Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars

These gluten-free, dairy-free Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars are the best of tart, sweet, and buttery flavors! Made with fresh cranberries, allergen-friendly butter, and pecans, these dessert bars are easy to prepare and are ready in under an hour! {Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free}

Here’s the truth, Spiriteds: I had low expectations for gluten-free Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars. Like, how good can cranberries and pecans be together? Will they taste tart or blah or just plain weird? I figured I’d make the recipe, feel disappointed, and chalk it up to a learning experience. After all, I had plenty of cranberries to use up and a bag of pecans in the pantry. 

I was mistaken. Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars are incredible. The exact reasons I thought they’d turn out strange were the exact reasons they turned out so well. Here’s the math for the quantitive people in our Spirited community:

Tart cranberries + buttery sweet pecans + sugary sweet cookie batter = WINNING RECIPE

In fact, I don’t think this recipe works as well if you don’t have all three components. So even if you’re not a cranberry person there’s still a solid chance you’ll like Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars. If you love cookies but sometimes hit your sweetness quotient for the day, you’ll love how the pecans tame the sweet and the cranberries tart (tarten???) everything up.

I adapted today’s recipe from Karen Jaracki’s Cranberry Nut Bars in Best of Country Cookies (1999). And as recipes go, this is a simple one to prepare. The most tedious step is halving the fresh cranberries, and admittedly, that was a step I added. The original recipe calls for fresh or frozen chopped cranberries. If you can withstand the halving (or chopping) effort, you’ve got this gluten-free, dairy-free cookie bar recipe all but made. Once the batter is ready, plop it in a 9×13 pan, bake, cool, and enjoy. It’s that straightforward.

We will be eating these throughout the holiday season, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do! 

CRANBERRY PECAN COOKIE BARS INGREDIENTS:

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make your own batch of gluten-free Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars!

• Butter. Allergen-friendly dairy-free and gluten-free buttery spread. I use Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery spread (in the tub rather than stick form).
• Sugars. We’ve been experimenting with sugar attentive, so in this recipe we used monkfruit sweetener in addition to the more traditional brown sugar. You could use regular granulated sugar, too, along with brown sugar.
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• Gluten-free flour. Not all gluten-free flours taste the same, and their flavors do influence the outcome of baked goods. To get the best flavor for your palate, it’s important to select a gluten-free flour with a taste you like.
• Baking powder
• Sea salt
• Fresh cranberries. Halved.
• Pecans. Chopped.

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY PECAN COOKIE BARS:

Below are the steps to follow when making Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars. 

1. Set oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 pan. Set aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter on LOW speed until softened. Add the monkfruit sweetener and brown sugar. Blend until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue blending until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sea salt. Pour the dry ingredients into the batter and blend on LOW to MEDIUM until the ingredients are blended. Stir in the cranberries and pecans and pour the batter into the greased pan.
4. Bake for 22-26 minutes, or until the edges are browned and a toothpick comes out clean when placed in the thickest part of the bars. Remove from oven and let cool for several minutes before serving.
5. Store leftovers in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

CRANBERRIES GALORE!!!

If you DO like cranberries, and you’re in the market for creative ways to enjoy them, then check out these tasty vittles and sips!

• Paleo Cranberry Cake
• Cranberry Pomegranate Margaritas
• Winter Fruit Salsa
• Cranberry Pomegranate Cocktails
• 3-Ingredient Cranberry Pomegranate Spread

Happy cranberry season, Spiriteds. From our family to yours, we hope you are safe and well, and we’re glad you’re here. ❤️

Print

Jarocki, Karen. “Cranberry Nut Bars.” Recipe. Best of Country Cookies. Ed. Julie Schnittka. Greendale, WI:Reiman Publications, LLC., 1999. 88. Print.