Cranberry Crunch Squares

I agree that these hold together MUCH better if you press half the oat mixture into the pan first, and put the cranberry in the middle. Very tasty. Scale to 2/3, and it fits very nicely into an 8 inch square pan.

This is a good recipe with a few minor adjustments, reduce the butter to 1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 a cup, I reduced sugar to 1 2/3 cups and used only one cup brown and the rest white. I patted half of the crumb mixture on the bottom of a 13x9 pan, used my hands to "crumble" on the cranberry sauce (no need to spread really) evenly, and sprinkled on the rest of the oat mixture on top. I threw in some dried cranberries for texture with the jellied cranberry and topped the whole thing off with 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips. They were AWESOME! No eggs or milk so its great for restricted diets, next I will try it with even less sugar.

As written, these are too sweet and full of butter! I read some of the reviews before making it, but its been a while . . . anyway, after it cooled off the butter reabsorbed but holy butter when I took it out of the oven! Good thing I don't need my cholesterol checked this week!. . . . seriously, they are good, but I would halve the butter and halve or 1/4 the sugar. You do not need that much! And thats why they only get 3 stars in my book. However, I did like how the sugar carmelized. Kinda nice and I've never had a cobbler/cookie do that. I made as written, although I toyed with making like cookies as others have. I used a 8x8 pan instead of 9x13 bc I like cobblers and cookies that way. I may make this again, but definitely not with that amount of butter or sugar!

This was a great find. I loved this back in the 50's but had never had anything like it since! The second time I made them, I layered the cranberry sauce into the center which eliminated the gooey bottom and improved the texture and "fingerability". Everyone that tried them wanted the recipe. I also added chopped walnuts, too.

If you like cranberry, this recipe is excellent. I added the two cans of cranberry (one jellied and one whole cranberries) and layered it between the oat mixure as suggested by other reviewers. This made a great tasting dish, but I would not advise using two cans of cranberry if you actually want bars that can be easily cut and handled. This method produces more of a cranberry crisp. It was very good with vanilla ice cream!

I used this recipe to finish up some leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving. (I made about a 1/2 portion of the recipe in a 8x8 glass baking dish.) It came out of the oven about an hour ago, and I've already sneaked 2 little squares! They taste good! I did the same process as many, split the crumbs to be half on the bottom, half on top. I probably would even put just a little more on the bottom, to give the squares a little more strength as you pick them up. I cut the butter down to a little more than half, and that worked out fine. I also added some dried cranberries to the cranberry sauce, and I'm glad I did. I wound up with a very thin layer of cranberry sauce when I spread it on, but it turned out to be more than enough. I wouldn't consider increasing the amount of sauce. So far they taste GREAT warm, but they need to cool some more before I officially cut them into squares. (edited to add: About half of them were stuck to the bottom of the pan, so I only got about 8 small squares and the rest was more "crumbly". Would line iwth aluminum foil next time.)

Very good, but sticky! Beware... I would recommend using non-stick wax paper or non-stick aluminum foil to line to pan with because otherwise it is difficult to remove the pieces without them falling apart.

My husband loves these! And he almost never likes a dessert made with fruit.

I added 2 cans of cranberry, otherwise it was spread too thin in the pan. I brought them to a staff meeting - everyone thought they were great!

These were good and very easy to make. I put them together in only about 15 minutes. I used leftover cranberry sauce (2 cups) instead of a can of the stuff and used 1 1/2 stick of butter. I also put half the crumble on the bottom and half on top of the berries. I got a lot of compliments on this dish!

I really liked this recipe. I read the reviews but wanted to try the original how it is writen. But I ran out of brown sugar so ended up using 1/2 cup of white. The first batch was good but had to scrap the cranberries off the bottom of the pan. The second batch I made I used just white sugar and add a little bit more flour. I also took half the mix and pressed that on to the bottom of the pan then topped with cranberries and then the remaining oat mix. Pressed it all down flat and backed for 40 minutes. They were crunchy on the outside and a little gooey in the middle. Everyone liked them a lot.

These taste great and they're VERY easy to make!

I love this recipe because I usually have an extra can of cranberry sauce in the cupboard and it's a great way to use it. I used 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1/2 c chopped pecans, and half spread/half canola oil. I only had quick oats in the cupboard and maybe that's why it wasn't more crisp or held together better, but it's so good you could eat it with a spoon! Next time I will try regular rolled oats.

I took these camping-surely with all that oatmeal goodness they are like granola! Everyone raved! They did need a little more time baking, though, maybe another 7 minutes.

These squares tasted great...I tried pressing 1/2 the oatmeal mixture in the bottom so they would stick together better. They were really hard to get out of the pan intact. I was making them for a church bake sale and was dissappointed in the messy appearance. If making for yourself they are good, but don't make them to sell.

I followed some other reviewers suggestions and cut the butter and sugar. I put the oatmeal mixture on the bottom and top. I put it in the fridge after it cooled and had no problem cutting it into bars, and they kept their shape.

The comments by KARENMOONAH were very helpful to me. I used an 8x8 inch pan, but I didn't have to scale down the recipe. I also layered the topping on the bottom, so the cranberry was in the middle. I used whole berry cranberry sauce. It was wonderful. My husband, who does not really enjoy cranberries loved it.

Very tasty. Only there was too much butter. Next time I will only use 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter. I line my pan with Reynolds Release non-stick foil, it works better than Teflon, grease, or anything else.

First of all, these cannot be cut into squares and eaten like brownies. Also, I added 1 cup of flour in an effort to hold them together. I scoop it out onto a plate with a spoon while still warm, and everybody loves this dessert. Next time I will add the chocolate chips as someone else suggested. I have also cut down the amount of sugar in these.

My husband loved this recipe. It tasted great, but I thought there was way too much topping. Next time I make it I will cut the topping recipe in half. If you really like cranberries, you could even add an additional can of cranberry sauce.

These were pretty yummy! I used the other comments and put a layer of oat mixture on the bottom. They came out a little sticky so I let them stiffen a bit before I cut them into bars.

This brought back child hood memories! It was a favorite of mine served in my elementary school cafeteria. The only thing ill do different is use two cans of cranberries.

I don't actually eat cranberry sauce so I whipped these up with some holiday leftovers. I completely omitted the extra sugar since the homeade cranberry sauce had pineapples in it already and I felt like there was way too much sugar called for anyway. Delicious reworking of a holiday classic.

Mmmmm... I used two cans of cranberries - one jellied and one whole cranberries. Very good.

I found this recipe when I was searching to find an easy recipe to use up some leftover cranberry sauce. I will definitely cut the butter next time, probably in half. But otherwise I thought it was very tasty. I only had a little cranberry sauce, so I made individual desserts in ramekins. I just put my cranberries straight on the bottom of the ramekins and topped them with the topping. Then I served them warm with ice cream. It's like a very easy cobbler! Maybe not what the recipe was intended for, but yummy nonetheless.

DEFINITELY use 2 cans of cranberry sauce, or else there is way too much topping. But it was sooo yummy!

These were very good. I mashed the cranberry sauce well, and added a little bit of lemon extract to it. Also, I divided the oat mixture in two, and pressed half on the bottom of the pan, and sprinkled the other half on top. All in all very yummy...

I put some crumb mixture on bottom of pan first then added cranberries then some more crumb mixture on top... It was great the day I made it especially with some whipped topping on top... yum yum... only thing was it got soggy the next day.

I had so much leftover cranberry sauce, I decided to make this like a cobbler. Instead of using melted butter for the topping, I cut some cold butter into the mixture, and it turned out nice and crunchy. Soooo good with ice cream!

Sorry, but this recipe did not turn out for me. It was really too greasy and buttery -- 1 cup of butter is waaaaay too much. The melted butter just kind of welled up on the sides. It didn't cut into squares -- it just crumbled, even after following advice of other reviewers. Maybe I will try heating it up and serving with ice cream. (edited to add: Nope! It has been in my refrigerator for a looong time now, and I think its time to toss it. Yucko.)

