Fresh Cranberry Bars layer tart, jammy cranberries between a buttery shortbread crust and crumble topping ~ bright, simple, and made for the holidays.
When I spotted the first stack of fresh cranberries in my supermarket the other day I lunged at them. These easy cranberry shortbread bars were in the oven before the other groceries were even unpacked. So good.
➡ The filling for these crumble bars is simply raw cranberries ~ just toss them in! They bake up into tart little jammy pockets.
➡ There’s only one bowl to worry about, no nuts to chop, no spices to measure.
➡ These are perfect for pot-lucks, bake sales, book groups, office parties, all that stuff. They pack and travel well, and can be eaten with fingers or forks.
Simple shortbread dough in 3 ingredients
The crust and crumble of these cranberry bars are made with the same simple shortbread dough. Pat some of it into your pan for the bottom crust, and crumble the rest over the berries for the topping.
Butter: I use a good quality salted butter. Cheap butter can contain extra water and doesn’t bake up as nicely.
Sugar: I use white sugar for this classic shortbread crumble, but you can also use light brown, or even maple sugar.
Flour: regular AP flour is standard. A good gf baking blend also works.
Using fresh cranberries
Just give them a rinse and dry well. They’re ready to go. Tumble them right onto the bottom crust.
Note: if you find cranberries too tart on their own you can cook them down with a splash of water and a little sugar in a saucepan until they start to pop. Then let cool and spread over the bottom crust.
cranberry shortbread bars are a versatile holiday treat
- For dessert: serve them with coffee after dinner. Dust with powdered sugar for a festive look.
- For breakfast or brunch: fresh out of the oven in the morning.
- Take along: perfect for the office, bake sale, church supper.
- Holiday cookie collection: once cooled these bars are quite sturdy. You can even cut them into small squares and add them to a cookie platter.
- Get a head start: they freeze well.
the flavor of cranberries blooms in the oven
They get soft and jammy, and become even more brilliant red when they bake, so these bars are especially pretty. I use vanilla in these cranberry bars, but you can also use almond extract, and then the cranberries take on a cherry flavor.
Reader wisdom: tips, tweaks & little discoveries
Over the years, readers have left some really useful ideas in the comments:
- You guys have had great luck using frozen cranberries straight from the freezer ~ no thawing needed, and no soggy bars.
- Orange is a favorite addition. A little orange zest in the dough or cranberries, or a simple orange glaze on top, comes up again and again.
- Almond is another popular direction. Readers have added almond extract, sliced almonds, and even a little almond paste.
- A double batch works beautifully in a 9×13 pan, which is handy for holidays, potlucks, and bigger groups.
- One reader solved a too-hard bottom crust by pressing the dough in more lightly and pulling the bars as soon as the edges started to turn golden.
- You’ve also played with extra cranberries, white chocolate, walnuts, coconut, cinnamon, and a little sugar sprinkled over the top.
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Fresh Cranberry Bars
Equipment
- 9×9 baking pan you can also use an 8×8 pan
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Line an 8×8 or 9×9 baking pan with parchment paper or foil with overhanging edges, this will make it easy to lift the bars out of the pan for cutting. Alternatively you can just lightly spray the pan with non-stick spray.
- Cream the 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature and 2/3 cup sugar together. Beat in the 1/2 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract.
- Mix in the 2 cups AP flour, just until combined. The dough will be crumbly, but should hold together when pressed between your fingers. Mix long enough so that there is no dry flour left.
- Using your fingers, pat 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the pan. The dough will be soft and sticky, do your best to cover the entire surface of the bottom, but you don't need to compact the dough, just firmly pat it down.
- Spread the 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed and patted dry out across the dough, and then, using your fingers again, crumble the remaining dough on top. Try to get the dough in smallish crumbles, but don't worry about covering all the cranberries, they will show through.
- Bake for about 45-50 minutes until just beginning to get golden around the edges.
- Cool on a rack before slicing.
