white chocolate cranberry bars

Starbucks has a cookie that they only carry at Christmas called the Cranberry Bliss Bar. I love it, but I don't love paying $3.50 for one bar! So I have come up with a recipe that I think is a pretty good version of the Starbucks bar. It's basically a soft vanilla cookie base with layers of white chocolate, cranberries, and white chocolate drizzled on top. This recipe makes a nice big pan and they freeze really well too.

Please excuse the poor quality of my photos...I'm not a great photographer to begin with and then I had to take these at night in low light.

White Chocolate Cranberry Bars

Base:
2/3 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla


Topping:
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup white chocolate chips (or 2 squares white baking chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9x13 inch pan and line with parchment paper, leaving some paper hanging over the edges. This makes it a lot easier to lift the bars out of the pan and slice them later. Set the prepared pan aside.


In a medium to large sized pot, melt the butter and brown sugar together. Remove from heat and let it cool a little. Beat in the vanilla and then the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda and beat just until combined. Pour into the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the white chocolate chips and cranberries on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or till golden and set. Don't overbake - you want these to be chewy like brownies. Let the cookie base cool completely before you do the next step.


Make the vanilla buttercream: In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the powdered sugar alternately with the milk, starting and ending with the sugar. Beat in the vanilla. Spread the frosting over the cooled cookie base. 

Sprinkle with dried cranberries and lightly press them into the frosting. 

Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave, taking it out to stir it about every 30 seconds, until it's melted. White chocolate burns very easily and quickly, so keep a close eye on it. 

Put the melted chocolate into a small ziploc bag; close the bag, snip off one corner, and drizzle it over the bars. If you happen to have a pastry bag, you could use that to drizzle the chocolate. 

Slice into squares. Sometimes I cut these into large squares and then diagonally into triangles because that's how Starbucks cuts theirs. The shape won't affect the taste one bit. ;-)


How to cut neat bars/squares: People have asked me how I cut things into neat little squares, so here's my method in case you'd like to know. I always use parchment paper to line the pan, even if the recipe calls for greasing the pan. I leave extra paper hanging over two sides of the pan. If the squares are really gooey and soft, refrigerate the whole pan until they're firm. Then I use the parchment paper to lift the whole thing out of the pan and put it onto a cutting board. I take a large knife, run it under hot water and wipe it dry with a paper towel; then use the hot knife to cut the squares. Try not to saw back and forth, just press the knife down firmly in one motion. If the knife gets covered in sticky crumbs, just run it under hot water and wipe dry every now and then.