Leftover Cranberry Bliss Cookie Bars came to me in a dream! Just kidding {grin}…but, it was dreamlike. I was standing in front of my open refrigerator, staring into its recesses, looking at a plastic storage container of leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.
With the expiration date looming, I thought to myself, “what can I use this on, for, with?” After all, we’d already eaten all our leftover Thanksgiving turkey!
Then, I turned my head sideways and spotted a roll of prepared sugar cookie dough that I’d bought for a Christmas cookie project! “Oooh…I’ll make cookie bars!”
I’ve mentioned several times that cheesecake is Charlie’s favorite dessert, so I thought I’d add a cheesy filling. Voila’ – Leftover Cranberry Bliss Cookie Bars were born!
I must tell you that Charlie told me, “Carole, these are really delicious!” High praise from Charlie, who is so spoiled by my cooking over the years that I rarely get compliments from him anymore (I think he thinks that he doesn’t want my cooking expertise to go to my head {grin}!).
With only eight simple ingredients (one of them the leftover cranberry sauce), Leftover Cranberry Bliss Cookie Bars come together quickly. But, you do have to wait for them to cool completely before you cut them and eat them, otherwise they will crumble into bits when taking them out of the pan.
Both sweet and tart, Leftover Cranberry Bliss Cookie Bars strike a perfect balance. Topped with a simple sugar glaze, they melt in your mouth but also have a bit of satisfying crunch from walnuts and dollops of cookie dough.
Fair warning: it’s hard to eat just one!
Here’s the recipe:
PrintToo-Yummy-to-Share Cranberry Bliss Cookie Bars
Deliciously crumbly with a sweet sugar cookie base, sweet and tart leftover cranberry sauce combine to make a scrumptious dessert bar!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 mins
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 16.5 ounce package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar, divided (1/2 cup and 1/2 cup for later)
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups prepared (leftover) cranberry sauce
- 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease 7″ x 11″ baking dish with butter.
- Remove sugar cookie dough from package and cut off one-third of dough and set aside.
- Using the palm of your hand (and your fingers), press the remaining 2/3’s of the cookie dough in the buttered baking dish, pressing dough into pan until evenly distributed (this is your crust).
- In a mixing bowl, combine softened cream cheese, egg and 1/2 cup powdered sugar until well blended.
- Spread cream cheese mixture over sugar cookie base, smoothing evenly with a spatula.
- Spoon cranberry sauce over cream cheese mixture, in dollops, and then smooth with spatula.
- Sprinkle with walnuts.
- Dollop remaining cookie dough over walnuts.
- Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into bars
- In a small bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar with 3 tablespoons milk to make glaze.
- Using spoon or fork, drizzle over cooled bars and serve.
Tootles,
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(other dessert recipes)
Is the cranberry sauce the whole berry or the jellied version?
It’s made with leftover homemade whole berry sauce. I’d used the canned whole berry sauce if you didn’t make yours homemade. But, please note that I’ve not made this recipe with canned whole berry sauce (or canned jellied, for that matter), so I don’t know if the results would be as tasty. It probably will be, though, since most canned varieties are tasty! Hope it turns out great for you!