Cranberry Bliss Bars

Starbucks has good sweets as well as expensive coffees.  I, for some reason, am baking up a storm.  I have made honey bun cake for the eleventh time, a lemon blueberry loaf that disappeared in one day and now I am off to the market for the fixings for Memorial Day week end. Some of my gang will be missing, but Cincinnati will be in full swing.  So off I go for the turrkey George is preparing on a grill, and the ingredients for Starbucks tasty squares...and more blueberries for that delicious loaf that went missing so quickly.

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 1 (9x13) pan

A copycat recipe for Starbucks famed Cranberry Bliss Bars with cranberries, white chocolate, ginger and a cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 + 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries, rough chopped

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/3 cup candied ginger, minced

Frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 + 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Drizzle:

3 tablespoons dried cranberries, rough chopped

1/3 cup white chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease and line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy; add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, ground ginger and salt and beat in until fully incorporated. Batter will be thick.
3. Fold in cranberries, chocolate and ginger. Spread the batter in the pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until light golden. Cool cake on wire rack and turn out.
Make frosting:
4. Beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy; beat in lemon zest, vanilla, and salt; add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. Spread evenly over the cake and scatter cranberries over top.
5. To make the drizzle melt white chocolate in a double broiler or in the microwave; once it is smooth, use a spoon and drizzle over top of the cake.
6. Cake is easier to cut when slightly chilled; cut into squares, then triangles.

Read more: http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/cranberry-bliss-bars/#ixzz2UDid74RT

Here is a picture Kathy Lecher found of the Lechler siblings with their mother who was 80 at the time, she would now be well over one hundred years old. How time flies.

It's Andy, Joe, the mother Hilda, Mary Alice and Jimmy.

I guess all recipes are not on line.  I was looking for the cheese Danish available at nearly all London tube stations.  The crusty swirl of pastry with a pocket of delectable cheese filling with raisins was a wonderful sweet treat after a day of antiquing.  Too bad their recipe is not on the web that I could find. I did find a list of the wonderful English cheeses that rival any that can be found.  They are all scrumptious, if not famous.