Ginger Cranberry Shortbread Bars

Ginger Cranberry Shortbread Bars
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My readers know that I often find myself deciding on a dish to make because I have an overabundance of something I bought at Costco! This week it was a large bag of cranberries, enough to make a double recipe of Merlot and Toasted Walnut Cranberry sauce and still have 7-8 cups left over (3 lbs of cranberries is a LOT) so I wanted to find a holiday type bar to use them with; hoping to freeze the results and have them for holiday giving.

I found a beautiful adaptation of another recipe and because I made them from goods on hand, have adapted that recipe a bit myself.This is my adaptation of a recipe from from Joy of Baking; I changed a couple of things but mostly I doubled the recipe and used dried ginger; I had it on hand and that was that! I did use the product I had just bought from the fabulous Savory Spice Shop so hoping that gives me a bit of a reprieve!

Absolutely beautiful bar; don’t think I’ve ever made a filling with such a deep red color; perfect for the holidays.

Ginger Cranberry Shortbread Bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

    For the Cranberry Filling:
  • 5 cups of cranberries
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar
  • 2-3 tsp dry ginger (if using fresh, do 2 Tbsp.)
  • 2 Tbsp of orange zest
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • For the Shortbread Mixture:
  • 4 cups of flour
  • 4 tablespoons of cornstarch
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 cup of butter
  • 2/3 cup of brown sugar

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease an 9X13 inch pan with butter.
  2. Put cranberries, sugar, brown sugar, ginger, orange zest, water, and vanilla extract in a 2 quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes until it becomes reduced and syrupy. Stir occasionally but be gentle with the berries as they should remain whole. Remove from heat and cool.
  3. Sift together in a separate bowl the flour, cornstarch and salt.
  4. Cream the butter with the brown sugar and vanilla. Slowly add in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
  5. Press two-thirds of the dough into the prepared pan. Evenly spread the cranberry filling, leaving 1/4 inch of space on the sides. Crumble the remaining dough over the top. My dough wasn't really crumbling; actually had to break off pieces and scatter over the top of the mixture.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top begins to brown around the edges. Cool on a wire rack, then cut and serve.
http://www.creative-culinary.com/ginger-cranberry-shortbread-bars/

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Molly December 15, 2012 at 7:31 pm

This is the third year I have made these-everyone loves them, and they are now a Christmas tradition!

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2 Creative Culinary December 16, 2012 at 5:43 pm

I love that Molly…and even more I love that you have reminded me how much I love them; cranberries bought…making tomorrow!

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3 Amanda November 25, 2009 at 1:33 pm

This looks so good!  Perfect recipe for the holidays.  Thanks for sharing it.

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4 Elle November 24, 2009 at 7:21 am

These are just gorgeous!  I can almost taste them–will file the recipe away for Christmas…

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5 deeba November 21, 2009 at 9:05 am

I have fresh ginger but no fresh cranberries….this post is delicious too!

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