A national coffee chain makes wonderfully delicious cranberry bliss cookies. These are a copycat of those famous bars, but in cookie form!
Ten years after my daughter was born, I am still not a coffee drinker. Both my husband and I have had countless people tell us that we’d become coffee addicts after having kids. Well, we certainly proved them wrong!
While I love the smell of coffee, and even coffee-flavored things (I’m looking at you, coffee ice cream!), I just don’t enjoy drinking it for some reason. Both my parents and my in-laws drink coffee and will occasionally stop into a national coffee chain for some beverages. I usually opt out, or if I go, I just stay for the conversation. Once in a blue moon, I’ll have a hot chocolate.
Every once in a while, I will peek into the pastry case to see what they have to offer. While I’ve never had one myself, I’ve heard that their cranberry bliss bars are quite excellent. In fact, I’ve recreated them before. These are essentially a cookie format of those wonderfully amazing bars.
I baked these while Addie was in (virtual) school. I had to make sure that my mixer wasn’t going when her teacher was explaining some important concept. Thankfully, they had a quick break where I could mix everything together and not disturb Addie’s learning.
Sadly, I didn’t have time to finish these by the time lunch rolled around, so Addie had to hold off until trying one. After lunch, I added the white chocolate drizzle on top, and Addie helped me top off the cookies with extra cranberries. The three of us loved the cookies and were tempted to eat the whole batch in one sitting.
Husband’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Cranberry bliss bar cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 sticks (16 Tablespoons) unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ¾ cup sweetened dried cranberries preferably chopped
Topping
- ½ cup white chocolate chips melted
- ½ cup sweetened dried cranberries finely chopped
Instructions
Bake the cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two standard baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg, vanilla and orange extracts and mix well.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger.
- Turn your mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until everything comes together. Add in the white chocolate chips and cranberries and mix until well blended.
- Using a medium cookie scoop or two spoons, scoop a portion of cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheet. Make sure you leave at least 2-3 inches between each dough mound.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 10-13 minutes or until the edges start to turn a light golden brown. The tops of the cookies may appear underdone, and that's OK. They will continue to set as they cool.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating
Decorate the cookies
- Drizzle on some melted white chocolate on top of the cooled cookies. Sprinkle some of the chopped cranberries on top and drizzle on additional white chocolate to set the cranberries in place.
- Allow the white chocolate to harden before serving.