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
Vanilla Cranberry Bundt Cake
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Fresh Cranberry Muffins
When Fresh Cranberries Hit the Stores, I Make These Muffins.
Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Nantucket cranberry pie is a vintage inspired dessert with tart juicy cranberries baked beneath a sweet almond cake layer.
Fresh Cranberry Recipes
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.
Hello and merry Christmas!
I made these and your cranberry scones for my neighbors and they were a huge hit!!!! I added some chopped almonds for some crunch and not only did my house smell great, I had to hide them from my family so they wouldn’t all be eaten. Thank you!!!
These cranberry bars are the best! I’ve made them often and they are such a treat and so well received. Very pretty too especially around the holidays! One of my favorite recipes!
I wish I could leave a pic of how they turned out, but wow! Super impressed. My husband works at an furtalizer warehouse and the farmers enjoy sharing what they produce. Well, they had a huge load of cranberries brought in. Me, never having done anything with cranberries before, hopped onto the web to see what I could find. I am so glad I came across this blog!!
Thanks so much Coleen, I love cranberries and you’ll find lots more ideas on the blog for using up those berries 🙂
Is it 1 cup of butter PLUS 2 sticks?
Or 1 cup of butter, which IS 2 sticks?
It’s one cup butter, which is also 2 sticks.
My mom brought home a bag of fresh cranberries and I had never seen fresh cranberries before. I popped one in my mouth but that was not a pleasnt experience! No, this is not that kind of fruit apparrently. Immediately looked up recipes using cranberries because I really wasn’t interested in making cranberry sauce, nor did I want to make them into raisins. This recipe seemed simple enough and had so many positive reviews so I gave it a shot.
It was delicious as promised 🙂
I used 1 cup of brown sugar instead of 2/3 and regular flour. Also my baking pan was slightly larger so it baked faster took about ~40 minutes with a 9×13 in baking pan. I didn’t have much dough left at the end to make the crumble cover the whole layer but it was actually nice having some of them stick out of the top.
Next time I’ll try to see how much I can cut down on the butter or maybe do some substituting since that was the only thing that concerned me. I have eaten like 5 already!
I can imagine your face after eating that raw cranberry! Glad these were a hit for you 🙂
I love them! We substituted fresh raspberries for cranberries. Does anyone know id we can freeze them?
They should freeze well Melissa.
I have been using your recipe for years, sometimes I add other frozen berries, but cranberry is our favorite. Love it!!!
Thanks for coming back to comment IV 🙂
These were so lovely! Just made them, sprinkled about 2 tbsp of sugar on the top and bakes for about an hour so the edges were nice family loved it thankyou!
I made this 2x and love this recipe. Will make it again.Thanks.
Thanks Ann 🙂
Really easy prep and really beautiful result.