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‘Tis the season for decadent baked treats, and these cranberry bliss bars do not miss! They’re heavy on the “bliss”, featuring a tender blondie layer sweetened with brown sugar and dried cranberries then topped with a rich cream cheese frosting, a white chocolate drizzle, and a few more cranberries for good measure. Perfectly tart, deliciously sweet, and delightfully wintery.
Before You Get Started
- You’ll want to use parchment paper, not wax paper to line your pan. Wax paper can stick to the bars and then you’ll have to stop and pick little bits of paper off each one. Not how anyone wants to spend their free time!
How to Make This Recipe
See recipe card below for full list of measurements, ingredients, and instructions.
Make the blondie batter.
Start by mixing together all your wet ingredients in one bowl, and all your dry ingredients in another. Once the dry ingredients are well-blended, slowly incorporate them into the wet ingredients, making sure everything is mixed well and you don’t have any clumps. When you’ve got everything well-mixed, gently fold the dried cranberries into the batter.
Bake the blondie layer.
Pour the prepared batter into a rimmed baking pan or jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper. Make sure the batter is spread out evenly across the pan, filling all the corners. Bake the blondies until you can insert a toothpick into the center of the blondies and remove it with no or very few crumbs.
Make the cream cheese frosting.
Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to cream together room temp butter and a room temp block of cream cheese, then mix in vanilla extract and orange zest. Incorporate the powdered sugar in small amounts, making sure it’s mixed in completely before adding more. Keep repeating this process until you’ve got your preferred frosting consistency.
Depending on your frosting preference, you may not need a full 3 cups of powdered sugar – or you could need more than 3 cups. I don’t recommend using more than 4 cups max. The frosting should be thick, yes, but it needs to be spreadable.
Assemble and serve.
Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the blondies, making it as thick or as thin as you like. Scatter dried cranberries over the top of the frosting, then drizzle melted white chocolate over the bars. Once the white chocolate hardens, you can cut the sheet of blondies into triangular bars and enjoy!
The Sweetest Season
This recipe is part of The Sweetest Season, an annual virtual cookie swap co-hosted by Erin of The Speckled Palate and Susannah of Feast + West. Every year, food bloggers get together to share new holiday cookie recipes to make and give.
This year we are raising money for Cookies 4 Kids’ Cancer, which is a recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to funding research for new, innovative and less-toxic treatments for childhood cancer.
Help us raise money for this important cause! Donate through our fundraising page. Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is in a matching window with their friends at OXO, meaning OXO will be matching every dollar raised through the end of 2024, up to $100,000. Whatever money we raise will automatically double on our fundraising page!
What I Love About This Recipe
- Pumpkin spice reigns supreme in September and October, but as soon as November rolls around? I’m ready for all things cranberry! And while I enjoy swinging through Starbs for a peppermint hot chocolate and a cranberry bliss bar from time to time, it’s way more fun (and, um, cost effective) to make them at home. I mean, 24 bars from one batch!
- These festive bliss bars taste just like the ones you’d get at Starbucks, by the way. Actually, if you ask me, they taste even better, since they’re not made in advance then frozen then shipped then refrigerated then set in a case until you order one.
- Homemade cranberry bliss bars make for fabulous holiday gifts. Not only are they delish, they’re also beautiful, with little pops of crimson from the dried cranberries. Wrap them individually with festive cello wrap or in a cute little window box and voila, instant gift for teachers, coworkers, Secret Santa, or those cousins that showed up unannounced at the last minute.
Recipe Variations
- For Fans of White Chocolate: Double it up! For more of that delicious flavor, fold ½ cup of white chocolate chips into the blondie batter when you add the dried cranberries. This way you’ll get chunks of white chocolate throughout the bliss bars in addition to the white chocolate drizzle on top!
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions or variations listed are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
Cranberry Bliss Bars
Equipment
- Oven
- 9×13 rimmed baking pan
- parchment paper
- large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- paddle attachment for hand mixer or stand mixer
- medium mixing bowl
- whisk
- Silicone spatula
- toothpicks or butter knife
- Small microwave-safe bowl
- Microwave
- Fork or whisk
- large chef's knife
Ingredients
For the Blondie Layer
- 1 cup melted unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ packed cup brown sugar light or dark, 250 grams
- ½ cup granulated sugar 100 grams
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 285 grams
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon fresh baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup roughly chopped dried cranberries
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 8-ounce block full-fat cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
- 3 cups powdered sugar up to 4 cups if needed
For the Topping
- ½ cup roughly chopped dried cranberries
- ½ cup white chocolate chips or ½ cup chopped white chocolate bark
Instructions
For the Blondie Layer
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line 9×13 pan with parchment paper, folding excess parchment paper over sides of pan.
