Canadian Thanksgiving was October 10th, about a month earlier than American Thanksgiving. We do everything pretty much the same as Americans, except that we are not as much into American football. Thanksgiving to Canadians means family getting together and enjoying the company, the food, and the gorgeous fall colours, not so much sports. This year was a quiet Thanksgiving because we usually celebrate with my cousins’ family but my cousin and her hubby were in Europe so we only had the adult kiddos over for dinner. We love cranberry like the next guy but I always seem to have a tonne left over as I did this year. So I decided to reinvent them into Liz’s dreamy Crumble Bars. JT is in charge of making the cranberry sauce and he usually only adds about half the sugar on the package recipe but since the kids were coming over, I asked him to make it a bit sweeter so he used 3/4 of the recommended sugar. The sauce was still reasonably tart which made it a perfect topping for these sweet pastry bars. I dare say, one of my favourites. So if you have cranberry sauce left over, give these a try, you won’t be disappointed.
Cranberry Crumble Bars
Makes one 22 cm x 33 cm (9″ x 13″) pan
Ingredients:
- 250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 5 mL vanilla
- 2.5 mL almond extract
- 280 g flour
- 8 g salt
- 150 mL homemade cranberry sauce
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare a 23″ x 33″ cm (9″ x 13″) pan by lining with parchment.
- Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the almond extract.
- Beat in the flour and salt on low speed until entirely incorporated.
- Portion about 2/3 of the flour mixture into the bottom of the pan and press evenly to all sides. Bake for 20 minutes. Refrigerate the remaining pastry.
- After you have baked the base pastry, pour the cranberry jam onto the base and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Crumble the remaining pastry onto the top, being careful not to cover it entirely.
- Bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until the topping is golden.
- Allow to cool completely and cut into squares or bars.
Notes:
- Jellied canned cranberry sauce may be too runny to work in this recipe, you definitely want sauce with fruit in it.
I love cranberry desserts, and these bars sound lovely! I would only also sprinkle it with some slivered almonds for an extra taste and crunch 🙂
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I love just about anything with cranberries, and this would certainly not be the exception!
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These look so festively Christmas Eva! I really like the sound of anything crumble 😀
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Perfect timing. I’m making a baked brie topped with canned cranberry sauce…we’ll see if I have enough for the bars!! YUM!
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These sound wonderful!!! Either raspberry or cranberry!
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Sweet, tangy and buttery…these bars look terrific!
angiesrecipes
http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.com
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I think the original recipe for raspberry, as that is still written in the instructions 😉 I hardly ever make cranberry sauce as it would kill the wine (unless it is a sweet Riesling but I’d generally want a nice red wine with my holiday main). These look great though!
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Thank you for letting me know of my error.
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