These Cranberry Bliss Bars are a copycat of the famous seasonal bar you can find at your favorite chain coffee shop; only these bars are 100% vegan! Soft and chewy with a little spice and orange zest added in, you won’t know you aren’t eating the real deal. Top with a cream cheese icing, drizzled with (vegan) white chocolate, and you are in for a special vegan treat you can make at home.

Cranberry Bliss Bars are a special holiday treat my family missed. Luckily, with this copycat – yet vegan – recipe we don’t have to! Even though we try to eat healthy on a day-to-day basis, it’s important to maintain certain traditions – even (especially) those that involve a little treat! (Read more about the day I realized this to be true!) For some more special yummy treats, try:

Banana Cookies with Salted Caramel Frosting – So Good You Can’t Eat Just One!

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chips – Just Like Grandma’s

Pumpkin Muffins with Pecans – Topped Three Ways

To make these vegan cranberry bliss bars you will need:

(Please see the printable recipe card below for full ingredients including amounts as well as the complete instructions.)

For the bars:

ground flax seed
all-purpose flour
brown sugar
ground ginger
cornstarch
baking powder
salt
vegan butter
vanilla and orange extract
orange zest
vegan white chocolate chips (affiliate link)
craisins (or other dried cranberries)

For the Frosting and topping:

white vinegar
lemon juice
vanilla and orange extracts
salt
vegan butter
vegetable shortening
powdered sugar
cornstarch
craisins
vegan white chocolate

Pin now to save for later:

Tips and Tricks for Making the Recipe for Cranberry Bliss Bars (Vegan)

There is a printable recipe card below, but please read through the Tips and Tricks section the first time to ensure your recipe turns out as fabulous for you as it did for me.

Can you make a cookie bar without eggs?

Yes! You can use an egg replacer such as Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer (affiliate link), apple sauce or other fruit purees, or a “flax egg” using ground flaxseed and water. For this recipe, the best option to really hold the cookie bars together after cutting was making a flax egg.

I use the main mixing bowl I’m going to use to mix my cookie bars in and add warm water to the ground flaxseed. Give it a little stir, and allow it to sit for a few minutes while getting the dry ingredients together and zesting the orange.
It’s important to mix the dry ingredients well before adding them to the liquid. Make sure you break up and fully incorporate the packed brown sugar.
I use organic sugar (brown, white, and powdered) to sure to ensure vegan compliance. Some sugar is processed using bone char. If this is a concern for you, use sugar that is labeled vegan or organic sugar which does not process this way.

What kind or brand of vegan butter should I use?

Make sure you use vegan butter that tastes good to you as it will affect the outcome of the recipe. My current favorite is Country Crock Plant Butter.
A stick butter works a lot better for the best texture than a tub butter.
I melt my stick of vegan butter in a microwave-safe bowl for one minute and it melts perfectly. Your microwave might heat differently. Start with thirty seconds and then add another 30 and then 20-second increments until it is melted.

Do I need to use orange zest and orange extract?

Do you want your cranberry bliss bars to taste authentic? Then the answer is yes! You will need the zest of one medium-sized orange. This works out to about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of zest. If you don’t have a zester (affiliate link) then use the small holes of your grater.

Orange extract can be found near the vanilla extra in your grocer’s baking section. If you absolutely can’t find it, then zest another orange.

Baking the Cranberry Bliss Bars:

You will need to preheat your oven to 350° and prepare your baking pan before starting. If you want to be able to lift the baked cranberry bliss bars out of the pan to get the cleanest cut, you will need to use parchment paper (affiliate link) and let it hang over some on two sides so that you can use the overhang to grasp and lift.
Spray the pan first and then lay the parchment paper across and press down.
I measure the bottom of my baking pan. Even though I’m using a 9×9 pan, the bottom is closer to 8×8. Measure out about 18 inches of parchment paper, then loosely roll it, measure the length you want to cut to (in my case, 8 inches) and just cut across. Easy peasy.

measuring tape against parchment paper — Measure the bottom of your pan, then roll up the parchment paper, measure the same amount and cut across. (And oh dear, I don’t have a decent pair of scissors in my house that my little dog hasn’t chewed!)

