These festive-looking, delicious cranberry bars are perfect for year-round baking. The inspiration for these came from Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars. This is a lightened version since it uses egg whites (no yolks) and unsweetened apple sauce in place of more butter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 inch non-stick baking pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and make sure it is well blended.
In another bowl, whisk the sugar with the butter, egg whites, applesauce and vanilla.
Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in 2 or 3 batches until all is well blended. Add drops of water if needed to smooth out the mixture.
Fold in white chocolate chips and dried cranberries into the batter. Spread the batter onto the baking pan using a spatula to smooth evenly.
Bake 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are ligh brown and a toothpick inserted in the dough comes out clean. Let cool.
Frosting
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer (or stand up mixer) to beat the cream cheese, confectioner's sugar and vanilla until it is well blended. Frost the bars and sprinkle with remaining cranberries.
Melt the white chocolate by placing it in a microwaveable bowl and heating for 15 seconds. Stir. Do 15 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted.
Drizzle the bars with the melted white chocolate using a drizzling spoon or use a ziploc bag and snip one corner.
When the chocolate has set, cut into 15 large squares and cut each square diagonally into triangles.