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The low carb copycat version of the Famous Starbucks Holiday Bar:

The Cranberry Bliss bar

The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting colder. Which officially means that Starbucks red holiday cup season is upon us. Kidding aside that means that once again I must face my favorite coffee house holiday treat.  Yes, Starbucks is still serving The Cranberry Bliss bar. I can still remember my high school best friend enjoying these delicious bars all season and that was back in the early 2000s. I am not sure when they originally released the bliss bar, but I do know that it is a holiday favorite, and it is with good reason. Due to the extreme popularity, and my own personal love for them I knew I had to come up with a keto cranberry bliss bar. If you are not a Starbucks fan or have never tried the bliss bar I will do my very best to explain it’s amazing qualities.

The cranberry bliss bar has a subtle flavored chewy blondie cake-like base, and then it is topped with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

The combination of white chocolate and dried cranberries make this bar the unique holiday favorite that it has become over the years.  

But, is the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar Keto-friendly?  

When I looked into the macros for the Bliss bar, I discovered that the bar has 300 calories, 15g of fat, 37 g of carbs, and 3 grams of protein.   

With these macros, the traditional bliss bar would not be a good choice for maintaining ketosis. Of the 37 grams of carbs over 25 of those come from sugar. You may choose to enjoy one anyway, but why when you can make this super simple recipe for Keto Cranberry Bliss Bars instead.   

Cranberries are a wonderful festive fruit choice, and on their own are very keto-friendly. I touch on cranberries and the ketogenic diet more in my Cranberry Salsa Recipe.

In a nutshell, un-sweetened cranberries are very low in carbohydrates and very keto-friendly. This makes these holiday berries perfect, and I felt it was necessary to create a keto-friendly cranberry bar.

What you will need for this recipe:

• Kawaii Treats and Eats Chewy Blondie Mix 
• Butter
• Cream cheese 
• Sugar-free white chocolate chips — I recommend Choc Zero (order directly) or Bake Believe (Walmart)
• Sugar-free dried cranberries store-bought or homemade 
• Egg
• Monk Fruit
• Vanilla extract 
• Cream cheese extract
•  Orange zest 
• Ginger (optional). 

I have listed ginger as an optional ingredient. I personally never tasted ginger in the original bar. However, when I was doing research for this recipe I noticed that it was a very common ingredient. Bottom line if you don’t have ginger on hand, then no worries. Or try this recipe without ginger first, if you think you miss it then add some to your next batch.

I recently started using this amazing brownie pan:

I baked the blondies in this pan, but I did not use the divider. What I love the most about brownie pan is the pop-out base. It makes it so easy to remove the blondies, and overall is just a great feature in a baking pan. It is similar to a springform pan, and I love it.

Blondie Mix Turned Keto Cranberry Bliss Bar

The very first time I tried the Chewy Blondie Mix from Kawaii Treats and Eats I knew I had to attempt a bliss bar copycat. This mix is the PERFECT keto-friendly blondie. I could never duplicate everything this mix has to offer. The baked blondie mix is perfectly chewy once refrigerated, and mild enough to transform into any flavor combination.

I absolutely love Kawaii Treats and Eats mixes because of their versatility. I also find that baking becomes more fun, and a lot less stressful. Which is really important when it comes to keto baking. It is very easy to become overwhelmed by the list of ingredients in a keto recipe, and it can also become very expensive.

The Kawaii Treats and eats difference:

• The quality of ingredients in each mix.
• The attention to detail in every bag. The ingredients are always perfectly blended. I have even noticed that when a bag contains ingredients like nuts, they are always chopped super-fine and evenly. Just as if they chopped them by hand.
• The necessary ingredients for each recipe are short and simple. Meaning you really don’t need anything extra that you wouldn’t already likely have on hand.
• Perfect keto-friendly baked goods every single time. It does not matter if I am trying a bag for the first time or if it is something I make every week. I can expect the same exact result, and that means a lot to me. This also means I never waste ingredients. Failed keto recipes are painfully expensive.
• No need to have a bunch of extra ingredients in your pantry that hardly get used. This for me means space savings, and cost savings for our family. I no longer am buying a bunch of extra spendy keto-friendly ingredients, and only using them in one recipe.