Make sure you spray the pan first so that the parchment will stick to the bottom.
After your batter is mixed, it will be a little thicker than your typical brownie batter. Expect your batter to look more like cookie dough.
Turn the batter into the pan and with the back of a spoon (or honestly just use your fingers), gently press into the edges.
I place the 9×9 pan onto a cookie sheet to make it easier to put in and take out of the oven.
Every oven is different. It takes my oven about 25 minutes to fully bake this recipe. Check yours at 23 minutes and then every couple of minutes for 23-27 minutes.
You will know that your cranberry bliss bars are fully baked when the edges are lightly browned and when the top feels mostly solid (not jiggly) with a gentle touch.
Take the pan out of the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before handling.
After about 15 minutes, grasping the parchment on both sides, gently lift to a cooling rack and allow to fully cool before frosting.

The Vegan “Cream Cheese” Frosting:

When I first made these cranberry bliss bars, I fully intended to make a cream cheese frosting using vegan cream cheese. Unfortunately, in my one- grocery-store town, I have one option for vegan cream cheese. And they were out! Even when it is in stock, it is very expensive – $9.00 for a small 8-ounce container! I knew these cookie bars needed a slightly tangy cream cheese icing to taste authentic, but was honestly out of time to run to the next town and try to find vegan cream cheese.

Luckily, I found this amazing cream cheese-less vegan cream cheese frosting on my new favorite website, Cooking On Caffeine! I made some adjustments for this particular recipe and nearly cried with joy that I could make a cream cheese frosting that tasted so authentic but without the actual vegan cream cheese! You should check out Cooking on Caffeine for some amazing vegan recipes – especially her beautiful Vegan Italian Macarons! Say what?

How to make the cream cheese frosting:

ingredients for frosting including salt, vanilla, orange extract, lemon juice, and white vinegar — These are the special ingredients needed to give this frosting a little tang and flavor.

To make this cream-cheeseless cream cheese frosting, you will need a little lemon juice and white vinegar. Believe it or not, these two ingredients give your frosting the tang it needs!
Because we drizzle white chocolate on top of the frosted bars, the frosting was a little too sweet. I added in some salt and subbed in a little cornstarch to help cut down on the sweet.
Because I want it to be mostly dissolved before adding in the powdered sugar so I mix up the extracts, vinegar, and lemon juice first with the salt.
Use a half a stick vegan butter as well as 1/4 cup vegetable shortening.
Mix up the powdered sugar with the cornstarch before adding to the liquids, one half at a time. Using the cornstarch helps to cut the sweetness a little.
Don’t forget to add in the craisins before frosting your bars. You will also sprinkle a few on top for a pro look!

The vegan white chocolate:

I can easily find vegan brown chocolate chips in my grocery store but have been challenged finding vegan white chocolate. I have heard that Trader Joe’s carries some. Please let me know if you have found any other big chains that carry vegan white chocolate chips, and I will add them to this post. There are several options on Amazon. These are the ones I use. They come in a three-pack so I can make this recipe over again.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each time. Depending on your microwave, You shouldn’t have to heat for more than 90 seconds. I heat mine for one minute. Because these white chocolate chips are vegan, they will not melt as liquidy as regular white chocolate chips would have.
When the white chocolate is melted, it will still be quick thick.
Since the melted white chocolate will be quite thick, it will not drizzle unless you put it in a pastry bag and gently squeeze out. I was out of pastry bags (affiliate link) the day I made this recipe. I just used a small baggie and made the tiniest hole in one corner. It was not ideal, but it worked.

vegan white chocolate in plastic bag, pressed out and drizzled on the top of the cranberry bliss bars. — Use an icing bag (or clear baggie) to drizzle the vegan white chocolate.

The Recipe For Cranberry Bliss Bars (Vegan)

I hope you enjoy the recipe, but don’t say good-bye! Sign-up here for recipe tips and kitchen wisdom. I also invite you to email me with any questions you have. When you become a part of the Veggie Fun Kitchen Community, you’ll learn to cook great tasting recipes the whole family will enjoy! (No spam here! I will never share your email, and you can unsubscribe whenever you want!)