Baking for the Holidays: Cranberry Bliss Bars

It's November and I, for one, don't think it's too early to start baking for the holidays!  It helps that it's November in Ohio, which right now means it's super chilly, winter-coat-type weather.  With the time change this past weekend, it's now pitch black at 6 pm.  It seems like we're moving into winter at a very rapid pace.  Is Thanksgiving really only a little over 2 weeks away??  Pretty soon homes and neighborhoods will be alight with Christmas decorations, and Holiday music will be playing in stores and cars.  So, given all that, it isn't too early to be getting in the spirit, right?

I started out with a holiday baking recipe that's perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas and even into January:  Cranberry Bliss Bars.  If you, like me, have ever popped into a Starbucks from November through Christmas, you've seen these bars in their bakery case.  Seeing them every year is almost more exciting to me than seeing the famous pumpkin spice latte each September.  I think it's because the Cranberry Bliss Bars are so festive looking...white frosting dotted with ruby red cranberries...  They just look like winter!  Better yet, they go great with a cup of coffee!

About a year ago, I joined Pinterest.  My sister-in-law invited me and this recipe was one of the first that I pinned and actually tested out.  We got new carpeting installed last Veteran's Day weekend, and I shut myself in our bedroom as the workers got down to business and went what can only be described as berserk on that site, pinning basically everything under the sun!  I think I made these bars the very next day.  I gave some to my parents, who loved them, and took them into work, where everyone enjoyed them also.  I'd say that from last November to January, I probably made these about 4 times.

This recipe comes from Recipe Girl and you can check out her recipe and method here.  I've done pretty much the same thing as the original recipe, with a couple of notable exceptions.  First, she calls for baking the bars in a 9x13 pan, which would replicate the thin-sized bars that Starbucks serves.  For whatever reason, I baked them for the first time in a 9x9x2 pan.  The pan, obviously, is slightly larger than an 8x8 but not as large as the 9x13.  I think this makes for the perfect thickness for the bars.  If you like them on the thin size, by all means go with the 9x13 pan.  Additionally, at the end she calls for melting some extra white chocolate to add to the frosting and drizzle on top of the finished frosting.  I omitted that because I realized that if I did, I'd have an extra 6 ounces of white chocolate, which translated into enough for another batch at some other point.  I don't miss the white chocolate at all: the bars are perfect without it!

I whipped them up this week with our fireplace blazing.  I also, for the first time, tuned into Pandora and listened to a Christmas station.  It was so much fun, and a great sample of what's to come in the very near future:  namely, lots of baking for others and for the season.  Only what's great about making these now is that I also don't have a laundry list full of other seasonal responsibilities hanging over my head:  shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, decorating, making side dishes, dashing out to parties, etc.  It was so relaxing to bake these without any other holiday obligations looming!

I'm looking forward to making these at least a few more times in the next 8 or so weeks!