Cranberry Crumble Bars Recipe

Cranberries are an unsung hero among fruit. They bring flavor and color to any dish, and they are a good source of several vitamins and antioxidants (via Medical News Today). And yet, cranberries often find themselves relegated to the "holiday" section of recipe ingredients. Newsflash: cranberries are not just for Thanksgiving! Thanks to this delicious cranberry crumble bar recipe from recipe developer and food photographer Jess Morone, you can enjoy the tart flavor of cranberries all year long.

Morone says that the flavor of these crumble bars is what makes this recipe stand out. She says, "The orange in the recipe brings out the tart cranberry flavor, and combined with the sweet crumble dough they are just really delicious." Not only are these cranberry crumble bars delicious, but they also come together quickly and easily. They only take 20 minutes to assemble before going in the oven, and the most advanced cooking technique that's required is stirring. Let's get started.

For this recipe, you'll need frozen cranberries, sugar, orange juice, and the zest of one orange. You'll also need one egg, vanilla extract, corn starch, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon.

And last but not least, you'll need some cold butter. And for the sake of your crumble, it's important that the butter is actually cold. "The only thing you need to be careful about is to make sure you use cold butter for the dough, otherwise it won't come together right as a crumbly dough," says Morone.

Preheat the oven to 375 F and line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper. Don't forget to preheat your oven — it's important for baked goods to go into an oven that's already hot. Add the cranberries, ¾ cup of sugar, orange juice, vanilla extract, orange zest, and corn starch to a sauce pan and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the cranberries start popping and the liquid begins to thicken. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool.

Add the flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and cinnamon to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add the egg and continue to pulse until the coarse crumbs turn into a coarse, crumbly dough. If you don't have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender.

"The food processor just makes the process quicker than using a pastry blender," says Morone. "But otherwise, there isn't much of a difference. If you don't have a food processor or a pastry blender, you could also use a fork, two butter knives, or even your hands to crumble the dough together."

Now that you have your crumble dough and your cranberry filling, it's time to assemble the bars. Press half the dough mixture into the bottom of the parchment paper-lined baking dish, then spoon the cranberry filling over the dough. Top the cranberry filling with the rest of the dough. After you've finished assembling the cranberry crumble bars, bake them in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Remove the baking dish from the oven, let it cool, and cut the cranberry crumble bars into squares. You may choose to eat these bars right away, but if you want to enjoy them over the course of a few days, they should last covered at room temperature up to three days, in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to three months. "These bars are a great dessert for pretty much any occasion," says Morone. "They are so simple to make, and since they use frozen cranberries, you can make them any time during the year."