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Holiday Cranberry Cinnamon Cream Cheese

A festive cream cheese with cranberries and cinnamon.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream cheese and cinnamon work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 705 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 10
Prep5 min
Cook12 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the whole cranberries, raw honey and cinnamon in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir in the ground cinnamon.

  2. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes until most of the cranberries have burst.

  3. In a small cup, stir the cornstarch into the 1 tablespoon of water until smooth.

  4. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the simmering cranberries and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, until thickened and glossy.

  5. Remove from the heat and let the cranberry sauce cool for about 10 minutes.

  6. Place the cream cheese block on a serving plate and spread it into a flat round or rectangle with the back of a spoon.

  7. Spoon the cooled cranberry cinnamon sauce over the cream cheese, letting some drip down the sides.

  8. Serve with crackers or sliced bread, or refrigerate until ready to serve.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream cheese + cinnamontop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together705 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Honey + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream cheese + honeytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Honey + sugartop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together2,932 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs