Fruit Salad Cheesecake

Fruit Salad Cheesecake - a unique, interesting, & very tasty way to serve fruit salad!

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Holy cow!  Can you say B.U.S.Y.??  I feel like I have been running ragged the past few weeks.  And, from what I hear around, it seems to be a trend with lots of folks right now.

I haven't been in the kitchen at all for about the past two weeks, we've eaten take out three times this week, and I've resorted to my stash of  "emergency" frozen foods for the remaining nights.  I'm ready for life to settle down a bit.

So, for today's post I'm turning to a dish I've had in my queue for a while but just haven't shared yet.

A unique, interesting, & very tasty way to serve fruit salad!

I have quite a few dishes in my queue.  I seem to be able to make stuff and photograph it much more quickly than I can edit all those photos and write the posts to share.  But that queue of stuff sure comes in handy for crazy-busy times like now.

I'm excited to finally share this Fruit Salad Cheesecake with you!

Enjoy it as a fruit salad ... or as a dessert.  It pretty much works for either way.

My husband Mark is actually the one who found this recipe.

He was reading a magazine while we were visiting his mom one weekend, and it had a page of recipes in it.  Obviously knowing how much I love to cook and try out new recipes, he scanned for anything he thought would be of interest to me, and landed on this Fruit Salad Cheesecake.

Being the sweet man that he is, he tore the recipe out.

Well he was certainly right, this recipe was indeed of interest to me.  I mean, Fruit Salad Cheesecake?  I had never heard of such a thing.  And, of course, had to give it a try.

Think upscale fruit cocktail wrapped in a creamy, light-and-fluffy cream cheese and whipped-topping blanket.

When you think about this recipe, think upscale fruit cocktail wrapped in a creamy, light-and-fluffy cream cheese and whipped-topping blanket.  And what a unique, different, and tasty way to present fruit salad!  We loved it. 

So, just how do you make this unique fruit salad?  er, cheesecake?

It's really pretty easy.  And it's no-bake, which is a plus in the ease department.

Simply simmer together in a saucepan on the stovetop a mixture of crushed pineapple, sugar, and unflavored gelatin, then stir in a block of cream cheese.  Allow this to cool, and then mix in some halved fresh grapes, mandarin orange slices, coarsely chopped maraschino cherries, and chopped pecans.



Fold in whipped topping, and pour the mixture into a vanilla wafer crust.

Chill ... and you're done!  Pretty easy, huh?

I tried the cheesecake out in two sizes ...

A full-sized cheesecake made in a 9-inch springform pan:

And individual mini cheesecakes made in muffin tins:

Both sizes worked, so size choice is just a matter of what presentation you want to make and how you'd like to serve the cheesecake.

For the individual mini fruit salad cheesecakes, I wasn't quite sure what would work best as a method for making them ... so, I tried a few different ways:

1.  Pouring the fruit salad mixture into muffin cups first, topping with three vanilla wafer cookies as the crust, with the plan of then inverting them when I removed them from the pan.
RESULT: Not so great.  The vanilla wafers didn't "fit" well, and the cheesecakes just looked kind of messy when inverted.

Enjoy it as a fruit salad ... or as a dessert.  It pretty much works for either way.

2.  Placing a single vanilla wafer in the bottom of foil cupcake liners, and pouring the fruit salad mixture on top.
RESULT:  I didn't like the look of the ridges in the cheesecakes from the foil liner, but it wasn't too bad a method.

3. Placing a single vanilla wafer directly in the bottom of muffin tin cups, without any type of cupcake liner, and pouring the fruit salad mixture on top.  My worry with this one was that I wouldn't be able to get the mini cheesecakes out of the pan.
RESULT:  This was my favorite method.  I liked the look of the smoother sides, and ...

... the amount of "remnants" left in the pan when removing the cheesecakes was minimal.  I simply sprayed the pan very lightly with nonstick cooking spray, and ran a knife around the edge of each mini cheesecake before lifting it out of the pan.

The vanilla wafer cookie doesn't completely fill the bottom of the muffin cup, so the bottom comes out looking like this:

... but I don't think it looks too bad. (Hey, how many people will turn their fruit salad over to check out the bottom anyway?)

So, whether you make individual minis or a full-sized cheesecake, this Fruit Salad Cheesecake is sure one decidedly different, unique, interesting, and very tasty way to serve fruit salad!

Check out these other super tasty fruit salad recipes:

• Strawberry Pretzel Salad
• Triple Berry Fruit Salad with Vanilla Simple Syrup
• Classic Pineapple Jello Salad
• Apple Pie Filling Fruit Salad
• Peach Pie Filling Fruit Salad
• Classic Ambrosia Salad
• Classic Blueberry Jello Salad
• 7-Up Cranberry Jello Salad
• Strawberry, Blueberry & Greens Salad
• Cantaloupe Salad with Maple & Cinnamon
• More salad recipes

Thank you for stopping by The Kitchen is My Playground. We'd love to have you back soon!  

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No-Bake Desserts

Yield: 10-12 servings

Author: Tracey | The Kitchen is My Playground

Fruit Salad Cheesecake

A unique, interesting, & very tasty way to serve fruit salad!

prep time: 25 Mcook time: 5 Mtotal time: 30 M

ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 1/2 c. vanilla wafer crumbs (I give vanilla wafer cookies a quick whirl in the food processor)
• 2 T. butter, melted

Filling:

• 1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. cold water
• 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, cubed
• 1 1/2 c. halved seedless grapes
• 1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges, drained and cut in half
• 1 (10 oz.) jar maraschino cherries, drained and roughly chopped
• 1/2 c. finely chopped pecans
• 2 c. whipped topping (such as Cool Whip)

instructions:

How to cook Fruit Salad Cheesecake

For the crust:

1. In a small bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs and melted butter. 
2. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

For the filling:

1. In a small saucepan, cook crushed pineapple and sugar over medium heat for 5 minutes or until heated through.
2. Place cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle with gelatin; let stand for 1 minute. Stir gelatin mixture into the warm pineapple mixture.
3. Reduce heat to low and add cubed cream cheese. Cook and stir until cream cheese is melted and the mixture is well blended. 
4. Remove from heat and cool completely.
5. Stir the grapes, mandarin oranges, cherries, and pecans into the cooled cream cheese mixture. Fold in the whipped topping. 
6. Pour into prepared pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

TRACEY'S NOTES

1. For Minis: Instead of making vanilla wafer crumbs and butter mixture, place a single vanilla wafer cookie in the bottom of muffin tin cups that have been very lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Fill muffin tin cups full with fruit salad mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

https://www.thekitchenismyplayground.com/2012/09/fruit-salad-cheesecake.html

Adapted from Taste of Home, as published in Carolina Country magazine, May, 2012

Created using The Recipes Generator

You might also like these other fruit salad treats:

Cherry Fluff Salad

Green Fluff {Pistachio Watergate Salad}

Apple Pie Filling Fruit Salad

Peach Fluff Salad

Fruit Cocktail Fluff

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This post is linked with Weekend Potluck, Meal Plan Monday.