Cranberry Bliss Bars (Starbucks)

250. Each Christmas Season, I wait in anticipation for Starbuck's delicious "Cranberry Bliss Bars". Beautiful white and red triangular cut Blondie bar, filled with cranberries and chunks of white chocolate. They come nestled in a paper cup, a perfect pairing with a cup of Pike Place, hot and steaming.

Recently, while on Pinterest, someone pinned a picture of, what they called, a "White Chocolate Cranberry Blondie". AAAAAHHHHHH! It was a Cranberry Bliss Bar! I did a little searching and voila', the recipe! And, it seemed to have all the ingredients as the Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bar. Only one ingredient seemed different...cinnamon in the Blondie (blonde brownie).

So, I stopped at Starbucks...for research sake, of course. And picked up a Cranberry Bliss Bar, brought it home, and we dissected it, tasting each little part and divulged that it was very close to this recipe.

Now, if you do any searching on-line, you will find there are "copy-cat" recipes for these treats. Like the "Top Secret Recipes" by Todd (recipe here) but it is not the same. There is no crystalized ginger in the recipe but a hint of ginger. Or, "Food.com's " recipe, (recipe here) . But, there is no orange zest in the brownie, only orange zest in the frosting. Now, Starbucks posts the nutritional information for their Cranberry Bliss Bar and you can see the bakery ingredients they use towards the bottom of the page. (Information here).

Choose which one is to your pleasing and try this recipe. Here is the one I made:

Cranberry Bliss Bars

or White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies (recipe here)

Blonde Brownie

3/4 cups

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cup flour

(1/8 teaspoon ginger or cinnamon - Starbucks does not use cinnamon - optional)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dried cranberries, (Craisins by Ocean Spray are too sweet. Look for a natural dried cranberry)

6 ounces white baking chocolate, coarsely chopped

Frosting

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoons grated orange peel

6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted and cooled

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Melt butter and stir in brown sugar and cool. Transfer to a large bowl and beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup cranberries and chopped chocolate. The batter will be thick.

Spread into a parchment lined 13x9inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 18-21 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Do not over bake. Cool on a wire rack.

Frosting:

In a large bowl beat cream cheese, confectioners sugar and orange peel. Add half of the melted chocolate and beat till blended. Frost the cooled brownie

and sprinkle the top with chopped 1/2 cup cranberries.

Drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Cut into bars. Store in refrigerator.

Fantastic!!!! Now, I don't have to wait all year for this delectable treat...I'll just make my own!

"Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee."

~Howard Schultz

Starbucks Cake Pops

216. The Starbucks "Cake Pops". Have you tried one yet? I did recently and must say it was an expensive disappointment.

I went into the coffee shop for my favorite Grande/black/bold roast coffee and on occasion will enjoy a red velvet cupcake, lemon or pumpkin pound cake or a scone. But in place of these sweet delights...there were cake pops. So I figured, I'll try one and bring it home for a tasting test with my daughter.

The cake pop was the Tiramisu flavored pop with a coffee bean on top. The sign stated these babies are "Perfectly sized bites of delight for under 200 calories."

So, we broke it open...we inspected the texture of the coating. It was white chocolate-like but it seemed to have some type of additive such as Crisco, to help the chocolate not to be hard.

My daughter took the first piece and chewed it...I waited...and said, "What do you think?"

She just said it was "weird".

So, I took a piece. Chewed it. The texture was wet, grainy and odd. It was weird...I tasted the white coating first and then a slight coffee flavor, but the texture was just...well...weird! It was like nothing I've ever tasted before. It didn't taste like cake or tiramisu!

We both agreed, the cake pop looked better than it tasted. The best part was the coffee bean on top. Which in fact was not a real coffee bean but a coffee flavored candy shaped to look like a coffee bean.

I'm sorry Starbucks...but we want you to bring back the red velvet cupcakes, maple scones, cranberry bars and other cupcakes. These miniature treats are small, expensive and lacking in flavor. And the red velvet whoopie pies are just blah!!!

Save your $$ and go to your local bakery for goodies instead. I give the "Starbucks Tiramisu Cake Pop" a Zero out of 10 being the best. It was an epic fail.

"Coffee will always be the core of what we do. So many companies have made mistakes by

not sticking to their knitting and they start believing their own press.

That's not going to be us." (I hope so! )

~Howard Shultz