Cranberry recipes have a lot going for them: bright red fruit, orange glaze, and a very good reason to bring out your prettiest dessert plate. If you're choosing something for Friendsgiving, a holiday dinner, or an afternoon of baking with friends, you've got options here.
There are four curd tarts with different crusts and toppings, a folded cranberry galette, and a cranberry-orange Bundt cake with a cinnamon-sugar ribbon. You'll also find cookies, muffins, and a glazed loaf for the days when you'd like something you can share by the piece.
The full recipes belong to the bakers linked below. This roundup helps you choose by the kind of dessert, the main flavors, and the time each recipe needs. For more fruit-filled bakes, our fall baking roundup with pumpkin, apple, and maple has a few more ideas for your next baking afternoon.
Cranberry-Orange Curd Tart
Recipe by Kim, shared on Allrecipes.
Orange and cranberry share a smooth curd filling, with ginger in the shortbread crust. This 9-inch tart serves eight. The recipe lists two hours in total.
A small arc of sugared cranberries and orange zest looks pretty against the red filling. It leaves room for that color to be the main event.
Get the full cranberry-orange curd tart recipe from Allrecipes.
Cranberry Curd Tart with Toasted Meringue
Recipe by Allie of Baking a Moment.
This tart starts with cranberry sauce, which makes it a useful choice when you've already got some ready. The filling sits inside a buttery shortbread crust, with toasted meringue on top. If decorating is your favorite part of baking, those little toasted peaks give you something fun to work with.
The red filling and pale meringue make a pretty pair. You can see the difference from the first tart right away, even before comparing the ingredients. This is the one we'd choose for a dessert table where you'd like a little height on top.
Allie's recipe includes the meringue and explains how to make the tart. Read her notes on cranberry sauce before picking yours, since that sauce is part of the filling itself. Her recipe card lists two hours and 30 minutes in total.
Get the full cranberry curd tart recipe from Baking a Moment.
Cranberry Curd Tart with Whipped Cream
Recipe by Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking.
A graham cracker crust gives this tart a different base from the two shortbread versions. The filling is smooth cranberry curd, with whipped cream over the center and sugared cranberries on top. The white cream against the red fruit is such a good holiday combination.
Choose it when you like a crumb crust and a creamy topping. A cut slice also shows the layers clearly: golden crumbs at the bottom, red curd in the middle, and a soft swirl of cream on top. Each part has its own place on the plate.
This is a plan-ahead dessert. Sally lists seven hours in total, including chilling, so give it space in your schedule before the meal. Her page includes make-ahead notes that help you plan the parts. A tart that spends time chilling can be a good fit when you're also using the oven for dinner.
Get the full whipped-cream cranberry curd tart recipe from Sally's Baking.
Cranberry and Lemon Curd Swirl Tart
Recipe by Sam of Buttermilk by Sam.
Yellow lemon curd swirls through red cranberry-orange curd in this tart. An orange pastry crust holds the filling. Choose it when you want a citrus dessert with a colorful top and no icing to pipe.
Sam uses a 9-inch tart pan with a removable base. The tart needs at least four hours in the fridge before serving, so plan to make it ahead. Her serving suggestion is whipped cream with a little citrus zest.
Get the full cranberry and lemon curd swirl tart recipe from Buttermilk by Sam.
Rustic Cranberry Galette
Recipe by Sabrina Snyder of Dinner, then Dessert.
For a free-form pastry, try this cranberry galette. The filling combines cranberries and orange marmalade, with the pie crust folded up around the edges. You get a golden border and an open fruit center, with whole and burst berries still visible.
The recipe uses refrigerated pie crust and bakes on a sheet pan. That's a different setup from the curd tarts, which makes this a useful option when you're choosing based on the pans you have. The folded edges can stay a little uneven; that shape is part of the galette.
Sabrina lists six servings and about 30 minutes in total. It's the shortest listed recipe here, though you'll still want to read the full method before starting. Her serving ideas include vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. A scoop beside a slice would make a lovely finish to a small dinner with friends.
Get the full rustic cranberry galette recipe from Dinner, then Dessert.
Cranberry-Orange Bundt Cake
Recipe by Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking.
