Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake Tart

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake Tart is a fantastic dessert for winter holiday. This is one of the easiest crowd pleasing holiday recipe. It has light golden crust and low fat cream cheese and sour cream filling that I serve any time of the year but for Christmas holiday I swirl with cranberry sauce.

Ingredients~
For the filling
2- 8 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese 
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange zest
1/3 cup cranberry sauce

For the crust~ 
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp.salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup butter
5-6 tbsp. ice cold water

Method~ 
Keep ingredients for the crust as cold as possible. Mix the first 3 ingredients in a large mixing bowl and then transfer in the food processor or mini food chopper. Add in the butter and use pulse button to process until mixture becomes coarse meal. Now pour 1 tbsp. cold water at a time until dough starts to stick together. Dough should be not too tough but just firm. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Try to make round firm ball, then flatten to form a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Roll out from the center to the edge on a lightly floured surface until 1/8 inch thickness and 14 inch round circle. Transfer to a 11-12 inch tart pan. Pat the rolled dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan. Trim the overhangs. 

Pierce the dough all over with a fork so crust won't puff up while baking. Line the crust with a parchment paper. Add dry dried beans  to fill the pan. Chill the crust for 30 minutes. 

Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Remove parchment paper and beans and bake another 10 minutes and cool it on a wire rack. Mix cream cheese, sugar, orange zest, vanilla extract and eggs until smooth. Pour the batter into pie shell. Spoon cranberry sauce on the top of the batter and with a wooden skewer gently swirl. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes to set. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Have a wonderful holiday time!!