Cranberry Crumble Bars
These sweet and tangy bars have a cardamom shortbread base, a cranberry vanilla bean filling, and a crumbly oat-pecan topping. Perfect for the holidays...or any day!
Servings: 16 bars
Equipment
- 1 9x9 square cake pan
Ingredients
Cardamom Shortbread Base
- 3/4 c butter, softened
- 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- pinch salt
Cranberry Filling
- 3 c whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 3/4 c granulated sugar
- 2 T corn starch
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- pinch salt
Oat-Pecan Crumble Topping
- 1/2 c brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 c old-fashioned oats
- 1/3 c all-purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1/4 c cold butter, cut into 1" pieces
- 1/2 c chopped pecans
Instructions
Cardamom Shortbread Base
- Preheat oven to 325℉. Line a 9×9" square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang on two sides (this makes the bars easier to pull out of the pan when they're baked).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer), cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar. Once it's light and fluffy, add cardamom and salt and mix until combined.
- Add flour and salt and mix until combined. You shouldn't have any unmixed flour, but the dough will still be in large crumbles.
- Pour crumbles into your prepared pan, and press firmly into the pan, ensuring the dough reaches to all four sides and corners of the pan. Poke holes into the dough with a fork, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes.
- Turn oven up to 350℉.
Cranberry Filling
- In a mixing bowl, combine the cranberries (fresh or frozen—don't thaw them first if they're frozen), sugar, corn starch, vanilla bean paste, and salt. Set aside while you make the crumble topping.
Oat-Pecan Crumble Topping
- In a small mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour, and salt. Toss in the cold butter chunks, and use your fingers to rub the butter into the sugar mixture until it's in pea-sized pieces. Then mix in the pecans.
Putting it all together...
- Once your cardamom shortbread has cooled for a few minutes, pour the cranberry filling mixture onto it and spread it into all corners of the bars. Then sprinkle the crumble topping evenly over the top.
- Bake at 350℉ for 50-60 minutes or until the top is nicely browned and the filling is nice and bubbly.
- Remove from the oven and set on a cooling rack. Let cool completely before cutting into bars (trust me—if you try to cut them up when they're warm, you'll have cranberry filling spilling out everywhere!). Cut into 16 bars and serve!