Cranberry Bars Recipe

Delicious squares of a dessert cut into bars with cranberry center

Cranberry Bars

The comfort food that is cranberry bars! Another simple cranberry recipe today that includes fresh cranberries and a few other ingredients, which can be easily found in one’s pantry. If you follow the recipe you’ll see that it’s not that difficult to make yet tastes awesome, especially with some drizzle on top. Another good cran recipe if you like this type of dessert is the cranberry oat bar post which features another variation of cranberry bar combinations, just like this recipe. Good to eat any time of year. Now, back to the bars; this recipe is pretty straightforward and will become a staple in your home if you like to have your desserts be both tasty AND healthy (as much as possible anyway).

The Recipe

Ingredients

Recipe Ingredients

1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup chilled water
1 (15.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Recipe Directions

In a saucepan on medium, combine cranberries, white sugar, and water. Stirring occasionally, until all berries have popped and the mixture is thick, about 15 minutes. Cool.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, melted butter, and eggs. Stir in oats, brown sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture, and spread the rest into the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish. Pack down to form a solid crust, getting it as even as possible. Spread the cooled cranberries over the crust. Pinch off pieces of the remaining mixture and place evenly over the cranberries.
In a separate bowl stir together 3 berries, sugar and cornstarch, pour over pan. Take remaining crust and place over top, sealing it to the sides.
Bake in the preheated oven until the top is lightly browned, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 40 minutes before slicing into 24 bars.

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Notes & Options:

There are lots of ways to modify this cranberry bar recipe to spice it up, down or just change it to suit your palate. You can try:

– Using fresh cranberries is always best but if you can’t then frozen work just as well.

– Add some nuts to the filling. I recommend chopped almonds.

– Sometimes cranberries are just difficult to find, so feel free to substitute with raspberries, cherries or even blackberries to make your squares. They not as good as cranberries but if you don’t have any then any bars and better than no bars 🙂

Make it Healthy – Replacing the sugar in the filling and topping with granulated sweetener will ensure your squares are sugar free and purely a starch food. Like eating fruit and crust – much healthier.

Enjoy