These cranberry crumble pie bars combine a buttery flaky shortbread crust, jammy cranberry filling, and crumbly almond topping. The crust and crumble topping are made from the same mixture, so there’s no need to dirty an additional bowl. Easy to eat, transport, serve, and freeze, pie bars are the best answer for a large crowd!
Let’s take a break from traditional pie and pie crust and whip up a batch of pie bars. Hey, don’t you know that it’s HIP to be SQUARE?!
These Cranberry Crumble Pie Bars Have:
- a buttery shortbread crust
- orange-hinted cranberries
- an irresistible buttery crumble topping
- sweet orange icing, obviously
Oh and the best part of all? The crust and crumble topping are from the same mixture, so you don’t need to make a bunch of separate layers. Same story for my strawberry rhubarb crumb bars and cherry pie bars, too!
AND AND AND! There’s no pre-baking or pre-cooking. Add the layers and bake.
Cranberry Crumble Pie Bars Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour: Flour is the base of this recipe.
- Sugar: Sugar sweetens the crust/crumble and the cranberry filling.
- Baking Powder: Baking powder keeps the crust/crumble on the lighter side. Without it, the texture would be a little too hard and dense.
- Salt, Cinnamon, & Vanilla: All 3 add flavor.
- Cold Butter: Just like pie crust, biscuits, and scones, cold butter is necessary for this recipe. We’re cutting the butter into the dry ingredients to create the same deliciously flaky and crumbly texture. The texture would completely change if we used softened butter.
- Egg: An egg binds the crust/crumble ingredients together.
- Milk: Along with 1 egg, milk is the wet ingredient to bind the ingredients together.
- Cranberries: Use fresh or frozen cranberries, just like we do for cranberry sauce. Do not use dried cranberries.
- Cornstarch: We’re essentially making a cranberry jam as the filling, so cornstarch is necessary to keep those cranberries combined.
- Orange: A splash of fresh orange juice and zest add flavor to the cranberry layer. Like orange cranberry bread in bar form!
Crust & Crumble Topping
If pie crust intimidates you, this is a wonderful place to start. You’re applying the same general mixing process, but without the headache of rolling out dough.
It’s so convenient that the crust and crumble topping come from the same bowl! Combine the dry ingredients together, then cut in the cold and cubed butter. If you don’t have a pastry cutter or if you don’t want to make it by hand, you can use a food processor to gently cut in the butter. By hand it takes a good 5 minutes to get that flour completely coated with little butter bits. (Photo above on the left.) Worth it!
The photo above on the right shows the mixture after we add the wet ingredients: egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t totally come together—the mixture will have the texture of moist sandy crumbles.
- What’s next? You’ll have about 6 cups of crust/crumble mixture. Reserve 2 cups for the topping, then press the rest into a lined 9×13 inch baking pan.
No pre-baking the crust! Just hold on tight until we add the cranberry layer.
Success Tip: Lining the pan with parchment paper makes it much easier to remove the bars before slicing and serving. I use the same tip when making rice krispie treats and M&M cookie bars, too.
Jammy Cranberry Filling
This part is so easy. Combine the filling ingredients into a large bowl. Spread over crust. That’s it, you’re done with the filling.
Add the remaining crust/crumble on top of the cranberries. For extra flavor and texture, add a big handful of sliced almonds on top. So good with these flavors!
Optional Icing
You know how some baked goods rely on the frosting or icing? Like, they’re just not as good without that finishing touch? Totally not the case here. These cranberry crumble pie bars don’t even NEED the icing. But, alas, I never turn down the opportunity for a garnish—especially orange icing. If desired, take a little more juice from the orange you used in the filling and whisk it with confectioners’ sugar. Drizzle over the bars after they’re done cooling.
Do the bars need it? No. Do we love it? Yes.
I love serving brown butter pecan pie bars this time of year because bars are hand-held and easy to eat, great for freezing or transporting, and the recipe yields a nice big batch if you’re feeding a crowd. A welcome addition to your usual pumpkin pie, apple pie, and other Thanksgiving pie recipes! Same goes with today’s cranberry bars—they’re a convenient dessert that feels just as special as a slice of pie or cranberry cake.
This recipe is part of Sally’s Pie Week, an annual tradition where I share a handful of new recipes that fit into the pie/crisp/tart category. Join the community below!
