Jammy sweet cranberry filling between a gingerbread spiced crust and crumble combines two favorite holiday flavors in one healthier dessert!
SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER
Some holiday flavors should not be mixed. Pumpkin spice cranberry sauce? No thank you. Candy cane pecan pie? Zero slices please. Eggnog chocolate crinkles? I’m all good. But there is one Christmas flavor mashup that almost seems like it was meant to be: cranberry + gingerbread! The tart-sweet fruitiness of cranberry spiked with a hint or orange contrasted by the warm-spiced coziness of gingerbread is a magical combination. And the cookie crumbly meets jammy sticky textures are a perfect contrast too. Now imagine all that perfect complimenting captured in a crumble bar and drizzle with glaze…this is a recipe you need in your holiday repertoire.
How To Make Perfect Cranberry Gingerbread Crumb Bars
This recipe does have three layers, but we’re cheating by making just one gingerbread crumb mixture to use for both the crust and topping. And the cranberry mixture is quick and simple to prep too.
One-Bowl Gingerbread Oat Crumble
Lots of spices, a quarter cup of classic molasses flavor, oatmeal for a bit of healthy texture, and a few other key ingredients to achieve crust OR crumble-ibility. You will need…
- Gluten-free flour. Or regular all purpose flour, whichever you prefer.
- Oatmeal. Rolled oats are best for texture, but quick oats are fine in a pinch.
- Coconut sugar. Or brown sugar, a little granulated sweetener to compliment the molasses sweetness.
- Spices. Ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice. The whole gingerbread crew.
- SunButter. This is the key ingredient that makes it possible to use this mixture as the crust AND the crumble. It adds just the right amount of moisture and stickiness to hold together as a crust and also sprinkle on as a crumble. It also replaces any oil or vegan butter that you would typically use in a crumble recipe. I used classic Creamy SunButter, but any variety would be fine.
- Molasses. A must for creating the gingerbread taste, and also adds some extra sweetness and moisture too.
- Vanilla extract and salt.
Quick Cranberry Orange Filling
Yes this does require a little bit of stovetop stirring, but I promise it comes together quick! You will need…
- Cranberries. I used fresh, but frozen would be fine as well.
- Maple syrup. Agave would work as well. Using only a liquid sweetener took too long to thicken, so we are combining that with…
- Cane sugar. Coconut sugar would be okay as well, personally I prefer cane sugar to preserve the BRIGHT red cranberry color. This is more sweetening that I would typically use for a berry filling, but remember cranberries are TART.
- Arrowroot starch. Or tapioca or corn starch.
- Orange juice and orange zest. This flavor compliments cranberries (and gingerbread!) so well.
More Holiday Sweet Treats You’ll Love
- Gingerbread Fig Bars
- Easy Vegan Sugar Cookies (oat flour!)
- SunButter Gingerbread Cake Bars
- Puppy Chow Bars
Cranberry Gingerbread Crumb Bars
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
- Category: bars
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
Jammy sweet cranberry filling between a gingerbread spiced crust and crumble combines two favorite holiday flavors in one healthier dessert!
Ingredients
Gingerbread Crust/Crumble
- 1 cup (130g) gluten-free flour
- 1 cup (80g) rolled oats
- 1/4 cup (35g) coconut sugar
- 2 tsps ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (125g) Creamy SunButter
- 1/4 cup (80g) molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cranberry Filling
- 1 12oz bag (340g) fresh cranberries
- 1/4 cup (80g) maple syrup
- 1/4 cup (50g) cane sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp arrowroot or tapioca starch
- Zest of one orange
- 1 tbsp orange juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine gluten-free flour, oats, coconut sugar, spices, and salt. Toss to combine.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together Creamy SunButter, molasses, and vanilla.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry, and use your hands or a fork to loosely mix until evenly combined and crumbly.
- Press 2/3 of this mixture firmly into a 8×8″ square pan lined with parchment paper or sprayed with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients for the cranberry filling.
- Bring to a simmer on medium heat. Cook 4-5 minutes stirring continuously until it starts to thicken.
- Pour on top of the crust, and spread into an even layer.
- Crumble the remaining gingerbread mixture on top, pressing in lightly.
- Bake 30-35 minutes at 350°F until golden around the edges.
- Cool completely (or even chill) before slicing into 16 squares.
Keywords: gluten free, oatmeal, holiday, Christmas, cinnamon, ginger, berry, healthy, baking
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In a pinch could creamy all natural almond butter replace the sunbutter?
Yes that will be fine!
What is the white streusel made from?
That’s not streusel, that is just a simple glaze made with 2 cups of powdered sugar in 2 to 3 tablespoons of almond milk!
Thank you!
This turned out amazing! Exactly what I was looking for to use up the extra cranberries I had in the freezer from Thanksgiving. I didn’t have sunbutter, so used almond butter instead. Delightful mix of flavors with the spices and molasses. Thank you for sharing your recipes. I’ve got a few of them on regular rotation at our house. Appreciate your creativity so much. Thank you!
★★★★★
I am SO happy you loved these!! I bet they were delicious with almond butter too😋 so honored that my recipes had become a regular in your house!
These are brilliant! The best textures and flavors I could dream of but still packed with nutrients from the fruit + oats!
★★★★★
It all compliments each other SO WELL!! And yes a little wholesome for the holidays too🤗
Total Yum! As always, you are the best! Love your recipes. Thank you for sharing them!! I made exact to recipe…and my only “thing” is that my sunbutter was probably not that oily and the crumb mixture turned out a bit dry! It could have been my GF mix too! Will “rock” out that dryness next time! LOL
★★★★★
So happy you enjoyed them! That can happen, especially towards the bottom of the sunbutter jar. I like to add a little coconut oil and stir it up back to runny consistency!
Ooopps missed your good reply! Fab idea about the coconut oil. Will remember that! Thank you!
Yes works great, I use that one all thr time!