These copycat cranberry bliss bars are a blondie base, with a orange cream cheese frosting and white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Just like from your favorite coffee shop but maybe a little bit better and way more dessert for the amount spent.
Believe it or not, I had never actually had one of Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars until I decided to make a copycat recipe. I don’t really go to Starbucks often, and almost never buy their bakery items. Most are too sweet, or just not great. I don’t blame Starbucks, I’m pretty sure most of them are mass produced and shipped out to stores. It’s not like going to the bakery.
I was talking to a friend who loved them, and I said I bet you could make them. When she told me what it was I said I bet I could make them! I went to Starbucks, ordered one to try and was pleasantly surprised. I don’t dislike cranberry but it’s rarely the berry flavor I choose first. However, I think I like cranberry mixed with a creamy, tangy cheese as evidence by my Goat Cheese Cranberry Star Bread.
For these cranberry bliss bars, I took my blondie recipe and tinkered with it a little bit, added white chocolate and cranberry then topped it with a orange cream cheese frosting. The end result is pretty similar, but honestly anything homemade (in my opinion) is better. I wanted to make the bars slightly less sweet, and a little more bright. I think that these turned out exactly like that.
Baking Tips & Notes
I’m not sure if there is a standard square baking pan size but if there is, I’d have to guess it’s an 8×8 pan. However, many of my recipes I use a 9×9 pan. This is one. Can you bake these cranberry bliss bars in an 8×8? Yes, but you will need to adjust your bake time slightly longer as the bars will be thicker (read the recipe notes). I chose to use a 9×9 pan because I wanted thin bars that were close, if not identical to the original version of this bake.
If you want a thinner bar, you will need to bake them in the 9×9 pan. When you spread the blondie base out, you will feel like it might not spread enough, but it will and the resulting thickness is perfect. Like with most bars make sure to use a metal pan, not glass. Glass is a poor heat conductor, it will take longer to heat and stay hot for much longer. This often results in an overbaked outer edge and an under baked center.
My first recipe test I used regular white chocolate chips. Flavor wise, these were fine but personally I did not love that the big chunks of chocolate were disrupting the rest of the texture of the bake. Next I tested chopping up the chocolate chips into smaller pieces, which worked well. You could also use chopped chocolate bar as well for a similar result.
When making the melted white chocolate for the drizzle, I would recommend not using white chocolate chips or microwaving. White chocolate is notoriously fickle and prone to seizing, and chocolate chips have ingredients that are there to help them retain their shape. I use a double boiler (just a glass bowl over a sauce pot with about an inch of simmering water) to melt the chocolate without worrying about it seizing.
Cranberry Bliss Bars Key Ingredients
- Dried Cranberries – There are cranberries in both the bars and the topping, and you’ll want dried cranberries aka craisins. In the bars, before baking them you will rehydrate them a little bit to ensure they don’t become overly dry or hard in the oven.
- Orange – The zest of an orange is used in the cream cheese frosting (along with lemon extract) to help bring brightness and freshness to the recipe.
- White Chocolate – There is white chocolate in both the bar and drizzled on top. The recipe is written as chips in the bar and a bar for the drizzle but you could use a bar for both.
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Ingredients
Bars
- 112 g Unsalted butter ½ cup
- 100 g Light brown sugar ½ cup
- 50 g Granulated sugar ¼ cup
- 1 large Egg + 1 yolk room temperature
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 90 g AP Flour ¾ cup
- ½ tsp Sea salt
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground ginger
- 85 g White chocolate chips ½ cup
- 40 g Dried cranberries ¼ cup
Frosting
- 226 g Cream Cheese 8 oz, room temperature
- 180 g Powdered sugar 1½ cup
- 1 Med Zest of Orange
- ½ tsp Lemon extract
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- 40 g Dried cranberries ¼ cup
- 50 g White chocolate 2 oz
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×9" pan with parchment, set aside.
- In a small bowl, add your dried cranberries. Add enough hot water to the bowl to cover the cranberries and let sit for about 15 minutes.
- In a small-medium bowl, measure out flour and add salt, cinnamon, ginger and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a medium-large bowl, melt butter and add brown sugar and granulated sugar. Mix with spatula until combined.
- Add vanilla, egg and additional yolk and mix until eggs are fully incorporated.
- Add dry ingredients to wet, and stir until just combined, not overmixing.
- Dump the excess water from your bowl of cranberries and place them on a paper towel. Blot them so they are mostly dry.
- Chop the cranberries into smaller pieces. How big is up to you, I cut them so they were about quartered.
- Add your white chocolate chips and chopped dried cranberries, stir until evenly dispersed.
- Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing out into one even layer. It will be pretty thin, which is what you want.
- Bake blondies on center rack of oven for 16-18 minutes – if baking in a smaller pan see recipe notes below. Blondies will be done when the top of blondies are set. Mine had a crinkly paper top at this point and the edges were beginning to pull away from the edge of the pan.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan completely, which might take several hours. I put mine in the refrigerator (pan NOT covered) to chill after an hour to help keep the texture chewy.
- Once the bars are completely cooled, make your frosting. In a medium-large bowl, add your cream cheese, orange zest and powdered sugar. Beat together until smooth.
- Add your lemon and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Smooth your frosting over the top of your bars.
- Chop your dried cranberries and sprinkle over the cream cheese frosting generously.
- Melt your white chocolate. Either in a microwave or double boiler. Drizzle over the top of the bars from either piping bag with a fine tip or sandwich bag with the tip cut off.
- Cut the bars your bars into any shape (I chose triangle like their famous inspiration but squares works just as well) and serve. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Notes
- The amount of frosting in this recipe is more than you need for an even layer. If you want a thin layer of frosting, I would halve the recipe. If you want a thick layer, leave as is. If this is something you see yourself making again, or often. I made a whole batch and then saved half by putting it in a silicone bag in the freezer – which should be good for about 6 months.
- If you bake this in an 8×8 pan instead of a 9×9 your bars will not be as thin, and the bake time will need to increase to about 22 minutes. You still want the bars to be just set, and do everything else the same.
