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These cranberry crumble bars are a festive treat perfect for the holidays.
A homemade spiced shortbread crust and crumble with a layer of bright red homemade cranberry jam. The tart cranberry jam is the perfect balance with the sweet, spiced shortbread layers.
These crumble bars are so beautiful they can even be packaged to make for a homemade gift for the foodie friend.
The holiday’s can get super busy, so we’re all about an easy recipe. A dessert bar that only you only need 8 ingredients to make checks all the boxes!
You likely have most of the recipes in your pantry, and if you’re making them around the holidays, you may even have an extra bag of cranberries in the fridge.
This recipe is apart of our Mozie Holiday Cookie Box. Check it our HERE.
Direction Snapshot
- Make cranberry jam and let it cool while your make your crust and crumble.
- Make spiced shortbread crust and crumble topping.
- Assemble bars and bake.
- Let the bars cool completely (at least 30 minutes) before slicing. Enjoy!
How do you make homemade cranberry jam?
Making this homemade cranberry jam is super simple!! You just need 3 ingredients, a skillet and little bit of patience. And in 15 minutes, you’ll have a yummy tart cranberry jam.
Follow these steps for making your cranberry jam:
- Start by roughly chopping cranberries and measuring out your ingredients.
- Add cranberries, sugar and water to a skillet. Heat the skillet on the stovetop over medium heat.
- Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. If the jam starts to stick or burn at the bottom on your pan, reduce the heat a bit.
- Lastly, remove your skillet from heat and the cranberry jam cool for 10 minutes before putting it in a container to store
Tip: Cranberries are naturally pretty tart. We like a tart jam for these bars, but if you’d like to make a sweeter jam, we recommend adding about 1/4 cup more sugar.
How do you make spiced shortbread and crumble topping?
You will use the same dough for the shortbread crust and crumble topping. We were in the holiday spirit and decided to add some cozy spices to the crust, like cardamom and cinnamon.
Here’s how you make the spiced shortbread and crumble topping:
- Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until creamy. Creaming butter means you are just mixing the butter until it is softened and creamy. It will be almost whipped looking.
- Next add in flour and spices to the creamed butter. The dough will really start to take shape and will form a dryer dough. It may appear crumbly in texture and that is okay. That’s how you want it!
- We recommend chilling the dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes before cooking (or you can chill in the fridge until you’re ready to make your bars). This will help to keep the butter cold.
How to assemble the cranberry crumble bars…
- When you’re ready to assemble the bars, you will take 2/3 of the dough and press it in the bottom of a lined loaf pan. (See tips below for lining your pan).
- Next, you will spread a generous layer of homemade cranberry jam over the bottom crust.
- Lastly, will take the final 1/3 of the spice shortbread dough and crumble over the top. It’s okay to have a little bit of cranberry peaking through the top!
The best way to prepare your loaf pan…
Start by prepping your loaf pan before you make the bread batter. Follow this two step process for preparing your loaf pan for baking. This will ensure that the bread doesn’t stick to the pan and you can easily remove after baking.
- Butter loaf pan. Using about 1/2 tbsp of butter, spread over the bottom, sides and corners, making sure to get butter in the creases of the pan. This will make sure your loaf doesn’t stick to the pan.
2. Line pan with parchment paper. Tear a sheet of parchment paper to fit the side of the pan. Make sure the parchment paper hangs about an inch over the long sides. Once the bread is baked and cooled, you can remove the loaf from the pan by pulling up on both sides of the paper. It should come out very smoothly. If there is some resistance, you may need to loosen the cake from the pan. To do this, gently glide a butterknife between the edge of the cake and and pan.
Equipment You’ll Need for This Recipe
Stand Mixer
Small Loaf Pans
Want more Christmas cookie recipes? Check these out:
- Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
- Red Velvet Marshmallow Cookies
- No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars
Cranberry Crumble Bars
Description
Homemade spiced shortbread crust and crumble with a layer of bright red homemade cranberry jam. A festive treat for the holiday season!
Ingredients
Spiced Shortbread Crust and Crumble
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Cranberry Jam
- 1 cup cranberries, chopped
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
Cranberry Jam
- Roughly chop cranberries.
- In a skillet over medium heat, add cranberries, water and sugar. Stir to mix in pan.
- Let the mixture simmer for 12-15 minutes until it starts to thicken.
- Once done, let the jam cool for about 10 minutes before storing. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Store the jam in the fridge in glass jars or containers with a lidded container.
Shortbread Crust
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Prepare your loaf pan. Grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside until ready to assemble bars
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cardamom and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until creamy.
- Add in flour mixture and mix until combined. If you are not using the dough immediately, place in fridge until you are ready to bake.
- Take 2/3 of your dough and press it into the bottom of your lined loaf pan. Leave 1/3 of the dough for crumbling on top.
- Spread a generous amount of cranberry on top of the shortbread crust.
- Crumble the last third of the dough on top of the jam.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes until to top is slightly browned. Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack until they are completely cool.
- Make sure they are cooled completely before slicing. Slice into bars that are about 1-inch thick. Enjoy!
