Cranberry Orange Bars

Similar to Starbucks Cranberry Bliss bars, but orangier! I found a number of online recipes and put together the parts I liked best. Basic recipe mostly comes from here with a few modest changes.

BARS
◦ 1 cup butter ( 2 sticks, very soft)
◦ 2/3 cup brown sugar
◦ 1/3 cup granulated sugar
◦ 3 large eggs
◦ grated zest from 1 orange
◦ 2 cups flour
◦ 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
◦ 1 teaspoon ground ginger
◦ 3/4 cup craisins ( dried cranberries)
◦ 3/4 cup white chocolate chips 

FROSTING
◦ 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
◦ 2 tablespoons butter, softened
◦ 3 cups confectioners' sugar
◦ 1-2 or more teaspoons orange juice from zested orange

TOPPING
◦ 1/3 cup craisins
◦ 1/3 cup white chocolate chips 

Directions 
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 for a glass or dark pan). Prepare a 9x13 by lining it with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray. 
2. BARS: With an electric mixer, beat together softened butter and sugars 3-5 minutes until light; gently blend in eggs and orange zest (don't overbeat eggs). Add the flour, baking powder, and ginger and beat briefly. Add the cranberries and chips, stirring just until incorporated. 
3. Spread thick batter in prepared 9x13 pan. It does level itself out a little bit while baking. Bake 350 for 24-28 minutes until light brown AT EDGES and a skewer tests clean. Don't overbake or your bars will be dry. Let it cool completely. Using overhanging parchment paper, lift from pan onto rack.  I turn it out upside down onto rack, peel off paper, then flip onto big cutting board to frost and cut. 
4. FROSTING: Blend cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add orange juice and confectioners sugar and beat until frosting is fluffy and spreadable (adding more orange juice if needed, but remember its easier to add liquid, than to thicken frosting up after adding too much liquid). Spread evenly over COOLED bars. 
5. GARNISH: Sprinkle Craisins and white chocolate chips over frosted bars. 
6. Allow one hour in frig for the frosting to set before cutting. Cut into 20 large squares (5 cuts by 4 cuts with the knife). Then cut each square in half diagonally to create triangles. It has been my experience that triangles have fewer calories than squares. Or not.

Emeril's Nutty Granola Bars

This recipe comes from the March 2011 Everyday Food magazine. I love the show and I love the magazine. The recipes I've tried are both super easy, and usually super-delicious! Unfortunately, they failed to have this recipe on their website, so I am forced to transcribe it by hand to the blog. Oh! The tedium!! But its a great recipe- easy to make, infinitely configurable, and DELICIOUS. Warning: this recipe contains nuts. This is the printed recipe and naturally, I altered it slightly. I'll add my changes at the end. They worked hard on this recipe and I owe it to them to show their work, un-adulterated. Or they stole it. Who knows. Now that Martha OWNS Emeril, anything is possible!

Emeril's Nutty Granola Bars
Serves 16. Active time: 10 min. Total Time: 40 min + cooling

¾ cup honey, divided
2 tbl unsalted butter
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1⅓ cups (6oz) slivered almonds
pinch of coarse salt
1 cup raisins or other dried fruit
⅓ cup creamy almond butter or other nut butter
¼ light-brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325°. In a small saucepan, heat ¼ cup honey and butter over low. Cook, stirring, until butter melts, about 2 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, and pinch of salt. Drizzle honey mixture over oat mixture and stir to combine; wipe saucepan clean. Spread mixture evenly on large baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool completely on sheet, about 10 minutes. Return to large bowl and add raisins; stir to combine.
3. Spray 8-inch square baking dish. In saucepan, combine ½ cup honey, almond butter, and brown sugar over medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil and sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes. Drizzle over oat mixture and stir until combined; transfer to baking dish. With a spatula, press firmly into dish. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour, then cut into 16 bars or squares. (Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 5 days.)

per bar: 258 cal; 11 g fat (2 g sat fat); 6 g protein; 38 g carb; 3 g fiber

My Notes:

• I used the butter I had on hand, which has salt
• I used almost a cup of raisins, and I also added about a cup of chopped dried apricots
• I had some organic, chunky peanut butter, so I used that for the "nut butter"
• I put a generous dash of cinnamon in the second saucepan mixture of honey, nut butter, and brown sugar. I think it gave the bars a little more depth.
• I found that the spatula wasn't pressing hard enough into the pan, and I was afraid that they'd just fall apart when I ate them, so I put a sandwich bag on my hand and pressed down pretty hard on the bars in the pan before cooling. I think I made the right decision.
• These are pretty generously sized bars. Next time, I will cut them into smaller bars. You can always eat as many as you like.