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Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars

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Tracking PixelThank you Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post. Share your love for others with a gift of freshly baked cookies this holiday season!  All opinions are my own.

These Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars make a great Thanksgiving dessert or a beautiful addition to a Christmas cookie platter!  Simple, buttery, and full of sweet-tart cranberry flavor, these wonderful bars have white chocolate and macadamia nuts to make them even more special!

I love using Bob’s Red Mill products in my baked goods because they are of the highest quality, which really makes a difference.  And I especially love their brand philosophy, that we can make our world a better place through small acts of kindness.  You can get a coupon for $1 off any Bob’s product by clicking here!

I can’t think of a better time to spread this message of sharing love through baking and giving than during the holiday season.  For me, baking is a way I show my love, and these fresh cranberry shortbread bars are a wonderful way to do that while cranberries are readily available!

Bars are a fantastic idea during the busy baking season because you get so much reward for relatively little work!  Plus, if you are baking with children, tiny hands get a kick out of helping pat the shortbread into the pan and pouring the beautiful, dark red cranberries over the dough!  The shortbread base is made with only five simple ingredients, so it’s a great recipe to make with little helpers!

Traditional shortbread is historically made from a 1:2:3 ratio of one part granulated sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour.  I’m playing a little fast and loose with that ratio here by adding slightly more sugar, along with a little salt and vanilla, and using volume (cups) instead of weight (ounces), but it’s all good, and really, pretty close to true, original shortbread.

But we go next level with the shortbread and make it even more fun and festive with fresh cranberries, white chocolate chips, and chopped macadamia nuts.  It literally only takes a few minutes to whip together the shortbread, press part of it into a pan, then top it with the fresh (or frozen!) cranberries and sprinkle the remaining shortbread dough on top.

No chilling dough, no scooping or rolling and cutting individual cookies or waiting while multiple batches bake in the oven.  Just slice these into a whole bunch of servings after baking and you are good to go!  Because shortbread is so rich and cranberries pack such powerful flavor, I keep these on the small side and get 24 bars out of a 9×13″ pan of these fresh cranberry shortbread bars!

This shortbread base is such a great, basic recipe to have in your arsenal, and you could easily swap out the fresh cranberries for blueberries, raspberries, etc.  Whatever fruit is in season, really!  I just particularly love when fresh cranberries start showing up at the grocery stores this time of year because they impart such fantastic flavor and they look gorgeous!  And I think their tartness goes beautifully with the extra sweetness of white chocolate and rich, butteriness of macadamia nuts.

But you could also switch out those white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts for chocolate chips and pecans or coconut and almonds or just leave them out altogether and go with just shortbread and fruit.  This is a great, versatile recipe to play with and make your own!

Shortbread is a traditional Scottish recipe, which gives me all the feels as that is the land of my ancestors.  Or at least some of them.  And one of these days I’m going to go visit and see those beautiful isles and lochs and crags of that country!

When I was researching shortbread, I learned that it has its origins as early as the 12th century, although the first printed recipe appeared in 1736 from a Scottish woman by the name of Mrs. McLintock, apparently.  Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have had a special fondness for shortbread during her reign in the 16th century, serving it for special occasions since butter was such an expensive commodity.  Shortbread is still a part of many Christmas and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year’s Eve) celebrations today!

There are no eggs or leavening, like baking powder, so these bars are firm when baked and are perfect for delivering to a friend or loved one without breaking.  And shortbread is baked at a low temperature to avoid browning. When cooked, these fresh cranberry shortbread bars are nearly white with barely a light golden brown around the edges.

I always stock up and freeze a couple of bags of cranberries for baking throughout the year because I love to make cranberry orange muffins or use them in cranberry apple pie and other desserts.  If you have frozen cranberries on hand, you can absolutely use them in this recipe.  Just throw the frozen cranberries over the bottom shortbread crust without defrosting and finish the bars like normal.  No need to defrost.

Be sure to use this coupon to get $1 off any Bob’s Red Mill product and share your love for someone this holiday season with a gift of these fresh cranberry shortbread bars or your other favorite Christmas cookies!  There are loads of other wonderful-looking cookie and bar ideas on the Bob’s Red Mill site where their slogan is “Made with Love, Baked by Bob’s”.