We made as a crisp, I'm not a fan of cranberry, but my family & friends liked it. I would make again.

Excellent recipe. Served it with Orange sauce from this site. Served to over 50 people who all enjoyed the dish.

The only thing wrong with this recipe is the name. It should be called Cranberry Crisp. So many of the reviewers tried to make it into a bar recipe but as written it is really good! I made the Blue Cranberry Sauce (from this site) for Thanksgiving and used the leftovers for this in place of the canned jellied type. I served it warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream. It was a wonderful post Thanksgiving dessert.

These were crazy good. I couldn't believe it. Next time I will use another post's suggestion and make a bottom and top layer of "crust" and fill with cranberry mixture. However, after the second day, it was fine. You could pick up the "bar" and eat it.

I thought this recipe would be a good use for canned cranberry sauce I had. I did press 1/2 the oat mix down on bottom like suggested. I should have listened to others that recomended cutting the butter & sugar. They came out to greasy & very sweet This being said I still think I'd try it again with modifications I think it could be good.

I just made these, and they're great. We had a ton of leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving. Like other reviewers, I tweaked the recipe - pressed some into the bottom of the pan, topped with berries, then more oat mixture on top. I also reduced the butter to 1/2 cup and the brown sugar to 1 1/3 cups, and added a little kosher salt and cinnamon. They're really good like this - so I'm glad I cut back on the butter so much!

Made these for Thanksgiving and they were a hit!

The cookies were very delicious. And easy to make! :-)

Super easy to make. Added some marshmallows over the cranberry sauce to get rid of the extras from Thanksgiving. Really good. I may of messed up on the measurements because they were a little gooey. Also added a dollop of whip cream above the squares. Unhealthy, but tasted awesome. Will have again...

This recipe was really easy to make. My 13-yr-old made it fairly quickly on his own. It's made with common ingredients, so it's would be convenient to make at any time. It can be eaten as a: side, snack, or dessert. Sugar can be adjusted to establish your perfect balance of sweet & tangy! Oh, yes, AND this recipe tastes really yummy! I'm sure you could have fun adding nuts, raisins, etc. Enjoy! ??

I have made this every thanksgiving. It is the families favorite desert.

So easy to make! I opted for a silicone pie pan instead of the 9x13. So tasty that me and my boyfriend devoured it over the weekend. I covered the pan with foil to store it. Tastes delicious warm as well as chilled the next day. I suggest some ice cream for the day you make it.

I used the 3/4 cup butter like suggested and also did half of the crumb mixture on the bottom, and the remainder on top. Had to bake a few extra minutes but they were fabulous. I also grated an oranges worth of zest on the cranberries before i added the top layer of crumb. I Used 1 can of whole berry and 1 can of jellied. Can't be beat....yummy!!!!

This was YUMMY. I really don't like straight cranberry sauce, but had a leftover can from past holiday. I wanted to use it up but not eat it straight out of the can. This was lovely. I describe it as crumb topping with cranberry flavor. I didn't have much luck decreasing the butter, my topping wasn't holding together well enough. But I will try to decrease it next time. I liked this enough to buy the sauce just for this recipe!

After reading many of the other comments, I did halve the brown sugar and butter. I think I would have liked a touch more of each, but the flavor was great. I also took the advice of spreading some of the crumble at the bottom, then a layer of the cranberry, then the rest of the crumble. Next time I might add some craisins as well.

Took advise of other reviewers and used 1 c brown sugar & 1/2 c butter. Pressed 1/2 in bottom of 8X8 pan, bottom lined with parchment paper, added sliced jelly (easier than spreading) & topped with remaining mixture. Does not hold together well at all (maybe a little more butter would help) but tastes wonderful. Would be outstanding served warm with a little vanilla ice cream.

My cranberry sauce can was only 14 oz. I used two cans in the 9 x 13 foil lined pan.

They turned out too soft to cut into bars, so we just scooped it into small bowls and topped it with vanilla ice cream!!