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Cranberry Crumble Pie Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 18-24 squares
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These cranberry crumble pie bars combine a buttery flaky shortbread crust, jammy cranberry filling, and crumbly almond topping. The crust and crumble topping are made from the same mixture, so there’s no need to dirty an additional bowl.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk*
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- optional: 1/3 cup (30g) sliced almonds
Cranberry Filling
- 4 cups (400g) fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw)
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) fresh orange juice
Orange Icing (Optional)
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh orange juice
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line the bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to lift the finished bars out (makes cutting easier!). Set aside.
- Make the crumble mixture for the crust and topping: Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl. Add the cubed butter and using a pastry cutter, two forks, or a food processor, cut in the butter until all the flour is coated and resembles pea-sized crumbles. (See photo above for a visual.) This takes at least 5 minutes of cutting in with a pastry cutter.
- Whisk the egg, milk, and vanilla together in a small bowl. Pour over the flour/butter mixture and gently mix together until the mixture resembles moist crumbly sand. See photo above for a visual.
- You will have about 6 cups of the crust/crumble mixture. Set 2 cups aside. Pour the remaining into the prepared pan and flatten down with your hands or a flat spatula to form an even crust. It will be a little crumbly—that’s ok. Set aside. (Almonds will be used in the topping in the next step.)
- Cranberry Filling: Mix all of the cranberry filling ingredients together. Spread over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture all over the cranberries. Sprinkle the almonds all over top.
- Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out *mostly* clean (with a few jammy cranberry specks!). Mine take about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack. After about 1 hour, I stick the whole pan in the refrigerator to help speed things up.
- Make the icing and cut into squares: Whisk the icing ingredients together. Add more orange juice to thin out, if desired. Drizzle over cooled bars, then cut into squares.
- Cover and store leftover cranberry bars (with or without icing) at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Iced or plain bars freeze well up to 3 months. Arrange in even layers in a large freezer container between sheets of parchment. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before icing and/or serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links):Â 9×13-inch Glass Baking Pan or 9×13-inch Metal Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Pastry Cutter | Cooling Rack
- Milk: I use and recommend whole milk, but nondairy or lower fat milks will work too.
This recipe turned out so yummy! My in-laws loved it so much they requested I make it again for them. If you don’t love overly sweet desserts this one is great!
These tasted delicious. However, the prep time for me was 1 hour (I cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, not a food processor). Could instead the butter be melted and stirred in? This is not real pastry (like pie dough or croissants), so why does the butter need to be cut in? The end result tasted good but it was way too much labor time that I would not make it again.
Hi Kate, thank you so much for giving this recipe a try! We’re glad you enjoyed it. Cutting the butter into the dry ingredients helps to create the same deliciously flaky and crumbly texture of pie crust, scones, or biscuits. Using softened or melted butter would create a completely different texture for the bars. It should take about 5 minutes to cut in the butter by hand—if it took much longer than that, perhaps it was overworked a bit? The pictures in the post will give you a good idea of what it should look like. If it was indeed overworked, that will cause it to lose its crumbly texture, too. Hope this is helpful information!
Recipe is great and have made several times to great reviews. My only comment is that I don’t think they freeze well. This time I made in advance and did try freezing before icing. Don’t think I will do again. Even though bars were sealed well before freezing, the texture turned a bit mushy after defrosting and lost that wonderful pie like taste. Ended up doing a rebake as didn’t think the defrosted bars were company worthy. Much better freshly made!
These were not great. I think the recipe is taking too many shortcuts to make it easy rather than making a good dessert.
First, the crust should be pre-baked so it’s not as dense, and has more flavor. Second, the cranberry filling should be cooked on the stove top before baking, right now most of the bake is burning off the steam from the fresh/frozen berries, and it results in a very inconsistent filling as it heats unevenly (the center cooks last in the oven). It would be much better to make the cranberry filling on the stove top (adjusting the sugar to taste and making the filling a uniform consistency) and then finish the bake in the oven to crisp up the topping. That is how I have made similar desserts with leftover cranberry sauce and they come out much better than these bars. Too bad, I usually have good results with Sally’s recipes.
Can use a chunky fresh pre-made orange cranberry sauce for filling instead?
Hi Aigee, you should be able to use cranberry sauce. We wouldn’t add the sugar to the filling. Since the cranberry sauce has likely already thickened, I would just use that and mix it with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and the orange zest (if desired) before spreading it on the crust.
Delicious and pretty easy to make, too. Another great recipe.
