Dark Chocolate Cranberry Magic Bars are a symphony of flavors and textures, perfect for the holiday baking season! Easy to make and beyond delicious!
These bars are my new favorite dessert. I just can not get enough!
The medley of sweet, tart, and rich flavors, combined with the chewy, crunchy, gooey textures is all your tastebuds could ever dream of!
Make them for the holidays, make them for gifts, or make them just because! Trust me – you won’t regret it!
When I was a kid, I did not like nuts in my dessert. There was no disappointment like that of biting into a brownie only to find walnuts inside. Not cool.
These days, I fully enjoy the crunch and flavor that comes from adding nuts to different desserts. Hello, Salted Caramel Turtle Brownies!! If you don’t like nuts (or are allergic) go ahead and leave them off. Either way, these magic bars are amazing!
Tips and How to make Dark Chocolate Cranberry Magic Bars:
- Making the crust is simple and only requires 3 ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, and flour.
- When making the shortbread crust, make sure your butter is COLD. This will give the crust that scrumptious flakey, buttery texture.
- Rich dark chocolate, sweet coconut, crunchy pecans, and tart cranberries provide incredible flavors and textures to compliment the buttery crust.
- Feel free to swap or leave out toppings that aren’t your favorite. Use white or milk chocolate instead of dark; use walnuts or almonds instead of pecans – these are totally customizable to your own personal preferences.
- The sweetened condensed milk poured over the bars acts like the glue that holds everything together. Plus it adds irresistible gooey sweetness!
- Reserve about 1/4 cup of your toppings to add on top of the condensed milk (optional). This is purely for visual appeal, but it really does make them look nicer!
(Complete recipe below in recipe card.)
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MORE EASY HOLIDAY DESSERT BAR RECIPES:
Chocolate Pecan Pie Magic Bars – These are a Thanksgiving tradition in my house!
Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Bars with Eggnog Frosting
11 Insanely Delicious Magic Cookie Bars
4 Ingredient Coconut Cream Bars – A must make in my family every Christmas!
20 Easy Cookie Bars That Will Leave Everyone Raving!
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Dark Chocolate Cranberry Magic Bars
Ingredients
CRUST
- 1 cup cold, cubed, unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
FILLING
- 12 oz dark chocolate chips
- 2/3 cups dried cranberries
- 1 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Add butter, sugar, and flour to a large bowl and use a fork or party cutter to bring ingredients together into pea sized crumbs.
- Press evenly into a greased 9x13" pan.
- Bake 12 minutes.
Filling
- Sprinkle chocolate, cranberries, coconut, and pecans evenly over crust.
- Pour condensed milk over toppings and bake 18 minutes.
- Let cool completely before cutting into bars.
- Best if stored covered in the refrigerator.
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Originally published on Nov 16, 2018
RN.ACHEN says
For the extra toppings to make it look nicer, did you add those before or after baking?
These look so good, I can’t wait to package them up to give out during Christmas! 🤗
Stephanie Brubaker says
I add them just before baking. Merry Christmas!
Kris says
Hi,
Do you use unsweetened or sweetened coconut?
Thank you.
Kris
Stephanie Brubaker says
I use sweetened coconut. Enjoy!
Iris says
Hello
What can I use instead of coconut (I am allergic). I guess just more cranberries.
Rose-Marie Castillo-Favio says
I made this yesterday!. Wow! Absolutely Delish!!!!!!! My husband went Nuts over it. I took some to my Rehab and my friends there too flipped over it. I made it for Valentines Day Celebration.
They all want the recipe too.
This is so easy to make and fun to make too.
Thank you, Rose
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
Suzanne says
These look amazing! I love the colors too! So festive!
sherri says
Thanks so much – I most likely will be recreating these this year!
Reminds me of what my mom use to make…and it’s easier than making cookies!
Brooke says
These look fantastic and your pictures are beautiful. Adding them to the “of I have time” list. I keep finding stuff I want to make and the list is getting quite long
Connie says
Has anyone frozen the bars? How were they when thawed to room temperature?
chahinez @lifestyleofafoodie says
I recently became obsessed with cranberries so now I literally bake everything cranberry. I actually have a huge bag of cran-raisin in the pantry so I will try these gorgeous bars very soon!
Rebecca says
YUM! I used fresh cranberries, instead of dried, approximately 1 c. chopped in my food processor. Will probably use the whole bag next time. I thought it could have used more tart to offset all the sweet. Big hit at a Christmas party.
Beautiful and tasty. I used my cheese shredded with the cold butter and it mixed into the rest of the crust ingredients very quickly that way.
S says
Did you cook them before you used them or just put them on after chopping them? I love fresh cranberries.
Margaret says
Thanks, Rebecca, I was wondering if I could sub real cranberries and how. This is on Christmas rotation this year!
Sharyl says
Are the dried cranberries sweetened like craisins? Where do you find them?
Stephanie Brubaker says
Yes, they are sweetened. I have seen them in all the grocery stores around here! Hope you can find some 🙂
Susan says
Mmmmmmm! These look so nice! Even more beautiful with 4oz white chocolate chips added to the filling!