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Cranberry Bliss Cookies

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‘Tis the season for cool mornings, warm coffee, and one of my other winter favorites — Cranberry Bliss season at Starbucks!

If any of you have ever tried their heavenly cranberry bliss bars laced with white chocolate and cranberries, you know the reason why these treats fly off the pastry shelves each day. So for my fall baking season this year, I decided to experiment and try translating this favorite into a cookie. Hence the name, “Cranberry Bliss Cookies”!

I started with one of my favorite chewy cookie bases, filled with lots of vanilla, white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. Then topped it with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with more cranberries, and drizzled with more white chocolate. I mean seriously — what’s not to love?!?

Sure enough, they were nothing short of heavenly. Quite sweet, but the extra tart of the cream cheese and cranberries gives just the perfect tart touch to leave you craving just one more. Perfect for dessert, or even a morning treat with your coffee. And definitely…blissful. :)

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Cranberry Bliss Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 11 reviews
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 4 dozen cookies 1x

Description

Classic cranberry bliss bars are turned into cookies!


Ingredients

Scale

For The Cookies:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

For The Frosting:

  • 1 (8 oz.) bar cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave or double-boiler
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade
  • 2 cups powdered sugar

For The Topping:

  • 1 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted in the microwave or double-boiler

Instructions

To Make The Cookies:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt until well-blended. Set aside.
  3. Using an an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating in between to incorporate. Add the vanilla, then reduce the speed to low, and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Increase the speed to medium, and continue beating until well-combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries, and mix until just-combined. (Do not overmix.)
  4. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. Then place dough by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto a baking sheet that has been prepared with parchment paper, at least 2.5-inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges. Remove pan, and transfer the cookies to a cooling rack until cool. Repeat with remaining dough until all cookies are baked. Wait until cookies reach room temperature before adding frosting and toppings.

To Make The Frosting:

  1. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and melted white chocolate until combined. (**Be sure that your cream cheese REALLY is at room temperature before adding the white chocolate. Otherwise the chocolate could seize up.) Add in the vanilla and mix until combined. Then reduce speed to low and add the powdered sugar. Mix until incorporated. Then use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat once more for 1 minute on medium speed until the frosting is smooth. You can add more powdered sugar for a thicker frosting.
  2. Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies. Then immediately sprinkle the frosted cookies with the chopped dried cranberries. And use a fork to drizzle on the frosting, swishing it back and forth over the cookies.

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107 comments on “Cranberry Bliss Cookies”

  1. these look beautiful!!! perfect little holiday cookie :) i think i will make them and add pistachios on top as well (cranberry and pistachios are one of my favorite combos!) thanks for sharing this recipe – beautiful photos! xx

  2. These are so festive! I love them!

  3. These are so pretty Ali! I’m so excited to try making these over the holidays, I love the combination of cranberry and white chocolate.

  4. I love everything about these cookies!

  5. Confession: I have never had a cranberry bliss bar! I am going to go straight for the cookies instead! They look absolutely perfect!

  6. These are going to be made soon! Thanks for giving us this recipe!

  7. Please bring these for Thanksgiving!

  8. You are so stinkin’ brilliant. These look amazing

  9. I clearly need to check out what cranberry bliss bars are because these look amazing! I’m a bit obsessed with white chocolate during the holiday season so these are perfect for me! Love the frosting.

  10. Yum! I love the holiday drinks & food at starbucks. What a great recipe!

  11. These frosted cookies would be so cute on a Thanksgiving dessert table! Love ’em!

  12. I’ve actually never had a cranberry bliss bar at starbucks before – i probably shouldn’t anyway, these cookies look WAY better. gorgeous, tack-sharp photos, Ali!

  13. These certainly are blissful! These look so tasty!

  14. Everything is better in cookie form, I love this idea!

  15. Yummy these look great. I need to grap this recipe and do some baking. TY

  16. These look so much better than the Starbucks bars!

  17. These are gorgeous–I always eye those bars this time of year, and I love that these are in cookie form. Plus…everything is better frosted. ;)

  18. Oooohhhh I want to try a cranberry bliss bar and cookie!

  19. I posted cranberry bliss bars last week! I love bliss bars! I love that you turned these cookies into such festive little things! The cookies themselves look like great sugar cookies too!

  20. Cranberries are everywhere lately! What gorgeous cookies!

  21. I actually haven’t tried the starbucks one but your cookie version is probably 1000000x better! I could really use a couple of these for breakfast tomorrow with my morning cup of coffee!

  22. Excellent timing, I was just trying to decide on Thanksgiving desserts :D

  23. Yummy! I love these treats from Starbucks and can’t wait to make these cookies. I have just added them to my holiday baking list.

  24. Love these!! We must have posted Cranberry Bliss treats the same day!

  25. These are beautiful! And perfect for the holiday season.

  26. These are downright brilliant! They look even better as a cookie. They are definitely going on my baking list. Love the new look and new additions to your site. Congrats!

