Cranberry Bliss Bars
Ingredients:
For the blondie base
- 1 cup melted, salted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- Zest of 1/2 large orange
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces chopped white chocolate*
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
For the cream cheese frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- Zest of 1/2 orange
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 2 ounces white chocolate, melted*
Instructions:
- Make the blondie base. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 9x13 baking with parchment paper. The cooking spray just helps the parchment stick to the pan.
- Whisk together the brown sugar, melted butter and orange zest until no lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Note that adding the orange zest at the same time as the sugar helps bring out the orange flavor more.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ginger and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. It is fine if there are a few streaks of flour left. It is better to avoid over mixing.
- Add the white chocolate and dried cranberries, giving it just one or two stirs to mix them in.
- The mixture will look like a very sticky cookie dough. Transfer it to the prepared baking pan and use either a floured spatula or just your hands to press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pan, making sure it reaches all edges and is fairly level.
- Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. The edges should be golden brown, and a toothpick should come out of the center with just a few crumbs clinging to it. I find that 20 minutes in my oven results in a gooier bar, and 23 minutes results in a perfectly crisp outside with a chewy inside.
- Let the bars cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then use the parchment paper to lift the whole thing out of the pan and transfer to a cooling rack.
- Make the frosting. While the bars are cooling, make the frosting. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth and no lumps remain. Add the powdered sugar, orange zest and juice and the salt. Beat on medium high speed until smooth with no lumps, 3-5 minutes. It should have a spreadable consistency but not be so runny that it will run right off the edges of your bars. Add more powdered sugar to thicken, as needed.
- Spread the frosting on top of the completely cooled bars. Sprinkle dried cranberries on top and use a spoon to drizzle with the melted white chocolate.
- Cut into squares and then cut each square diagonally to make triangles. Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 1 week or in then freezer for up to 3 weeks.