Katie at goodLife {eats} (a fabulous blog with gorgeous pictures) posted this recipe for Cranberry Crumb bars last week declaring them practically perfect in every way. And I knew they would be perfect for week 5 of my 12 weeks of Christmas cookies. What could be more perfect than a cranberry bar cookie at Christmas time!
I bought all the ingredients I needed earlier in the week but ran out of time to make them until this morning. But I thought no problem. It’s an easy recipe I can just throw it together and I hurried to get them in the oven before I had to leave. When I looked in the fridge to grab an orange it was gone! No problem I thought I’ll just use frozen. But nope the frozen OJ was gone too.
Okay, I’ll just sub apple juice. Gone! So I was out of juice options and I substituted 1/4 cup water and some lemon zest. Let’s not even talk about the fact that I forgot to add the corn starch to the cranberries and had to stir it in after I put it on the bottom crust.
Put despite my misadventures in the kitchen, these bar are delicious and will make a nice addition to my Christmas cookie platter. A bit tart without the orange juice but I may decided to drizzle a bit of icing on top before serving them. Thanks Katie for a wonderful holiday recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal*
- 1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- juice of 1/2 of an orange
- 4 cups fresh cranberries
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbs cornstarch
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. The dough will be crumbly. Alternatively, you can pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor with the butter until pebbly, and then mix in the egg until it all comes together. Pat half of the dough into the buttered pan.
- In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and orange juice. Mix in the cranberries. Sprinkle the cranberry mixture evenly over the dough in the pan.
- Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the remaining dough, then crumble dough over the berries. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until top is a light golden brown. Cool completely and chill in the refrigerator before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- *Just toss almonds (blanched or whole) in a food processor until finely ground to make almond meal.
Notes
If freezing: chill according to recipe, cut into serving size pieces. Place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet to flash freeze, and then transfer to a labeled zip top freezer bag.
For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan’s Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets – Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies,
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes - Cinnamon and Orange Cookies
Megan’s from My Baking Adventures – Vanilla & Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Kim from Stirring the Pot – Chambord Crisps
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
These look great! I love the tart cranberry mixed with the sweet crumble topping…delicious!
These look soooooo good. Ah, I can just taste it by looking at it. Thanks for posting this, this is worth a try.
I just baked with cranberries for the first time this season yesterday. These look perfect for this time of year! Yum!
Wow these look fabulous! I am invited to a cookie exchange party in December and now I know what I'm going to make! Thanks for this post.
Love these, love the cranberry, very festive for Xmas!!!
What a pretty bar, I love the color. It would be a beautiful addition to a cookie tray!
But I had all the ingredients! LOL
I just baked my cookies this morning also!
Glad you enjoyed them! I have sure been in that predicament many times in the kitchen, and forgotten stuff (almost) like you. Good to hear they still turned out good! The second time I made them we were out of OJ and oranges, so I used a little orange juice concentrate + water I had in the freezer leftover from another recipe.
These bars look delish! I love that it uses cranberries, since I love them!!
Sounds like my kinda of baking! Glad it all worked out for you. You are right, those will be great for Christmas.
I love bars, and these look delicious!
Yummmy! I love fresh cranberries for their tarty sweet taste.. Hmm… i have yet to get them.. still not done with the squashes, pumpkins and apples..
)
Looks so delicious, wish that I can have some
These look tasty. It's high time I made some cookies myself. I like the idea of 12 weeks of them but would probably gain 12lb in the process!
Yum! Even the name is alluring!
And will these be served when I come home for Christmas mum? 
My lips are smacking. Love the red jewel tone of these delicious looking squares.
Che delizia, mi viene il languorino solo alla vista delle foto, complimenti.
Buon fine settimana Daniela.
I love anything cranberry. These look great!
Love the color on these. Perfect for Xmas. I don't know if I could resist the urge to top them with vanilla ice cream
Oh yum! Cranberry has been missing in my baking so far – I need to redeem that!
They sound delicious! I love tart, so they would be right up my alley.
I love it when a dish comes together, even with a few mishaps along the way!
I must try this recipe!!I swear I'm gonna start my Christmas cookies next week! I think you are brilliant for starting them so early!!!
I really love cranberries! These look scrumptious! And so perfect for the holidays!
Oh…I am so making these. We just had a cranberry farm in the city drop off boxes of them for us to help ourself at work and I have tons of them! This is a great thing to find tonight…I know what I am making tomorrow morning…wonderful!
This sounds like a great holiday recipe! I like the combination of cranberries and orange
they're so pretty, i love the redness of the cranberry. these look just perfect for christmas!
Congrats! You are the winner of my movie ticket packet. Please email me your address to jerseygirlcooks@comcast.net and I will have your prize mailed out.
Great bars too!
Hi, come on over to my blog and see your Over the Top award. While you don't have to feel compelled to give out other Over the Top awards, I just wanted to recognize how much I enjoy our DB connection.
Oh my …. I did end up making this today and it is scrumptious. Do you mind if I post my results later this week? I'll link here again…but gosh this was good. I did make a little change and a ..grin…silly mistake in the crust but who would know? It tastes super good. Thanks for the recipe share.
Yum yum Barbara! Love anything with cranberries and these bars look scrumptious!
These bars look so pretty with the contrasting colors. Just like a candy cane!
My daughter keeps asking for something cranberry and your cranberry bars look like just the ticket.
Mimi
Fabulous job on these Barbara, they look incredible! Even with the mishaps, I have those ALL THE TIME – LOL
I don't know which of your cookies to try first, they all look so wonderful. It is hard to resist a crumb bar cookie though. . . I'll report back which ones I decide on.
Barbara, these cranberries crumble looks so yummie, love the redish of the cranberries, very festive…yummie!
Oh heavens, what a great looking bar cookie! Fantastic for the holiday season. I'm going to make these but they won't make it to Christmas (Thanksgiving, I'm thinking)
those look delicious! wish i had almond meal (or almonds) more readily on hand…
Goodness, these look so yummy and festive! I hated cranberries as a kid and never knew what I missed until the last couple of years. Now, they're one of my favorite additions to my baking. I can't wait to try these!!
Mmmm I want one! They look so moist and yummy.
ooooohhhh…yummy! bring your mother and her neighbors some tomorrow, ok?!