The holidays make me really appreciate foods I often ignore other times of the year. One of those foods is cranberries. I absolutely adore cranberry sauce but seem to reserve it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. As one of Shoprite’s bloggers, I recently had the chance to share my favorite cranberry sauce recipe on Shoprite’s PotLuck Blog Panel. It is from this cranberry sauce recipe that I built these Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars.
These Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars are a great solution for using up leftover holiday cranberry sauce. I often make a big batch of this cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and then again on Christmas and then use whatever is leftover to make my Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars. To make the bars you should already have a batch of your favorite cranberry sauce prepared. Click here to take you to my recipe on Shoprite’s Pot Luck Blog.
Once you have the cranberry sauce made you can get started on the Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars and have them ready in minutes. The recipe for the shortbread base and all of the finishing touches is below.
Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars
Ingredients
- 1 batch of pre-made cranberry sauce see above link for recipe
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup flaked coconut
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 2 squares white baking chocolate melted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and confectioner's sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine flour, coconut and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Set aside 1 cup for topping. Spread the remaining mixture into greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat 2 cups of pre-made cranberry sauce. Remove from heat; stir in chopped walnuts.
- Spread cranberry-walnut mixture over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly. Cool on wire rack. Drizzle with white chocolate. Cut into bars.
I like to serve these around the holidays with a cup of coffee. These are great as an alternative holiday dessert or perfect as part of a holiday brunch menu. They are light, tart and not overly sweet.
These look so pretty when presented on a holiday-themed platter and look super fancy. To store, I put the Cranberry Coconut Shortbread Bars in an air-tight container and place small squares of wax or parchment paper in between each layer to protect the bar and white chocolate drizzle. These bars are best served fresh and will last about three days if stored properly.
I hope you like them and make sure to follow along for my next post on Shoprite’s Potluck Blog.
This article was written by food blogger Linda Arceo for Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps. Connect with me on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
These look so pretty and amazing! Cranberry sauce is my weakness at Thanksgiving. =)
Thank you! Mine too but don’t you always have a ton leftover?
Yum Linda, these amazing looking. What a great way to use up cranberry sauce, it seems like there’s always a bunch leftover.
I agree! Thanks.
Oh these look lovely! Coconut and shortbread, yum. But I’m not big on cranberry, wondering if you can sub out raspberry? (My favorite!)
I bet you raspberry would work so well!
These look amazing Linda. I cannot wait to make these.
Seriously? They are beautiful. They look like something you’d get at a swank cafe. 🙂
Thank you! It felt very coffee shop in my house when these were done.
I love cranberry sauce. This looks amazing!
These look so good!
I adore a good shortbread! Love the flavor combo here, I’m going to have to try these babies out!
Coming from you, Colleen – that is a huge compliment.