  27. I absolutely love the cranberry bliss bars from Starbucks. These cookies are an even better concept. I’m makin’ these tomorrow! Thanks for sharing this recipe…could be this year’s holiday hit at our family gatherings. :)

  28. Would it work to press the cookie dough into a pan to make bars?(easier to transport to our extended family “Thanksmas” gathering)
    Thanks,
    MargoMom a.k.a. Sarah’s Mom

  29. Just made a batch of these and they are wonderful! They look beautiful and taste as good as they look. I made a small tweak to the icing… I love citrus with cranberries so I added the zest of a medium orange to the icing recipe. It turned out really nicely! Thanks so much for this recipe! I’m sure this is the first of many batches! :o)

  30. I made these on the weekend & they are a hit. One question, my first batch of cookies did spread and cooked as bit-size cookies. The second batch I formed more into balls and then flattened with a glass. Can any one suggest what I may have done wrong. They stilled tasted amazing…Thx

  31. OMG this is my favorite thing at Starbucks. I am ALL OVER THESE COOKIES this weekend!! THANK YOU.

  32. I made these today (as the start of my Christmas baking) and they turned out to be SO FANTASTIC! Even better than the real Starbucks version. I am in love!

  33. I made these for a potluck at work, THEY WERE A HIT!!! Thayou so much for sharing this with us

  34. Oh thank you thank you thank you! I love Starbucks bars and I want to make your recipe for my Boxing Day tea party now. Perfect timing to find you.
    Val

  35. Noooo! I made cranberry white chocolate chip cookies today and although they were amazing, I wish I would have remembered these. I’m going to make them anyway. Will let you know tomorrow how they turn out! :)

  36. These are amazing, beautiful cookies! My daughter already made them and I am making them right now. I do not see when to add the vanilla listed in the directions for cookie dough. I know that the vanilla is usually added after butter and sugars are creamed, but I almost forgot to put it in because I was trying to follow the directions exactly. I just wanted to let you know this so that others don’t leave it out as well. I cannot wait to taste them!

    Thank You!

  37. These are ridiculously amazing! I took them to a party and they were loved by all. The only thing I’d do is pay more attention to the pictures when making these next time. I chopped my cranberries too finely and it looked like Bacon Bites cookies (although the other people didn’t mind – they don’t have Bacon Bites here ;)) I’m going to make these again and again! THANK YOU! :D I was so tired of the same old Christmas cookies. Oh and I left out the white chocolate and cranberries from the cookie dough. I think next time I’ll add some cranberries to the dough!

  38. Hi! Can anyone tell me if the icing on these stays soft or does it firm up?

    • It firms up a little. Enough so that you can put plastic wrap over them, but not firm like buttercream. Just perfect. :) I took these to a few classes this week along with three other types and they were the favorite! :D

    • Mine stayed somewhat soft, I stacked mine in clear plastic bags for a cookie exchange, they were a little messy, but no one minded :)

    • I actually put mine in the freezer and then once thawed the icing was not sticky at all…. I also made with slightly less icing sugar in my second batch and I thought the taste was even better.

  39. So I am making these right now and noticed after I had made the dough that the directions don’t say to put the vanilla extract in… Just wanted to give you a heads up… I didn’t see if anyone else had commented about it either.

  40. I took these to a cookie exchange and they were amazing! thanks so much for sharing, I will save this recipe in my notebook :)

  41. I switched up this recipe and instead of the dried cranberries I used a combination of the dried cranberries, blueberries and cherries. Really great. Great recipe to create in different ways.

  42. These are honestly the most fantastic cookies ever!! I made them for Christmas but I had to make another batch because we kept sneaking them from the freezer! I think I will make them every year over the holidays for as long as I live! Cream-cheese icing, cranberry and white chocolate are a heavenly combination!

  43. I made two batches of these amazing cookies. The first ones were good, but the second ones were even better. I think I may try and bake some in a shallow pie plate next year and see how they turn out. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!

  44. I made these last Christmas and they were wonderful and froze well! And now I’m going to try to make them again– but with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts!

  45. I am in the process of baking these for a cookie exchange. I was worried about it making enough to share with eight ladies @ 1/2 dozen a piece! Well, using a small scoop, that I’ve had from my Pampered Chef consultant days, I am wrapping up with nearly seven dozen, twice what I expected!! I am so happy that it made so many…now the hubz won’t be sad that he’s not going to get a few :) Can’t wait to ice and decorate them in a few days…they are going to be scrumptious!!

  46. Do these keep at room temp or do they need refrigeration?
    Should they be wrapped special to keep them moist?
    In posts like this it really helps us at holiday time if we know if it can be shipped or if its a right now type of cookie.
    Many people bake ahead or ship things.
    How did you wrap them, store them. What is the shelf life in your opinion?

    • Yes, I would like to know exactly what Jerz said. I’m planning on baking this for my friends to give as Xmas presents but since some of them will be out of town for a few days I need to know if the cookies need refrigerating. Anyone knows?

  47. This recipe is killer. I am obsessed with Starbucks cranberry bliss bars and one of the reasons is the hint of orange. So I tweaked this recipe a bit and added a tsp of orange zest. I’m sure it would be even better with a tbsp. I just didn’t have the patience to zest that much. Sure enough, it tasted exactly like the original. These cookies are just like the bars, dangerously good.

  48. OMG! I can’t get enough of the Cranberry Bliss bars at starbucks. I’m not much of a baker….slice and bake is how I make cookies…I think I’m going to use plain sugar cookies (from the tube at the store) and then do the awesome toppings. :) Not as good as yours, I’m sure. But more my beginner level. ;)

  49. I LOVE the Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks and intended to recreate them but haven’t gotten around to it. Guess I will just need to try your recipe for now.