Do you love Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars? This recipe is for you! Soft blondies, white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Wait until you see what’s in the frosting! These are always met with rave reviews.
VIDEO below!
Get ready to make friends – these Cranberry Bliss Bars are a huge crowd favorite. I’ve been making them for several years and they are always quickly devoured.
If you’ve had a Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar, then you know how great this flavor combo is – white chocolate and dried cranberries are a match made in heaven! These are a very close replica to the Starbucks bars, but I actually like them better! Plus, it’s way more affordable to whip these up at home.
Cranberry Bliss Bars
This recipe is made up of a soft and sweet blondie bar which is filled with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. The blondie batter comes together in a matter of minutes. Once baked and cooled, the bars are topped with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting and then garnished with more dried cranberries and a few drizzles of melted white chocolate.
The red and white colors makes these bars perfect for the holiday season. But feel free to make them year round! We’re using dried cranberries (not fresh), and we have access to those all year. Yippee!
Tips for Making Cranberry Bliss Bars at Home
- My number one tip is NOT to over-bake these. The top of the bars should be dry with the center just slightly underdone when you pull them from the oven. They will continue to cook a bit as they cool. We’re going for soft and tender bars – not dry and hard.
- Make sure that you melt the white chocolate very slowly. It can go from melted to lumpy and overdone in a matter of seconds.
Everything else is very straight forward.
Bake a batch and enjoy!
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Cranberry White Chocolate Bars (Copycat Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars)
Ingredients
Bars:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 egg
- 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 6 ounces cream cheese softened
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- milk to thin (if necessary)
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips melted (see note)
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
For the bars:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x9 square pan or 8 x11 pan with foil (I prefer an 8x11 for this recipe), and grease the foil.
- In a large bowl, whisk melted butter and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract, whisk until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until the ingredients are combined. Fold in 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips. Spread the batter in an even layer in the prepared pan (the batter will be thick).
Bake the 9x9 pan for 18-20 minutes or the 8x11 pan for 15-18 minutes. The bars are done when they have puffed slightly, are light brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. They will appear a little underdone but they will continue to cook as they cool. Be careful not to over bake them. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
For the frosting:
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and salt and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in half of the melted white chocolate and beat to combine. Add a splash of milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting. Spread the bars with the frosting (if you used the smaller pan, you might not need all of the frosting). Scatter the dried cranberries on top. Drizzle the remaining melted white chocolate over the top.
- Store the bars tightly covered in the refrigerator, I find that they cut cleanest once they have been refrigerated. Allow them to sit at room temperature for an hour or so before serving.
Recipe Notes
Melting white chocolate: You can melt it in the microwave or in a double boiler. If you use the microwave you have to melt it very slowly. I put it in for 10-15 seconds at a time and stir between each interval. I have the best luck with good quality white chocolate. I typically use Guittard or Ghirardelli.
I have made this exact recipe in an 9x9 square pan and an 8x11 pan. The 9x9 will make bars that are a little bit thicker, whereas the 8x11 pan will make thinner bars (my photos are from bars made in an 8x11, my preference).
Optional: Add a teaspoon of finely grated orange zest to the blondie batter.
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home
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My mom had a cranberry white chocolate bar at a catered event a while back and really wanted to make something like it for our Thanksgivakuh. So we googled around and found your recipe and it was perfect! They turned out so so good, better than she even remembered the ones she had tried a while back! Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that! Those bars are definitely one of my favorites. 🙂
I made these tonight for my Christmas Eve party. They turned out really, really good. I just hope there are some left by Tuesday night. Yum! 😉 Thank you for sharing. This one is a keeper!
I’m so happy to hear that you liked them. They are one of my favorites for sure. 🙂 Happy holidays!
Making them right now. Husband loves them!
Yay! Thanks for letting me know. Enjoy! 🙂
Can these be frozen?
Hi Michelle! I have never frozen them before but you should be able to freeze the bars unfrosted. I would suggest frosting them the day you’re serving them.
the butter amount for the bars is not clear . I assumed it was suppose to be 1 stick of butter or 1/2 cup
Hi, Sharon. Yes, it should be 1 stick or 1/2 cup. I apologize. I just changed my recipe formatting and a few recipes didn’t transfer over correctly. I apologize for the jumbled language, I have corrected it. Thank you SO much for bringing this to my attention. Thanks for reading! Happy holidays!
Hi ! is the frosting supposed to stay very soft ? It just doesnt seem right when i cut them the frosting is smudging :(. Also, the blondie was very dry for me. Maybe my oven is stronger thus requires less cooking time. Could the use of a wheat flour change the texture perhaps? It is a great recipe thank you !