Made these as a Thanksgiving dessert and got so many compliments!! I’m definitely making them again, they turned out SO GOOD. Perfectly sweet and tart, love the orange icing! Definitely a hit for those who love pie. Myself and some others I made them for are allergic to nuts so I didn’t put any almonds and I wonder what other crunch I could add that’s nut free, but they were delicious!
I made these for Thanksgiving instead of pie and I loved them. Paired with ice cream. They are even better the next morning for breakfast. Not too sweet and perfect amount of tart.
I followed the crust recipe to the letter but mine didn’t get as wet as yours looked. It looked pretty dry and it’s almost through the time and still looks very pale. Any suggestions?
Hi Tori, how did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured, which can dry out the dough. Hope this helps for the next batch and that you enjoyed the pie bars!
Looks good. Just wondering if I can use Gluten free flour for this to recipe?
Hi Edna, we haven’t tested it ourselves, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try.
I used a gluten free mix and it was great!
I usually love Sally’s recipes but didn’t care for this one. The crust wasn’t my favorite, and the flavors just didn’t work. If you’re like me, you are reading the reviews to try to decide what recipe to make. I am leaving this comment for you! Choose another recipe. The apple pie bars are to die for!
Made these last night – they are delicious! Five stars from the family. I didn’t have any white sugar, so I substituted brown sugar and we loved them! I may not switch back. These are the perfect tart/sweet combination.
If using fresh cranberries, do they need to be cooked prior?
Hi Lisa, no need to cook the cranberries first. Simply mix the cranberry filling ingredients in step 5 and spread on top of the crust. Hope you enjoy the bars!
These are delicious!
Everyone loved them. Thank you so much!
I wanted to make a cherry pie for thanksgiving, but this pie bar recipe seems much simpler. Could I swap the cranberries for frozen tart cherries?
Hi Lori! Here’s our cherry pie bars recipe – just published today 🙂
Thank you! I did see that 🙂 I prefer to have the crust without oats. Okay to sub out the cranberries for frozen cherries? And I think I saw a post on the cherry pie bars recipe to add lemon if the cherries are sweet (not sour)? How much again?
This turned out to be fantastic and was very quick and easy to whip it together.
I made this for the first time today and it was delicious! I plan to freeze some to serve on Thanksgiving!
Wow, these are fabulous! Made them exactly per the recipe, without almonds because I didn’t have any. They are so stinkin’ delicious!! That orange glaze just puts them over the top!
Hi Sally, can I substitute a cup of almond flour for a cup of the flour?
Hi Claire, We don’t recommend almond flour as it has very different baking properties and is not always a 1:1 swap.
Hi Sally! I plan to share these with neighbors, but 2 have deadly nut allergies. What do you suggest I use as an alternative, to give it some textural “crunch”?
Thanks so much, from a 28°F, Alberta, Canada morning (11 am MST, with 8″ of SNOW )
Hi Terry, You can simply leave the sliced almonds off. It will still have plenty of texture between the three layers.
I made this for a friend, and she said:
“Wonderful. A total restaurant quality dessert.”
This sounds great! I love cranberries but my family doesn’t. Can you please suggest anything else that would work?
Hi Nancy! Here are our blueberry pie bars and our apple pie bars.
Do I chop up the cranberries it use them whole?
Hi Justyna, no need to chop the cranberries—use them whole.
I like this recipe so much I wanted to give it a summer twist by making it with cherries instead of cranberries . love it!
Hello – This looks like an amazing recipe! Can I leave out the egg? One of my guests has a severe egg allergy. Thanks very much!
Hi Michele! We haven’t tested this recipe with egg alternatives (we wouldn’t recommend just leaving it out), but let us know if you try anything!
Hi Trina – Thanks, maybe I’ll try a flax egg…Take care 🙂
DIVINE
This was so delicious Everyone loved it!
I want to make this recipe for a friend but she’s not a fan of cranberries so do you think is that possible to use fresh raspberries or blueberries instead of cranberries? Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth, here is our recipe for very similar raspberry streusel bars. (You could use blueberries there instead.)
Could craisins work instead of cranberries? And also, if using frozen cranberries would it make the crumble soggy.
Hi Kim, unfortunately dried cranberries won’t work the same here. It’s best to wait until you can get some fresh or frozen! Frozen won’t make the crumble soggy. Do not thaw before the frozen cranberries before using.
Buttery, tart perfection! So delicious! Followed the instructions exactly, simple and perfect!