending on what you're in the mood for, you can serve it light, soft, and cool... or firm and cold. It's truly delicious either way.
Ingredient Notes
First, a note about keeping it gluten-free: for a vegan gluten-free cranberry pie, I highly recommend using my favorite Healthy Vegan Pie Crust.
You really can't go wrong with this recipe. Made from almond flour, the texture and flavor are lovely, but there's no butter, oil, or shortening involved. There's also no pre-chilling ingredients and equipment. It really is the most delicious, easiest pie crust I've ever tried.
There are 3 components to vegan cranberry cream pie:
- baked pie crust
- a creamy filling made from:
- cashews,
- non-dairy milk
- sugar
- vanilla
- and corn starch or arrowroot starch
- and homemade cranberry sauce or store-bought. Just make sure it's vegan and NOT the jellied kind; you want whole-berry cranberry sauce. But since it's seriously easy to make your own, I think that's the way to go. The color is more vibrant, too!
For the cranberry sauce you can use fresh OR frozen cranberries. Follow my recipe using a combination of maple syrup and cane sugar to sweeten the cranberry sauce or use just one or the other. It's totally up to you.
For my final test batch of this pie I decided to sweeten the cranberry sauce with organic cane sugar only, just so that the cranberry cream flavor would be more pure without the hint of maple.
How to Make the Pie
Since this is a no-bake pie filling, you'll need to fully bake your pie crust first.
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Another thing you can do in advance is make a batch of cranberry sauce. If you've never made cranberry sauce from scratch, let me assure you, it's incredibly simple. It's SO easy, in fact, you may find yourself making it multiple times throughout the holiday season just because you can!
Once you've baked the crust and made the cranberry sauce, chill both in the refrigerator. The next step is to blend the filling ingredients until smooth, then heat it in a large sauce pan until thickened. Be sure to whisk frequently (you'll get a bit of an arm workout here).
Next, there's an optional step of whisking 1 cup of So Delicious Coco Whip into the pudding/filling. This whipped topping is easier to find than ever (check their website to locate a store), and it lives up to the brand name because it is SO delicious.
The whipped topping gives the pie a bit more volume and adds an extra bit of sweet cream flavor. But if you prefer, simply omit the Coco Whip.
Finally, we whisk cranberry sauce into the filling! Start with about half of the cranberry sauce (photo above), and give it a taste.
For more color and tartness add about half of the remaining cranberry sauce.
NOTE: I like to reserve ¼ of the cranberry sauce for decorating the top of the pie with a swirl pattern (see photo below), but this is totally optional.
Once you've poured the filling into the crust and created an eye-catching swirl on top, just pop this baby into the fridge for 3 to 4 hours (uncovered). Once it's completely chilled, you can cover it with plastic wrap.
Serving Tips
Depending on when you plan to serve your cranberry pie, leave it in the refrigerator, OR transfer it to the freezer for a while to achieve the firmer texture I mentioned above.
Once removed from the freezer it will soften fairly quickly. So don't set it out on the dessert table hours in advance. Keep this beautiful pie chilled in the fridge or freezer, okay?
More Vegan Cranberry Recipes
- Vegan Cranberry Cheesecake
- Apple-Cranberry Hand Pies
- Cranberry and Citrus Tart
- Low-Fat Cranberry Oat Gelato
- Vegan Cranberry Cornbread Muffins
- Apple-Cranberry Baked Oatmeal
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Recipe
Cranberry Cream Pie (Vegan, Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 1 baked pie crust, cooled after baking - tap for recipe
- 1 batch Easy Vegan Cranberry Sauce, chilled - Or 1 ½ cups of your favorite whole-berry cranberry sauce (not the jellied variety)
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened non-dairy milk - I used plain soy milk
- 2 cups raw cashews - If not using a high speed blender, soak cashews in hot water for 1 hour before blending
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 5 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅛ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup So Delicious Coco Whip, optional - This adds extra sweet cream flavor but can be omitted if you can't find it. Visit the So Delicious website to locate a store.
