Blissful Cranberry Bars

So... I really love the Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks.  So for our Advent potluck at church last night, I decided to try making them myself.  I started with this recipe, doubled it, and made a couple of changes.  They are delicious!  Friends of ours asked to take some home with them last night because they liked them so well.  I think they're a little better than Starbucks' because they have more frosting and the bars are moister.

I don't usually take time to do pictures for this blog, but since I just made these yesterday and knew I wanted to post the recipe, I grabbed the camera and snapped one.

(Makes about 40 medium-to-large triangular bars, or more than that if you cut them smaller!)

Bars
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2/3 cup butter -- melted
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups Fresh or Frozen Cranberries (thaw them if they're frozen)
2/3 cup chopped white chocolate (white chocolate chips worked fine)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9"x13" baking pan.  Line with parchment paper.  Beat eggs for about 1 minute. Gradually add sugar, beating until thoroughly blended. Stir in flour, spices, and melted butter; blend well. Add cranberries and white chocolate, mixing gently just until combined. Spread evenly in pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool before frosting.

Frosting 
8 ounces cream cheese
4 tsp butter
2 tsp orange zest (basically the zest from one good-sized orange)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange juice

Garnish 
1 cup dried cranberries -- chopped
1 cup white chocolate -- melted (again, white chocolate chips worked fine for me)

Mix all of the frosting ingredients together and spread a thin layer over the cooled cake. Immediately sprinkle with the chopped dried cranberries.

Melt the 1 cup white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute.  Stir.  Microwave again for ten seconds at a time as needed until totally melted, stirring between each session in the microwave.  Pour the melted chocolate into a sandwich Ziplock bag. Cut a small hole on a bottom corner of the bag. Pipe the white chocolate over the frosted bars.

To cut, simply lift out the bars by holding the sides of the parchment paper.  Place on a flat surface and cut away!  I cut it into 20 rectangles and then cut those into triangles, and some of them got really big, so I cut those again to make smaller ones.  Size options are always good at a potluck!

I recommend cutting these before the chocolate hardens because once it's hardened, it gets hard to cut nicely.  I ended up with a few ruined ones thanks to it.  (Which means... some left at home to eat with my morning coffee!!!!)