 

5 from 13 votes
Print
Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars
Prep Time
10 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
55 mins
 

These Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars make a great Thanksgiving dessert or a beautiful addition to a Christmas cookie platter!  Simple, buttery, and full of sweet-tart cranberry flavor, the white chocolate and macadamia nuts make them even more special!

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, British
Servings: 24 bars
Calories: 323 kcal
Author: Amy
Ingredients
  • 2 cups butter, softened
  • 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips or coarsely chopped white chocolate
  • 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts (optional)
  • 3 cups fresh or frozen* cranberries, rinsed and patted dry
Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13" baking dish with a parchment paper sling for easier removal after baking.

  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla and salt.

  3. Add flour and stir, just until combined, then fold in the white chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts.

  4. Lightly press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan using your fingers.  Pour the cranberries over top, then crumble the remaining dough over the cranberries.  It's okay if cranberries can be seen beneath the top layer of shortbread.

  5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, just until the edges are starting to turn golden.

  6. Cool completely before slicing into small bars.  

Recipe Notes

* I like to buy extra cranberries when they are in the store and then freeze them for baking throughout the year since they can be difficult to find.  There is no need to defrost your cranberries if using frozen in this recipe.

Nutrition Facts
Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars
Amount Per Serving
Calories 323 Calories from Fat 180
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 20g 31%
Saturated Fat 11g 55%
Cholesterol 42mg 14%
Sodium 239mg 10%
Potassium 70mg 2%
Total Carbohydrates 33g 11%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Sugars 16g
Protein 3g 6%
Vitamin A 9.6%
Vitamin C 2.1%
Calcium 2.6%
Iron 6.2%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

These Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars make a great Thanksgiving dessert or a beautiful addition to a Christmas cookie platter!  Simple, buttery, and full of sweet-tart cranberry flavor, these wonderful bars have white chocolate and macadamia nuts to make them even more special! [Ad]

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill.

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Comments

  3. I love shortbread bars but I have never used fresh cranberries before. This is definitely on my list to try as I would love to use cranberries more often during the holiday season when I see it everywhere! 😀

    Reply

  6. I love that you are using fresh/frozen cranberries and not dried in this recipe. They just add such a wonderful burst of flavour and pair so well with white chocolate. The recipe sounds delicious!

    Reply

  7. These remind me of the ones that I LOVE from Starbucks at Christmas! I can’t wait to try a homemade version… Im sure they will be SO MUCH BETTER! and thanks for the Coupon!

    Reply

  8. These look like the perfect treat for the holiday season! I adore using Bob’s Red Mill products for baking – my recipes always turn out better. 🙂 I would love to throw some almonds in this recipe AND the white chocolate, that’s a great idea. You must visit Scotland sometime! My husband and I went last summer and it was breathtaking. When you go, lookup the Isle of Skye, it’s out of this world!

    Reply

  11. Such a great idea to combine white chocolate with cranberry, the white chocolate is so sweet that the cranberry acidity balance well. I like to freeze cookie dough so I can cook them as soon as we have friends coming over. Those should freeze well. I will prepare few batches.

    Reply

  14. I am bookmarking this recipe! My biggest fear is that I might eat this every single day of the year. I really really love shortbread and I have a major weakness for butter. You need a medal for adding cranberry to it too, I really enjoy cranberries! All this to say this is the perfect recipe!

    Reply

  17. Love the cranberry filling – and as a Scot, I can confirm my family makes shortbread for Hogmanay, a tradition I loved! Hope you make it over there sometime 🙂

    Reply

  19. These bars are beautiful, and I love that you’ve made them with fresh cranberries! So perfect for the season. Shortbread is just so inherently comforting. Love.

    Reply

  21. I have to say that my husband said he didn’t think he would like cranberry bars. But after I made them, he couldn’t stop eating them. Then he conceded and said that he was wrong. That this recipe made him realize he loved them! They are amazing!

    Reply

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