Low Carb Sugar-Free Bliss

I sincerely hope this super simple recipe for a keto-friendly bliss bar inspires you to try a new festive holiday cranberry dessert this year.

I plan to keep an extra bag of blondie mix on hand at all times. This is the perfect sugar-free holiday treat to bring to any occasion. Taste, texture, and overall stunning presentation makes this keto bliss bar the one to beat. Especially because it really is so simple to make.

Be sure to check out the macros for these cranberry bars as well. With 16 servings each bar contains 1 net carb, 13 grams of fat, and 4 grams of protein. Be blissfull this holiday season and enjoy your Cranberry Bliss Bar guilt-free.

Affiliate Disclosure

Yield: 16

Keto Cranberry Bliss Bar

Print

This Starbucks coffee house favorite is the best easy keto-friendly dessert for the holidays.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package of Kawaii Treats and Eats Chewy Blondie Mix
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cream Cheese Extract
• Zest from one orange
• 1/3 and 1/4 cup of sugar-free dried cranberries
• 1 and 1/3 cup of keto-friendly white chocolate chips
• 5 ounces of softened cream cheese
• 5 tsp of granulated monk fruit sweetener
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

For the Blondie Base Layer:

1. Follow the instructions on the Kawaii Treats and Eats blondie mix bag, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add the vanilla extract, cream cheese extract, and orange zest to the wet ingredients.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients as directed.
4. Once the dough is combined stir in the 1/3 cup of sugar-free white chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of dried cranberries. Mix gently until everything is evenly distributed. The remaining white chocolate and dried cranberries will be used for the frosting and topping.
5. Add the cranberry bliss blondie mix to a well-greased 9"x13" pan. If you do not have this exact size use the largest baking pan that you have, or use two. You want the blondie mix to be no more than 1" thick in the pan.
6. Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges of the blondies start to brown. The blondies will seem very soft when they are fresh out of the oven, but after they have a chance to chill in the refrigerator they will transform. For a true chewy bliss bar texture, you will want to keep these keto cranberry bliss bars in the fridge.

I made my cranberry bliss bar blondies in the evening and then chilled them in the fridge all night before frosting. This allowed the blondies to become nice and firm, and really easy to work with.

For the frosting:

1. Start by whipping your softened cream cheese, sweetener, and vanilla extract in a stand mixer on low. You can also use a hand mixer for this step. You want to whip the cream cheese until it becomes light and fluffy.
2. Once the cream cheese is whipped prepare a pot on the stove for a double broiler. When I want to melt keto-friendly chocolates I like to get a pot steadily boiling. Then I turn the heat down to low and add my bowl. I recently learned that ceramic makes a great double broiler because it does not heat up as fast as metal. Ceramic also does not conduct the same amount of intense heat. I find this to be especially helpful when melting keto chocolates because they always seem to be more sensitive to temperature. I have had many keto chocolates separate when melting them down, this really helps prevent that.
3. Melt 3/4 of the 1 cup of white chocolate in the double boiler until it becomes nice and smooth.
4. Once the chocolate is melted begin whipping it into the cream cheese using a stand mixer or hand mixer on low. Once the white chocolate cream cheese frosting is well mixed and has a light fluffy texture it is time to frost the bliss bar blondie base.
5. Smooth the frosting over the bliss bars using a spatula or frosting tool.
6. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of dried cranberries and 1/4 cup of white chocolate onto the bars. Distribute them as evenly as you can, but have fun. Don't stress these bars really are naturally beautiful.
7. Refrigerate the bars for at least one hour before cutting.
8. To cut the bar into the typical triangle shape: cut the bars in half lengthwise down the center. Cut the bliss bar in alternating 45-degree angles.

For an added touch you can melt the remaining 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips in a double boiler, and drizzle the melted white chocolate on the bars. Full Disclosure: This step is not necessary. I did melt the remaining chocolate, but I do not think I will on my next batch, It was a lot more work, and it didn't add anything to the bar that the chips alone wouldn't have.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

16

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 144Total Fat: 13gCarbohydrates: 24gNet Carbohydrates: 1gFiber: 6gSugar Alcohols: 17gProtein: 4g

brilliantlyketo.com offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site. This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from multiple online calculators. Although all attempts to provide accurate nutritional information have been made, these figures are only estimates as products and ingredients macros vary.