Dried cranberries are one of my favorite ingredients to use in holiday baking! Since I have a ton in my pantry I wanted to use them up and decide to make some healthy cranberry bliss bars! This recipes was inspired by the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss bars, but I wanted to make them healthy!
These make a great breakfast and pair well with a cup of coffee in the morning. I love how these bars are made with gluten free oats, because oats are high in fiber and are super filling! Two of these bars kept me full for 3+ hours!
How do I store these bars?
I recommend keeping these in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can also individually wrap these guys in some plastic wrap for an easy on the go snack. Just make sure the frosting is completely chilled before wrapping so that the frosting doesn’t stick.
Key ingredients for these healthy cranberry bliss bars:
- Gluten free oat flour
- I like to make my oat flour at home by blending up some gluten free oats. Just make sure that the out flour is very fine.
- Coconut sugar
- Coconut sugar is my favorite granulated sugar because of its deep color and flavor.
- Almond butter
- I use almond butter from Trader Joe’s. You want to make sure that the only ingredient in the almond butter is just almond! We don’t need the extra sugar or oil!
- Flax egg
- This replaces an egg to keep this recipe vegan. All you have to do is mix 2 tablespoons of flax seed meal and 6 tablespoons of water. Then let it sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Orange zest
- I love the fresh flavor from the orange zest! Honestly, there isn’t a great sub and this is definitely not something you want to leave out!
- Dried cranberries
- Yum!!! I used cranberries with 50% less sugar.
- White chocolate
- I used white chocolate chips from Lily Sweets. These are not vegan, but if you are use your favorite white chocolate!
- Vegan cream cheese
- I love pairing cranberries and cream cheese together. Now a days the vegan cream cheese selection is great! I like using the one from Kite Hill the best!
- Powdered sugar
- To be honest this ingredient is hard to substitute. If you don’t mind the color change then you can sub with powdered coconut sugar!
Healthy Cranberry Bliss Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free oat flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- ½ cup almond butter
- 1 flax egg 1 tbsp flax seed meal + 2½ tbsp water
- ⅓ cup almond milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- zest of ½ an orange
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup vegan white chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz vegan cream cheese
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Make the flax egg by combining the flax seed meal and water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the almond butter, flax egg, vanilla extract, almond milk, orange zest, and almond milk.
- Now add in the oat flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold until well combined.
- Mix in 1/3 cup of the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into a lines baking pan (8×8). Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
- Let the bars cool completely, but meanwhile make the cream cheese frosting by whisking together the vegan cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Top the bars with the frosting, the remaining cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Slice the bars into 12 even slices and enjoy!
