White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars are soft, chewy, and covered with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate drizzle. This is a fantastic cookie bar recipe that is perfect for fall!
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars are so much easier to make than rolling and cutting out individual cookies. I absolutely love cookies, but sometimes it just feels like a lot of work to scoop and bake dozens of cookies. The solution? Cookie bars! Just put all the dough in a 9X13 pan and bake the whole batch at one time!
WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIE BARS
The cookie layer in these bars is made with butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, and a little bit of nutmeg. Fold in some white chocolate chips and dried cranberries before spreading into a 9X13 pan. After the cookie layer is baked and cooled, spread a cream cheese frosting on top before adding more dried cranberries and a drizzle of melted white chocolate on top.
INGREDIENTS IN WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIE BARS
Butter – You’ll need 2 sticks of butter in this recipe. Make sure to soften the butter before mixing with the sugars.
Brown sugar – I always use light brown sugar, but you can use dark if you prefer. For best results, make sure the brown sugar is soft and fresh.
Eggs – You’ll need three large eggs to bind everything together and make the perfect cookies.
Vanilla extract – The higher the quality of the vanilla, the better.
Salt – Just a little bit of salt will help all of the other flavors to pop.
Nutmeg – A little bit of nutmeg adds the perfect flavor to the cookie bars.
Flour – I use all-purpose flour in cookies, but cake flour works fine too. You can even swap some of it out with wheat flour if you want, but the taste and consistency will be different.
Dried cranberries – Most often known as Craisins, the dried cranberries really make these cookies amazing. You will put half of the Craisins in the cookie dough and save the other half to sprinkle on top of the frosted cookie bars.
White chocolate chips – Just half a cup of white chocolate chips is the perfect amount for the cookie bars – unless you want extra, in which case, just add some more!
Frosting
Cream cheese – Any type of cream cheese will work (non-fat, low-fat, or regular). Make sure the cream cheese is softened to room temperature before adding to the other ingredients.
Butter – Use real butter and make sure to soften to room temperature.
Vanilla – The higher the quality of the vanilla, the better.
Powdered sugar – Powdered sugar provides a sweet and smooth texture for the cookie bar frosting.
Drizzle
White chocolate chips – Melt white chocolate chips to make the drizzle for the top of the bars.
Coconut oil – Just a teaspoon of coconut oil will help to thin out the chocolate for the drizzle.
HOW TO MAKE WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIE BARS
Preheat oven to 350°.
MAKE THE COOKIE BARS
In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar together for 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs, vanilla, and nutmeg and mix for another 2-3 minutes.
Stir in the flour. Add ½ cup of the Craisins and the white chocolate chips.
Line a 9X13 pan with parchment paper and grease with non-stick cooking spray. Place the batter in the pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden.
Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
MAKE THE FROSTING
Beat the cream cheese for 2-3 minutes.
Add butter and vanilla and mix.
Add powdered sugar and mix for another 1-2 minutes.
Spread over cooled cranberry bars.
Sprinkle the rest of the Craisins on top.
MAKE THE DRIZZLE
Combine the white chocolate chips and oil in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring between each interval until the chocolate is smooth.
Drizzle over the top of the baked cookie bars after they have been frosted and topped with Craisins. Cut into squares and serve.
HOW TO CUT PERFECT COOKIE BARS
The answer to getting every single cookie bar cut and looking perfect is parchment paper! I used to always get frustrated with desserts that were made in a 9X13 or sheet pan because I felt like I was always destroying the entire first row trying to get them out of the pan! Then I discovered that if you use parchment paper, you can remove all the cookie bars from the pan and slice them perfectly.
If you don’t have parchment paper, you can just grease your pan like you usually do but your first row may just not be quite as pretty! This cookie bar recipe is one of the easiest to cut into squares – they stay intact much better than many other desserts!
TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST COOKIE BARS
- Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature), but using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
- Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
- Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
- Use parchment paper. Doing this will make it much easier to remove the cookies from your pan.
- Make sure not to overbake your cookie bars. Once the edges begin to turn even the lightest golden brown, take them out of the oven! I prefer to err on the side of being slightly undercooked for cookies because if they cook even a little bit too long, they can get hard and I love soft cookies!
HOW DO YOU SOFTEN BUTTER?
I like to soften butter by using the defrost function on my microwave. If you need the full 1/2 cup cube of butter, you can leave it in the paper wrapper, otherwise, place the amount of butter you need in a glass or porcelain bowl. I use the lowest defrost setting on my microwave and just let it run for 20 seconds. Check the butter and see how soft it is by pressing it with a rubber scraper. If it is still not soft to the touch, meaning it doesn’t indent when you press into it, let it warm for another 5-10 seconds. Watch it closely! Butter softens very quickly.
HOW TO STORE COOKIE BARS
Store White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars in a covered container at room temperature for up to one week. Bars can be frozen for up to 3 months – they stay fresh longer if they are cut and then individually wrapped in plastic wrap before freezing.
LIKE COOKIE BARS? HERE ARE SOME OF OUR FAVORITE BAR COOKIE RECIPES!
- Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars
- Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- No Bake Cookie Bars
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars
- Swirled Patriotic Cookie Bars
- Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Bars
- Twix Cookie Bars
- Easy Peanut Caramel Cookie Bars
- Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Butterscotch Pretzel Cookie Bars
- Reese’s Cookie Bars
- S’mores Cookie Bars
- Oreo Cookie Bars
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars are soft, chewy, and covered with cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate drizzle. Fantastic cookie bar recipe that is perfect for fall!
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