The crimson center of this scrumptious dessert is beautifully set off by the sharp combination of sweet and tart flavors from the sugar and cranberries. It makes a wonderful finale for your holiday dinner. The skinny facts for each slice are 266 calories, 12 grams of fat and 7 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS. The full fat recipe has an amazing 674 calories and 36 grams of fat for just one slice!

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Bake Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients for Crust:

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

2½ tablespoons reduced- fat butter or Smart Balance Light spread, melted

Ingredients for Filling:

2 (8 ounce) packages reduced-fat cream cheese (I like Philadelphia 25% less fat)

1 cup canned whole-berry cranberry sauce

Ingredients for Topping:

1½ cups canned whole-berry cranberry sauce

⅓ cup golden brown sugar

2¼ teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

Ingredients for Final Topping:

⅓ cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons reduced-fat butter or Smart Balance Light

½ cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 9” spring form pan with cooking spray.

2. To make crust: In a medium bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.  Press crumbs into bottom of the pan.  Set aside.

3. To make filling: With an electric mixer, whip cream cheeses until smooth.  Add cranberry sauce and mix until well combined.  Spread over crust.

4. To make topping: In a small bowl mix together cranberry sauce, brown sugar, cornstarch and vanilla.  Spread evenly over the top of the filling.

5. Bake for 35 minutes.  Meanwhile, prepare the final topping.

6. To make final topping: In a small bowl, combine the flour, walnuts and butter until crumbly. Remove the cheesecake from the oven.  Sprinkle  topping over the baked torte.  Bake for 10 minutes more.   Remove from oven.

7.  Cool completely and refrigerate. Chill at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.

Makes 12 servings (each serving 1/12 of cheesecake, 1 slice)

Shopping Tips
You’ll need 1 entire can of whole-berry cranberry sauce for this recipe.  Ocean Spray Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce is the brand I used.

You’ll find graham cracker crumbs boxed in the baking aisle of most supermarkets.

Prep Tip
To make your own crumbs, place the graham crackers in a plastic bag and seal.  Using a rolling pin, crush the crackers into crumbs.  You can also break up crackers and pulse in a blender to form crumbs (14 graham cracker squares = 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs)

Weight Watchers (old points) 6
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 7