In what feels like another lifetime, I worked for one year as Assistant Manager of Warehouse One, which is a Canadian clothing retailer. The shopping mall was a destination back than and big box retailers weren't yet where we all demanded to shop and we definitely weren't choosing online shopping either. It was the mid 2000's and at Christmas time the mall was a fun and festive place even though I'd not wish working retail at that time of year or any really on anyone. One big event leading up to Christmas was Midnight Madness.
Midnight Madness happened on a few weekend evenings in the month of December leading up to Christmas. Each store would stay open well passed the regular 9pm...until 1am instead and many would have special deals for that time period. It was nowhere near as hectic as Boxing Day was but still a stressful time for anyone having to work in a store.
At the far end of the mall was a Starbucks. Myself and a coworker were working this late night shift and we were both concerned for staying awake and alert. For some oddball reason we both thought it would be a good idea to buy chocolate covered coffee beans.
You probably see where I'm going with this.
Starbucks used to have little boxes of these coffee beans right by the cash register along with mints and biscotti. I don't think they have this anymore and if they do I haven't noticed. These were obviously nice little add ons if you were purchasing a latte or cranberry bliss bar.
The chocolate covered coffee beans did indeed keep us awake and alert...not only for the Midnight Madness but for the entire night. We both vowed to never do THAT again and told the legend to all our others coworkers. It's a story I found myself telling a few students last week which they all found highly amusing.
Even though I will likely never have chocolate covered coffee beans again, I did love those cranberry bliss bars and still do. Starbucks has changed the recipe so a few years ago I scoured the interweb for a copycat recipe. What you'll find below has become a staple in my holiday baking every year. I've tweaked it several times but decided to finally write it out instead of deciphering my cryptic notes in my home made family cookbook binder.
I'm sharing it all with you. Feel free to click on the recipe photo and save it to your devices. Let me know if you make it as well!
* If * you do try it make certain to not skip 2 important steps.
1) Make absolutely sure you coat the baking pan with cooking spray and coat with flour. If you don't you wont ever get it out of the pan.
2) You most definitely will need to coat your hands with cooking spray to pat it down and stretch it into the pan. The batter is EXTREMELY sticky so if you don't you'll be covered in it.
The original recipe was in an 11X17 baking pan but I don't have one that size and I'm pretty sure it's not a standard size either. My recipe is 9X13 which is a size we all own. This makes the bars a little thicker and the Starbucks version.
My oven runs hot so regardless of what I think they get removed at 20 minutes. I'm going to caution you as well...they may not look cooked but trust that they are. If they are over baked they become very crumbly.
Enjoy and happy baking!
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