This cake has orange in the batter and glaze, cranberries throughout, and a cinnamon-sugar ribbon inside. There's a lot to like about a slice with a little of each. The fluted shape also gives the glaze plenty of places to drip (which is half the fun of a Bundt cake).
Choose it when you'd like a larger cake to slice at the table. Sally's recipe serves 12 and calls for a 10-to-12-cup Bundt pan. That gives you a full ring cake with room for the fruit and cinnamon filling.
The recipe lists five hours and 30 minutes in total, so this belongs in your plan-ahead group with the chilled tarts. The orange glaze is part of the recipe, and the cake's own shape does a lot of the decorating. A cream platter would let those golden ridges and white glaze stand out.
Get the full cranberry-orange Bundt cake recipe from Sally's Baking.
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Recipe by Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking.
White chocolate chips and dried cranberries make these cookies a good pick for a shared cookie plate. The pale chips and dark red fruit look pretty tucked into the golden dough. They're soft-baked drop cookies, so the finished look comes from the cookies themselves, with no icing to pipe.
This is also the dried-cranberry choice in the roundup. If that's the bag you've already got in the cupboard, start here. The recipe makes about two dozen cookies, which gives you individual pieces for a few friends or a larger dessert spread.
Sally's method includes at least an hour of dough chilling. Leave that time in your plan, even though the cookies spend much less time in the oven. Her page has the full chilling and baking notes. For serving, a few short stacks on a plate look cute and leave room for people to choose a cookie.
Get the full white chocolate cranberry cookie recipe from Sally's Baking.
Cranberry-Orange Muffins
Recipe by Sally McKenney of Sally's Baking.
These muffins bring orange and cranberry into a bake you can serve one at a time. Sally offers a brown sugar crumb topping and orange icing, and both are optional. You can choose plain tops, crumbs, icing, or the full combination. We'd have a hard time passing up the crumbs and icing together.
The recipe makes 12 muffins and lists an hour in total. It uses fresh or frozen cranberries, with notes for handling the frozen fruit. Follow those notes when choosing which bag to use, rather than swapping in dried berries without checking.
This is a good option for a holiday breakfast table or an afternoon with a pot of tea. A split muffin shows the red cranberry pockets and pale crumb inside. Leave a few whole so you have both ways to serve them. Sally also includes freezing notes if you'd like to keep some of the batch for another day.
Get the full cranberry-orange muffin recipe from Sally's Baking.
Cranberry Bread with Orange Glaze
Recipe by Natasha Kravchuk of Natasha's Kitchen.
This glazed loaf gives you cranberry-orange flavor in slices. Red cranberries run through the pale crumb, with a golden crust around the edge and orange glaze over the top. It's a pretty choice for a loaf plate, especially when you cut a few slices to show the fruit.
Natasha's recipe makes one loaf and lists about an hour in total. Her notes give the pan size and explain how to adjust for another size, so check those before choosing your loaf pan. The glaze uses orange juice and zest, which keeps that citrus flavor in the topping too.
Choose this one for an afternoon coffee table or a homemade gift. Let the recipe guide the cooling and glazing before you wrap or serve it. If you're building a longer afternoon around baking and dinner, our guide to hosting Friendsgiving in a small space can help with the table and serving setup.
Get the full cranberry bread recipe from Natasha's Kitchen.
Choose Cranberry Recipes for Your Plans
For a dessert table, start with the curd tarts. Choose orange and ginger for the first version, toasted meringue for the second, or a crumb crust and whipped cream for the third. The fourth adds yellow lemon curd swirls and an orange pastry crust. The galette gives you exposed fruit inside a folded pastry edge. The Bundt cake brings a taller shape and a cinnamon-sugar ribbon.
For treats to share by the piece, look at the cookies and muffins. The loaf gives you slices you can cut to suit your table. If you'd like two bakes, a tart and a batch of cookies give you different shapes, textures, and serving sizes. A tart beside the white chocolate cranberry cookies would be our first two-bake pairing.
Before you shop, open the full recipe you've chosen. Check the fruit type, pan, cooling time, and any chilling time. The times above come from the recipe pages and aren't all hands-on time. Keeping those parts in view helps you choose a bake that fits your day, whether you've got half an hour for the galette or time to let a tart chill.
You Might Also Like
5 chocolate cake recipes for your next get-together
Friendsgiving games to play after dinner