- Add 1 cup melted unsalted butter, 1 ¼ packed cup brown sugar, and ½ cup granulated sugar to large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. Use hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment to mix butter and sugars until combined.
- Add 2 large eggs, 1 large egg yolk, and 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract to bowl. Continue mixing ingredients together until fully incorporated. Set mixture aside.
- Add 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, ½ teaspoon fresh baking powder, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt to medium mixing bowl. Whisk dry ingredients together until well-blended.
- Once blended, add dry ingredients to bowl of wet ingredients in small increments, mixing ingredients together on medium speed until all ingredients are fully combined.
- Add ½ cup roughly chopped dried cranberries to mixing bowl. Use silicone spatula to gently fold cranberries into blondie batter, until cranberries are just incorporated.
- Transfer blondie batter to prepared pan, smoothing batter evenly across pan. Place pan in preheated oven.
- Bake blondie layer 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, begin checking blondies by inserting toothpick or butter knife into center of blondies. Immediately remove toothpick or knife and check for wet batter or crumbs. Continue baking blondies as needed, checking often, until toothpick or knife comes out clean or with few crumbs.
- When blondie layer is fully baked, carefully remove pan from oven and set aside to cool.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Once blondie layer has cooled completely, add ½ cup unsalted butter and 1 8-ounce block full-fat cream cheese to mixing bowl. Use hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment to beat butter and cream cheese together until combined and fluffy.
- Add 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest to bowl. Mix ingredients together until fully incorporated.
- Add 3 cups powdered sugar in ¼-cup increments, mixing between each addition to fully incorporate powdered sugar. Continue adding powdered sugar, mixing after each addition, until desired frosting consistency is achieved. Note: frosting should be thick but spreadable. Use more or less than 3 cups powdered sugar as needed.
- Once frosting is prepared, carefully remove blondie layer from pan, using excess parchment paper as handles to gently lift blondie layer out of pan.
- Set blondie layer on flat surface. Dollop prepared frosting on top of blondie layer and spread frosting out evenly, covering blondies completely.
For the Topping
- Scatter ½ cup roughly chopped dried cranberries across top of cream cheese frosting. Gently press cranberries into frosting if needed to ensure berries stick.
- Add ½ cup white chocolate chips to small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave chocolate chips on 50% power in 30-second bursts, stirring well between each burst, until chocolate has melted. Be careful not to overheat or burn chocolate.
- Once chocolate is melted and smooth, use fork or whisk to drizzle white chocolate over frosting and cranberries.
- Set aside 5 minutes or until white chocolate has set up.
To Serve
- Once chocolate drizzle has hardened, slice bars into 4 rows of 3 squares per row.
- Slice each square in half diagonally to create 2 triangular bars per square.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Brown Sugar: For richer, more moist blondies, use dark brown sugar.
- Leftovers: Refrigerate cranberry bliss bars in an airtight container up to 1 week. Enjoy chilled or at room temperature.
- Freezer Storage: Prepare and slice bars as instructed. Place sliced bars on baking sheet and place baking sheet in freezer for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove baking sheet from freezer. Wrap each bar tightly in food-safe plastic wrap, then placed wrapped bars in airtight container. Store container in freezer up to 3 months. Defrost individual bars in refrigerator overnight before serving.
Approximate Information for One Serving
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Literally exactly the same as the Starbucks I used to eat as a kid. I love it. We followed the recipe perfectly except we used orange extract instead of zest. It turned out amazing. Not too sweet which I loved.
Yum! Thanks for sharing!
Can these be frozen?
I think they could be but I’m not certain. I’m testing them today and will try it out and let you know!
I just made them last night and froze them! Ate one for breakfast (don’t judge me) and it tasted great! It was still slightly frozen when I ate it!
Ha!! I would never judge you for something like that 😉