Optional Topping:
- the remaining So Delicious Coco Whip
Instructions
- In a blender combine the milk, cashews, sugar, starch, vanilla, and salt, and blend until completely smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides and stir as needed.
- Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Bring to a low simmer while whisking almost constantly (this will prevent globs in the pudding). Reduce heat to low, continue to whisk and scrape the bottoms and sides, and cook until thickened, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Whisk in 1 cup So Delicious Coco Whip, if using.
- Next whisk in about ¾ cup cranberry sauce. Optional: reserve about ⅓ cup cranberry sauce to swirl on top of the pie. Taste the filling and add more cranberry sauce until the mixture is the desired color and tartness. Pour into the pie crust.For the decorative swirl: place small dollops around the pie, then carefully drag a knife or chop stick through the cranberry sauce, moving around the pie in concentric circles (see photos above).
- Refrigerate the pie for 3 to 4 hours or until fully chilled. Once chilled, cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Alternatively, for a firmer, frozen pie, transfer to the freezer for several hours.
Notes
Estimated Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition information is an estimate and will vary depending on the exact amounts and specific products and ingredients used.
caro
i love this cream recipe , but im not a fan of cranberries, i also see it now in the middle or summer so i was wondering could i make it with other fruits such as strawberry raspberry blueberry etc ?:) or would cream on its own be good for just a creme tart topped with fruits ?
i’d appreciate any help so much !
🤍
Lori
Hi Caro,
Yes, you could certainly use a different fruit in the form of a jam, compote, or a condensed purée. Since cranberry sauce is thick, you just wouldn’t want to add a lot of liquid to the filling, as in blended fresh fruits.
I hope that helps and answers your question!
Maya
I've been looking for a dairy free dessert for Thanksgiving due to someone being lactose intolerant and this sounds great. Could I use sweetened almond milk and nondairy almond milk reddi whip? TIA
Lori
Hi Maya,
Yes, sweetened almond milk will be great. You may want to decrease the sugar just a touch to account for the sweetness. And regarding the Reddi-wip, I'm assuming you mean stirred into the filling in place of the coco whip. I've only used Reddi-wip on top of desserts, but I think it will be fine. Hope everyone enjoys the pie!
Maya
Thank you for responding quickly
Rebecca Lee
Hi Lori, I've been struggling with making a gf vegan pie crust that doesn't get soggy after a few days in my banana creem pie. I've used oat flour and almond butter with limited success. I want to try your crust. Is it still not soggy after 3 days? Thank you so much, this looks great. I use tofu which is watery so that may be part of the problem too.
Lori
Hi Rebecca,
Compared to oat flour I feel pretty confident in saying you'll like the almond flour crust MUCH better. Moisture can't soak into almonds the way it can with any type of grain.
As with any crust, it's best on day 1 after filling is added to it. But it's definitely still great on day 3 (even when I pair it with my pumpkin pie filling which has a decent amount of moisture)!
Hope it works for you. Keep me posted!
Julianne
I am allergic to cane sugar, could I sub for coconut sugar?
Lori
Hi Julianne,
You definitely can, but just be aware that it will alter the flavor and color.
Sofia
I'm baking for someone allergic to all nuts, am I able to completely leave it out or do I substitute?
Lori
Hi Sofia, unfortunately this pie is not well-suited for being nut-free. The cashews are critical since they make up the bulk of the creamy filling. I'm sure there is a way to do it with tofu and/or coconut cream (there's always a way!), but it would require a pretty significant re-working of the recipe. This pumpkin pie recipe can easily be made nut-free. https://myquietkitchen.com/vegan-gluten-free-pumpkin-pie/
susan
A beautiful pie, and simple to make.
Thank you.
Lori
Thank you, Susan. 🙂
Marta
Hello! This recipe looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it! Regarding the portion size and calorie count, is the entire cake 458 calories or is 1 serving (1/10 of the cake) 458 calories?
Thanks a bunch!
Lori
Hi Marta,
The nutrition info is always for one serving, so 1 slice of this pie. It's a rich one!