These Light Cranberry Bliss Cookies are a healthier copycat of the Starbucks’s favorite bars. A lighter sweet treat for the holiday season!
It’s holiday baking season, which means there is a lot of temptation out there! Although you shouldn’t feel bad for indulging a bit during the holidays, it’s always nice to have some lighter alternatives.
These cookies have just the right amount of sweetness–a great way to balance out all of the cloying desserts around this time of year.
The inspiration for this recipe are the Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Bars that are all the rage right now. I’ve received tons of requests for a copycat version of the bars, but every attempt I made was a major fail.
The bars kept coming out dry and crumbly. I figured that was because it needed to cook all the way through–by the time the center was cooked, the edge were dried out.
So why not turn these into smaller portions and cook for way less time, to ensure they’re soft on the inside? Success!
Cookies are more fun anyway, right? Much easier than cutting a bunch of bars, and easily portioned out.
How to make Light Cranberry Bliss Cookies
As far as baking goes, this recipe is actually quite easy, with minimal ingredients. You could also double or triple the recipe to make more for holiday parties.
For my gluten-free friends out there, I’ve tried these cookies out suing Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 All-Purpose Flour, and they came out great! I might even like the texture better. than with regular AP flour. Super moist and chewy.
To make the cookies look pretty, you might want to reserve even more of the cranberries to stick on top of the dough balls before you bake them, like I did below.
It’s not necessary–just depends on how much you care about the red popping through.
As far as the chocolate goes, you could use regular white chocolate chips, but I like to use the Lily’s sugar free brand. Normally, I don’t like the taste of sugar-free products, but I like the way these work in these cookies. And they save a lot of calories!
My last piece of advice is to err on the side of under baking the cookies. Six minutes worked perfectly for me, but all ovens are different.
Just keep a close eye on them and take them out when the edges just start to harden and the middle still looks raw. This will result in a tender cookie.
I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! Leaving a starred review and comment below helps my blog grow. I’m always grateful when you can take the time to do that!
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Light Cranberry Bliss Cookies
Ingredients
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup Lily's No-Sugar Added White Chocolate Chips
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp dried cranberries, finely chopped
WET INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp light butter, melted (I use Earth Balance Whipped)
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, beat together all wet ingredients.
- Set aside 3 tablespoons of chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of chopped, dried cranberries. In another mixing bowl, combine all of the remaining dry ingredients.
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
- Spritz a baking sheet with cooking spray. Drop rounded tablespoons full of the dough onto the sheet. Using the back of a spoon, press down gently on the dough balls to slightly flatten.
- Bake cookies for 6-8 minutes, or until they look just cooked at the edges and still slightly raw in the middle.
- Melt reserved chocolate chips and drizzle evenly over the tops of the cookies. Sprinkle remaining chopped cranberries over the chocolate drizzle. Cool completely to set.
What can I substitute for almond milk- I’m allergic to almonds.
I think regular skim milk would work just fine.
Geri,
These are amazing! Thank you for sharing. I used monk fruit sweetener and my newest secret…..King Arthur 00 flour, only 6 WW points per cup.
Thank you from a fellow LB gal!
Susan
Great to hear, Susan! Thank you for the review. 🙂
I can’t wait to try this out but vegan style. I never have to worry about undercooking cookies if there’s no egg and I can eat as much of the raw dough as I want. I’m glad your recipe only calls for one egg because substituting 3 or more eggs never works out.
You’re totally awesome, I’m glad I found your blog. Thank you so much!