White Chocolate Cranberry Bars

I often find myself thinking ahead to the next holiday.   Not only to plan an activity or event around it but also to make sure I have plenty of fun things to bake for that particular holiday.  I guess its all part of my passion for baking. 

This past holiday season I did a huge amount of baking - not only for my family and friends but also for a local gift shop that wanted to sale homemade baked goodies for the holiday season.  I was a baking fool!  And I was in "baking HEAVEN" as I had an opportunity to bake to my hearts content many of the recipes that I had been accumulating on my wish list.  One of the recipes that I made was called, White Chocolate Cranberry Bars.  I found the recipe in the Fat Witch Brownies cookbook - originally the recipe was just for White Chocolate Bars but because I was in the mood for some dried cranberries I decided to sprinkle some into the batter.  Success I say! The tart sweetness of the cranberries was perfectly paired with the smooth richness of the white chocolate. I was delighted with the results!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.   These brownies would be just perfect for Heart Day as it is made with chocolate (how can you not bake something with chocolate in it for Heart Day!) and it has a sprinkling of red from the dried cranberries.  I am thinking that I will make a batch of these brownies and then cut out servings with heart cookie cutters.  A perfect Valentine's Day treat!

 

White Chocolate Cranberry Bars

(slightly adapted from Fat Witch Brownies)

Ingredients:

6 oz. white chocolate, coarsely chopped

5 Tbps unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x9 baking pan with butter and dust with flour lightly.  Tap out any excess flour.

2. Melt white chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat.  Stir constantly so as to make sure that the chocolate does not burn.  Remove chocolate and butter from heat before completely melted and continue to stirring until mixture is completely smooth.  Set saucepan aside to cool.

3. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract all together in a large bowl until smooth.  Add in white chocolate butter mixture and mix until well combined.

4. Measure flour, baking powder and salt into a sifter or fine sieve - sift together directly into batter.  Mix until well combined and there is no trace of the dry ingredients remains. 

5. Spread batter into prepared baking pan with a spatula. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is light brown and cracked.  Turn off oven and leave pan inside oven for 8 more minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting and serving. 

YUM!

Happy White Chocolate Cranberry Bars Baking!