cranberry bliss bars – Starbucks copycat

Cranberry Bliss Bars are orange flavoured blondies studded with white chocolate chips and cranberries. They’re topped with orange flavoured cream cheese icing, chopped dried cranberries and orange zest and, wait for it, drizzled with white chocolate. Every season, Starbucks’ team of bakers create an irresistible sweet that I obsess over. Rather than run to the coffee shop every day, I decided to copycat them.

Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars are the yummiest, most addictive coffee-break treat on the planet.

Like all baked products, there are a few tricks to the trade that will guarantee cookie perfection. Invest in a couple of heavy bottomed, light colored baking sheets to keep your cookies from getting to dark on the bottom.

Measure your flour properly. No more scoop and swiping for you. For cookies, it’s best to spoon your flour into the measuring cup then level it with a flat edge. Jamming your measuring cup into the flour bin will give you more flour than intended. Also, use dry volume rather than wet volume measuring cups.

Cranberry Bliss Bars have more steps than I’m usually willing to go when it comes to making cookies, but being able to have one whenever I get the craving is worth the effort.

Don’t be tempted to use the microwave to soften your butter. Let it come to room temperature naturally.

The quality of your butter will impact flavour and texture. Cheap butter has more water making it harder for the sugar and eggs to emulsify. Absolutely do not use margarine.

Don’t open your oven door to have a peak while your Cranberry Bliss Bars are baking. You want to keep the oven at an even temperature, start to finish.

Remove the bars as soon as they cool slightly to keep them from steaming on the bottom. Placing them on a parchment or waxed paper lined cooling rack will allow proper circulation.

Cool the bars completely before frosting them. Warm bars will melt the frosting into a mess.

Have the frosting and garnishes ready together, working quickly so that the dried cranberries, orange zest and white chocolate drizzle stick to the Cranberry Bliss Bars.

Drop me a note in the comment section. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading. xo

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Cranberry Bliss Bars

Rating: 4.0/5

( 2 voted )

Serves: 1 -20 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cooking Time: 24 Minutes 24 Minutes Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

The Bars

1 cup butter, at room temperature - really soft
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure orange extract
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

The Frosting

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 cups icing/confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon orange extract

The Garnish

1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped coarsely
2 tablespoon zested orange rind I used the zest of 1 large navel orange.
½ cup white chocolate chips
1 teaspoon canola oil

Instructions

 

The Bars

1. Preheat the oven to 350*F.
2. Line a 10 x 15 baking sheet with parchment paper. a small cookie pan
3. With an electric mixer or stand mixer, beat together butter and sugars 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time and blend well.
5. Add orange extract.
6. Stir the flour, baking powder, and ginger together in a small bowl.
7. Blend flour mixture into butter mixture.
8. Add the cranberries and white chocolate chips, stirring just until incorporated.
9. Spread the thick batter onto the prepared 10 x 15 baking pan. I dipped my finger tips in cool water, then carefully pushed the stiff batter into place.
10. Bake for 20-24 minutes until light brown and a skewer tests clean. Don't over-bake or your bars will be dry.
11. Let the bars cool completely.

The Frosting

1. Blend cream cheese and butter until fluffy.
2. Add milk, orange extract and icing/confectioners sugar and beat until frosting is fluffy.
3. Spread evenly over COMPLETELY COOLED bars.

The Garnish

• Sprinkle zest and dried cranberries over frosted bars.
• Mix white chocolate and oil in a microwavable bowl.
• Microwave 1 minute; stirring every 15 seconds until chocolate is melted. Mine was done at 45 seconds.
• Use a fork to drizzle the white chocolate across the bars.
• Allow one hour for the white chocolate to set before cutting.
• Cut into 20 large squares (5 cuts by 4 cuts with the knife).
• Then cut each square in half diagonally to create triangles.
• These bars can be kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Notes

THE LOVE: It's super important not to overbake these bars or they will be dry as chips.