Hi! Yes, wheat flour will definitely change the consistency. Wheat flour is more dense and dry than all-purpose flour. The bars need to be refrigerated to allow the frosting to set up. Since it is a cream cheese frosting the frosting will have a bit of softness that’s unavoidable. I definitely recommend refrigeration before cutting them. Enjoy! Happy holidays!
Made it, delicious! Everyone loved it!
Fantastic! Thanks for stopping by! Happy holidays.
These are the best!!! They’re so good I’ve made them about 6 times already and they disappear so fast with my big family sometimes I make two batches at once. I use a 9×13 instead and bake for 20 minutes.
Awesome! I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
oh my goodness this looks so tasty!
I get one of these every year around the holidays, they are SO good. I may need to try this.. pinned to my fall board! 🙂
Okay, I am definitely making these, always love getting them at Starbucks!!
Lauren
http://www.basicbabelauren.com
okay, these look delicious ! Saving these for my next party!
Be stilly my heart! These sounds so delicious. Blondies with cranberries and white chocolate has got to make for a heavenly combination, can’t wait to try! 🙂
These sound so yummy! Such a fun, on the go treat for fall!
Wow – these look amazing! I’ve never had these from Starbucks, but I definitely want to try t his recipe!
Wow these look really amazing and delicious. Thank you for sharing.
Um, WHITE CHOCOLATE. Hello. Yum. Need. I can’t cook dinners (per se), but I can bake! Looks like I have a new recipe to try out!
How long will these stay good in the fridge for? Also, how long can I leave them out? I love a good copycat recipe!
I’ve left them in the fridge for up to 2 days. You can leave them out for a couple of hours. Enjoy!
These tasted great but boy did they stick to the pan-even after generous greasing. I think only a nonstick pan will work, or lining the pan with parchment then greasing and flouring that. Secondly, the bar broke apart haphazardly no matter how carefully I cut it. And, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, there was waaaaayyyyy too much frosting. So my creation came out in weirdly shaped broken pieces gooping with frosting. Tasted d-lish, but can’t serve these to guests. 🙁 If I were to make these again, I would skip the frosting and just drizzle with melted white chocolate and sprinkle with the dried fruit. I would also bake it in a pan lined with parchment so it can be lifted and cut more easily.
Hi, Allie. Thanks for sharing your feedback. I’m sorry that these stuck to the pan for you. Bummer! 🙁 I’m going to change the instructions to line the pan, so that no one else has the same problem. Also, yes, these are generously frosted. As mentioned, I prefer making these in an 8×11 pan, so the frosting needs to be enough to cover that size pan. If you made these in a 9×9, you’ll have a thicker layer of frosting. Thanks for stopping by.
I made these using dried tart cherries and vanilla flavored baking chips. All I can say is Yummy Delish………used 8 by 11 and cut frosting in half worked perfectly to coat. Speaking of frosting…..OH my divine…. Will use this frosting recipe for other desserts too.
Thanks so much!
Fantastic! I’m thrilled that you liked these, they are one of my favorites. Thanks for stopping by. Happy holidays!
Hello & Merry Christmas!
I had one of these bars 3 wks ago at Starbucks for the very first time & OMG. . . D-Lish! Thus, why I sought out this recipe.
I’ve made them today (dry run for xmas w/fam). They turned out great tasting but not practical to serve! Problem #1 is that my 9×9″ is actually metric & therefore smaller (more like 8.3×8.3″). Turned out very thick but puffed up evenly. Problem #2 is once cooled, it colapsed in center leaving about 1″ of tall overdone outside edges.
Problem #3 is once I took out of pan (by buttered tinfoil) it broke very easily in multiple areas.
My take, they must be under cooked & I must need a better sized pan (gonna try 9×13″). Also, I replaced the white flour w/ half of finely ground almond flour & the other half was whole grain whole wheat flour. Sad. Quite sad. Good thing it was a dry run.
Hi, Mary. I’m sorry to hear that these didn’t work out for you. You definitely need a bigger pan. In the recipe I recommend an 8×11 (my preference) or a 9×9, but I mention that the 9×9 will make thicker bars. If you used an 8×8, that was definitely too much batter for that size pan.
Also, I can almost guarantee you that almond flour is what caused these to collapse and break. Almond flour is very delicate and absolutely not going to be strong enough to hold up in these bars. Almond flour cannot be used in place of all purpose flour in this recipe. Also, if you choose to replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour these bars will be drier and more dense than they are intended to be (they will not be similar to the Starbucks version).
Regardless, I know it’s frustrating to waste ingredients, so I’m sorry about that. If you have any other questions about making adaptations to this recipe please let me know. I’ve made these nearly a dozen times.
Thanks! Happy holidays!