These cranberry crumble bars have a sweet-tart cranberry-orange filling nestled between a buttery shortbread crust and a crumb topping.
- Prep Time:
30 mins - Cook Time:
45 mins - Total Time:
1 hr 15 mins
It may only be September but why wait until December to think about holiday baking, right? Especially since I have been waiting since last year to share this cranberry bars recipe with you.
Last November, my husband and I had a small communication error. We each saw fresh cranberries at the grocery store and we each bought enough to make our traditional jellied cranberry sauce and some cranberry bread. We also each bought a couple of extra bags . Correction – SEVERAL extra bags.
Even after making a double batch of cranberry jelly for Thanksgiving and a couple dozen loaves of cranberry bread, we still ended up with over 6 pounds of extra cranberries. Fortunately, cranberries freeze really well and this recipe works well with either fresh or frozen cranberries.
These crumb bars have the same flavors as my cranberry orange hand pies but with a lot less work. A food processor makes quick work of the shortbread crust and crumbly topping which use the same dough. Half of the dough is pressed into the baking pan to make the crust and the other half is crumbled on top for the crumb topping.
The filling is a an easy homemade cranberry jam spiked with orange zest and only takes about 10 minutes to make.
So buy all the fresh cranberries you want. You can always make more crumb bars.
Cranberry Crumb Bars
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 1 (9×13) pan
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These cranberry crumble bars have a sweet-tart cranberry-orange filling nestled between a buttery shortbread crust and a crumb topping.
Ingredients
For the filling
- 1 pound fresh (or frozen, thawed) cranberries (about 4 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
- 2 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1/2 teaspoon instant tapioca (not starch)
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
For the crust and crumb topping
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Zest of one small orange
- 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Instructions
For the filling
- Cook cranberries. Stir the cranberries, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, and tapioca together in a medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Cook cranberry mixture over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer and begins to thicken and about half the cranberries have burst, 6-8 minutes.
- Cool. Remove and discard the vanilla bean pods. Let filling cool completely before proceeding.
For the crust and crumb topping
- Pulse dry ingredients. In a food processor, pulse together sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and orange zest until combined.
- Cut in butter. Add the butter and egg and pulse until the dough resembles coarse crumbs.
To assemble
- Prep oven and pan. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- Make crust. Pat half of the crumb mixture into the prepared pan to make the crust.
- Add filling. Spread the cooled cranberry mixture evenly over the crust.
- Add topping. Crumble remaining dough evenly over the cranberry layer.
- Bake. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Notes
- Cranberry filling can be made up to 5 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled until ready to use.
- To quickly cool the filling, first prepare an ice-bath. Put the saucepan in the ice bath being careful not to get any water into the cranberry filling. Allow the saucepan to sit in the ice bath until mixture is cool, stirring occasionally.
- In place of the half vanilla bean, you can use 1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste. Once we discovered vanilla bean paste, we found it a much more economical way to enjoy the benefits of vanilla beans. It is available at restaurant supply stores and on Amazon.com.
- Recipe for cranberry filling from Bon Appétit, November 2012.
- Recipe for crust and crumb topping from Smitten Kitchen.
Pamela G. says
How many does this recipe yield? At least a ballpark figure of a decent size serving. Not to large, not too tiny. About how many can I expect to get with a single batch?
thanks
Taming of the Spoon says
The recipe bakes in a 9×13 inch pan. So, if you were to cut bars that were about 1.5 by 2.5 inches, you would end up with 30 bars that were decent snacking size.
Sarah says
These look delicious, and you know what’s funny – we just made some really similar bars on our blog (but ours use fresh strawberries + strawberry preserves). Love your pics & the cranberry orange combo! 🙂
http://www.madewestco.com/blogs/madewestblog/15110511-strawberry-shortbread-crumble-bars
Taming of the Spoon says
Thank you. Your strawberry crumb bars sound so good. Will have to try those sometime soon.