Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars with white chocolate topped with sweet cream cheese icing, tart dried cranberries, and a sweet white chocolate orange drizzle.
Coffee shop classics like NY Crumb Cake, Vanilla Pound Cake, and my favorite muffins ever, Best Ever Banana Crumb Muffins.
Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars
Starbucks White Chocolate Cranberry Bliss Bars are a treat made of a super moist and chewy white chocolate blondie base and topped with a delicious sweet icing. Studded with cranberries and white chocolate chips then drizzled with melted white chocolate that has just a hint of orange juice, we make these bars all year long and it feels like Christmas never ends.
Starbucks somehow has this magic touch, once the magic red cups are released it feels like the holidays are upon us. That’s how it feels when the Cranberry Bliss Bars are released for the season.They aren’t a classic Iced Chocolate Brownie in white chocolate form, but instead they’re super chewy, like a fresh baked cookie right out of the oven, and the generous frosting on top helps them stay that way if you’re good about keeping them stored in an airtight container.
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The Cranberry Bliss Bars are easy enough with a white a classic blondie base and a deliciously smooth orange white chocolate icing. The main notes for this recipe are that you want to be very careful not to over bake these bars. When they come out of the oven they may even look slightly under, but like a cookie that is just barely set in the middle these bars are authentic when really soft and chewy.
A good baking pan for this would be a square coated pan which will give you the distinct sharp edges of the original bars. You also want to really take the time to whip the frosting for a few minutes, the cream cheese really takes a bit of time to get to a good consistency.
HOW LONG WILL Starbucks Cranberry bliss bars KEEP?
Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars will last in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about a week.
HOW TO STORE Cranberry bLiss Bars
Cranberry Bliss Bars should be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container because of the cream cheese in the frosting. If you cut them into squares, they’ll be moist for about 2 days. Wrap each square in plastic wrap to help them stay moist for a bit longer. If you haven’t cut them and they’re still in the pan you can keep them in the refrigerator frosted and covered for up to a week.
CAN YOU FREEZE cranberry bliss bars?
Bliss Bars are perfect for making ahead and freezing. Defrost them overnight in the refrigerator before serving, the frosting may have some condensation on it so if needed dab at it gently with a paper towel before serving.
Want to make these the perfect copycat Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars? Here’s some tips:
- Cut them into triangles instead of squares, that’s the classic Bliss bar shape.
- Do not over-bake, it will dry out the bliss bars, these are very moist bars.
- The unique flavors of these bars aside from white chocolate and cranberries are ginger and orange, don’t skip them.
- Orange juice will add great flavor but you can use chopped candied orange peel, fresh orange zest, 1/4 teaspoon orange extract or even powdered orange peel in its place.
- Ground ginger or candied ginger both work great in this recipe but fresh ginger would be too strong of a flavor.
More Brownies and Bars:
- Salted Caramel Brownies
- Fresh Strawberry Crumb Bars
- Cookie Dough Brownies
- Oreo Chunk Brookies
- Creamy Lemon Crumb Bars
- Peanut Butter & Strawberry Jelly Bars
Starbucks White Chocolate Cranberry Bliss Bars (Copycat)
Ingredients
Cranberry Bliss Bars
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup light brown sugar , packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries , divided
Frosting and Toppings
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 4 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup white chocolate melting disks , melted and divided
- 1/4 cup cranberries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8x8 baking pan with baking spray or use butter and flour to coat it.
In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar and vanilla then add in the egg.
Add in the flour and salt, ground ginger 1/2 cup of cranberries and 3/4 cup white chocolate chips and whisk again and stir until just combined, then put it into the baking pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.
Melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute in 30 second increments.
In your
add the cream cheese, vanilla extract, 3/4 of the white chocolate you just melted, 3 cups of powdered sugar, orange juice, orange zest and beat on medium high for 2-3 minutes until the mixture to be really light and fluffy.
Spread the frosting on the bars, sprinkle on the 1/4 cup of cranberries and drizzle on the 1/4 cup melted white chocolate.
I made this and it was everyone’s favorite and I baked a lot lol. Question tho, instead of a pan can this be doubled and spread out on a lined cookie sheet to cover more surface area? Thanks! Awesome recipe ?
I’ve not tried it but I don’t see why not. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how they turned out. Thanks!
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Thank you for the kinds words.
I’m confused why it says 3/4 cup of melted white chocolate melting discs in the cranberry bliss bar ingredient list but it appears the MELTED discs are only used in the frosting not the bars themselves? Then the frosting directions say to use 3/4 of the chocolate discs that were melted so does this mean to use 3/4 cup or 3/4 of 3/4 a cup?
I’m so sorry your comment got stuck in my spam folder. Thank you for letting me know. I went through and adjusted the recipe card. Not too sure how that got in the wrong place.
This recipe is a little inconclusive (when to add certain things like the zest, the amount of melted white chocolate in the frosting is 3/4 cup not 1/4 cup, do you frost while they’re still warm, because I did, etc… luckily I figured it out, but inexperienced bakers might be confused.), and the frosting portion makes WAY too much, but the flavor is great!
Tried this recipe because I don’t want to wait till Christmas season to enjoy cranberry bliss bars. Unfortunately, they were so sweet even my sweet tooth husband couldn’t eat them. These bars need to be made somehow with WAY less sugar. I ended up tossing them out and wasting all those expensive ingredients.
I’m so sorry they were too sweet for you. If you try them again and use less sugar, I’d love to know how it turns out!
Ok very helpful.
I wish I had read the comments before making. The cookie was underdone even after the maximum cooking time specified, and there was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much frosting generated by the ingredients list. Looking at other recipes later, it seems that that frosting recipe is for 9×13? batch. Oh well, i froze 1/2 of it for something else down the line (would be good on scones).
Looks wonderful! Any chance we can use real instead of dried cranberries in the bar?
I’ve not tested it before but I don’t see why not. If you decide to try, I’d love to know how they turn out. Thanks!
Very good
This recipe did not turn out well at all for me. The bar portion is underdone and the icing is too thick and sickeningly sweet. I cooked it as instructed for 20 mins at 350, but when it appeared undone, went a couple more minutes. The dough remains almost mushy, like gooey candy rather than a cookie bar texture. There is way too much frosting and the 1 T orange juice is not enough to notice any orange flavoring. Maybe it would be better if cooked in a 9 x 13 pan at 375 for 20-25 mins. Other online recipes have a larger pan size. Choose a different recipe!
Choose another recipe or pan size? It seems that you inadvertently used the wrong pan size (which wasn’t specified in the instructions). The recipe sounds great and if the correct pan was used, would taste great.
These are delicious! I needed to make a lot so I tripled the recipe and baked them for 50 minutes in a large baking tray lined with foil so I could easily pull the foil out and transfer them to a cutting board. They are much easier to frost and cut this way. I also added about a tsp of orange zest to the frosting for more orange flavor. Thank you for such a great recipe!
Sounds delicious, Fallon!
I made the blondie part of this recipe, followed it to a T but something was off…it taste a bit bland as if something was missing 🙁 perhaps I did something wrong?
This recipe works best when it’s made in it’s entirety. If I’m not understanding this right, feel free to email me at [email protected] and we can trouble shoot together.
Would you leave them in longer if you double the batch?
No, as long as you’re using 2 separate pans to bake, you’ll want to keep the baking time the same.
Since you haven’t updated the recipe yet; how much ginger is needed (of which type)?
I would use about a teaspoon of candied ginger.