Cranberry Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries sliced in half
- 1/4 cup green onion chopped
- 2 jalapeno peppers chopped
- 2 tablespoons cilantro chopped
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
Instructions
The Night Before
- In a medium bowl, combine the chopped cranberries, green onion, jalapeno and cilantro with a spoon.
- Add the sugar, lemon juice and salt to the cranberry mixture and stir gently until well combined.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.
The Day Of
- Take cranberry mixture out of the refrigerator and stir.
- Place a few paper towels in the bottom of a colander then pour in the cranberry mixture to strain out all the liquid.
- Put the cream cheese in a medium bowl and beat with hand mixer on medium speed until light and airy, about 2 minutes.
- Spread cream cheese over bottom of a pie plate or 9x9 dish.
- Pour cranberry mixture over the cream cheese and cover in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- When ready to eat, serve with your favorite crackers (cucumber slices are good too!)
~Amanda~
The holiday season brings plenty of parties, gatherings and festivities to keep up more than busy and we’re usually all asked to bring an appetizer to share. This can sometimes be a stressful task; I go over in my head who will be there, what does everyone like, what will people be impressed by but also really really enjoy and eat a lot of? So many questions and so many options of what to bring. Stress no more though! This recipe for Cranberry Jalapeno Cream Cheese Dip is the perfect appetizer to make for any and every party you go to and pretty much everybody will love it – I can’t even tell you how many times I have been asked for this recipe after someone takes just one little bite!
I made this for the first time a few years ago after seeing it on Sparrows and Lilly and have been making it the exact same way ever since – it is just so perfect that there is nothing I want to change about it, so all the credit goes to her! So what makes this dip so divine? Well first the cranberries are all chopped up which is quite time consuming, but very important to make sure they break down correctly. They are then mixed with green onion, jalapenos and cilantro and topped with sugar, lemon juice and salt. Once all this is combined together, it sits in the refrigerator overnight to break down – the sugars and lemon juice get into those cranberries and turn them into this sweet and no longer tart mixture that is complemented by the spice of the jalapenos and green onion.
After sitting overnight, the cranberry mixture is drained through a colander to get rid of all the excess juice because you don’t want your dip to be too runny. And then it’s time to whip the cream cheese. We whip it with an electric mixer to make it light and airy. If you don’t do this and just spread the cream cheese in the dish as is, there is no way you’re dipping your cracker in that without it breaking and then having to fish it out – that’s no way to eat dip at a party! Once the cream cheese is whipped, you spread it in the bottom of a baking dish or pie plate and top it with the cranberry mixture. The contrast between the cool, creamy cream cheese and the sweet and spicy cranberry mixture is incredible and so complementary. I usually serve this dip with some crackers, both gluten free and gluten full so everyone can enjoy it, and it’s gone in basically no time! Enjoy!
