White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies

Submitted by Sydney Mike

"Although this recipe comes from Taste of Home Best Holiday Recipes, 2008, it has been tweaked to better suit my preferences -- After all, I LOVE CRANBERRIES! [NOTE of 7 Dec 08: I appreciate chef NurseJaney bringing to my attention (AFTER she'd tried making this recipe) that there MIGHT be an error in an ingredient amount! Sure enough, instead of the correct 2 1/4 cups of flour, I'd inadvertantly stated it as 1 1/4 cups! My sincere apologies!]"

 

• Ready In: 33mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 2 1/2 dozen
• Serves: 30

ingredients

• FOR THE BLONDIE

• 3⁄4 cup unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 1⁄2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2 large eggs
• 3⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3⁄4 cup dried cranberries
• 6 (1 ounce) white chocolate baking squares, coarsely chopped

• FOR THE FROSTING

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest, minced
• 6 (1 ounce) white chocolate baking squares, melted
• 3⁄4 cup dried cranberries, chopped

directions

1. FOR THE BLONDIE ~ In a microwave-safe bowl, melt butter.
2. Stir in brown sugar, then transfer to a large mixing bowl & cool to room temperature.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F & grease a 13"x9" baking dish.
4. Beat in eggs & vanilla.
5. In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt & cinnamon, then gradually this flour mixture to butter mixture.
6. Stir in cranberries & chopped chocolate ~ Batter will be thick.
7. Spread into prepared baking dish & bake 18-21 minutes or until tootpick inserted near center comes out clean (DO NOT OVERBAKE!).
8. Cool on wire rack.
9. FOR THE FROSTING ~ In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar & zest until blended.
10. Gradually add half the melted chocolate, & beat until blended.
11. Frost blondies, then sprinkle with chopped dried cranberries.
12. Drizzle with remaining melted chocolate.
13. Cut into bars & store in refrigerator.

Reviews

[LilPinkieJ]

The blondies were quite good. I'm glad I got here after the updated amounts. They turned out just right. I did add a tiny bit of almond extract, just as a preference with the cranberry flavor. I wasn't fond of the frosting. I think the cream cheese was overpowering for us. So I just whipped up a regular buttercream frosting and added the orange zest with that. Oh, I also sprinkled some mini white chips on top with the craisins. I had them leftover from your Recipe #333870. Great stuff. Made and Reviewed for 123 Hit Wonders Tag - Thanks! :)

 

[NurseJaney]

Made as a "pressie" for Aus/NZ Swap #23. This is a lovely SWEET cookie, which survived enumerable errors ! I prepared the batter as directed and baked at 350* for 22 minutes. BEWARE -- the toothpick may NEVER come clean, due to the melted white chocolate and eggs - but my hot oven did well at 20-21 minutes. Since the recipe printed on 2 pages, I proceeded with beating the cream cheese, sugar, and zest, while the white chocolate melted. THEN - I lost it ! Instead of adding 1/2 of melted chocolate, I dumped in the WHOLE THING !!! I frosted the pan of blondies, THEN reread the instructions ! Sprinkled the chopped craisins, and stored in the frig. Truly -- they survived as a very tasty cookie/bar, and will be added to my gift plates. To be totally honest -- I sliced the unfrosted bars from the first effort and stored them in a plastic container. They are very tasty on their own (I cut off the burned edges first.) Kind of like the TollHouse Blondies, which are really good on their own. Thanks for posting, Syd -- AND for being so prompt to answer my question !