Nutrition
you can never have too many cranberry recipes
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Fresh cranberry season is short, so I make the most of it ~ muffins, cakes, pies, sauces, preserves, and savory recipes that put those tart little berries to work. fresh cranberry recipes for cranberry season This is what you do with those bags of crimson gems you score in October through December.
Sue, I made this last year with regular flour and loved them! I made them this morning and used cake flour and they are delicious. I love this recipe! So pretty to serve as well. It’s a keeper! Thank you!
I keep forgetting to get cake flour, I love what it does to baked goods…glad you liked this and enjoy your holidays 🙂
I would like to make these in a half sheet pan. Do you think tripling the recipe would work? I’ve had success doing that with a brownie recipe that calls for an 8×8 pan.
I think that should work!
They were a huge hit! I received a lot of requests for the recipe. Thank you for such a delicious and easy treat!
I’m a little late making these, but I’m stuck at home in the snow with only salted butter – will it work to use, and just leave out the salt calledfoe in the recipe? Thanks!!
I think that will be just fine, and enjoy your snow day!
In the oven now. Looks great so far!
Dear Sue, Thank you so much for posting this recipe–it’s absolutely delicious! I’ve made it 3 times since Thanksgiving and it’s been a hit every single time. Yesterday’s version was for a holiday party so I made them in springform pans. By lining with parchment on the bottom, I was able to display them as a beautiful round “pie” even after slicing into squares. Doubling the recipe resulted in the perfect quantity for a 10″ AND an 8″ round pan. I have been using a little less butter (1.75 sticks instead of 2) and regular flour and it comes out great! Next time I’ll try adding orange zest to the berry layer.
I love the idea of serving it in the round, thanks for the tip Suwin. And orange zest sounds amazing, why didn’t I think of that??
Just whipped these up with some leftover fresh cranberries from the holiday and they turned out amazing !!!
Enjoy Kelly, just thinking about them makes my mouth water!
Getting ready to make this. Two sticks of butter for a 8×8 pans seems like a lot. But nobody has mentioned so I guess it’s fine.
It’s a butter shortbread type dough, Tommy, I use this proportion in most of my crumble bars and they turn out delicious!
They were great! Made them twice already and of I get off here I’ll make another batch. I was low on butter and finished with shortening the first time. Worked fine.
By the way I used whole wheat pastry flour (fine).
Thanks Tommy!
Hi, sue
Thank you so much for the quick reply.
I’ll try the “flour method” next time, which will be Christmas.
I hope the dough will be easier to handle, because this recipe is definitely a keeper.
Thank you again! Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
I made this last year for thanksgiving dinner and everyone liked it.
I used AP flour and regular butter omitting adding salt, just because that’s I always have in the house and I hate buying something just for this recipe.
Anyways, it came out delicious, so I decided to make it again this year.
Actually, it’s in the oven right now:)
This time I decided to follow your recipe exactly using cake flour and unsalted butter.
…dough is SO sticky, I had very hard time spreading it in the pan.
They stuck to my fingers. Using non stick spatula did not help.
I don’t recall this happened last year.
Any suggestion?
Shall I put the dough in the fridge for a while first?
I’d appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you in advance.
The shortbread dough is sticky, Toko, and sometimes I’ll flour my fingers to help with the sticking. So don’t worry, that’s the way it’s supposed to be! Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
I made these tonight and they came out delicious! My husband and I had a hard time waiting for them because they smelled so amazing in the oven! Yours look much thinner than mine, but I used a 9×9 pan…. how do you think they’d do in a 13×9 at less time?
Thanks Katie, I’m so glad you liked these. I think you might be able to double the recipe and make it in the larger pan. I think the baking time should be a little longer, if you double the recipe that is.
Oh my! Your recipe is making it to the family recipe box of thing we have to make. What a hit, Sue. Thank you for making a wonderful and wicked easy recipe. Dave and I love them and I am sure the entire family will for the holidays. I wanted to add a picture, but could not get it to happen. They came out just perfect.