Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Brown Sugar
¾ cup Butter
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups Walnuts
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
Filling:
16 oz. frozen Cranberries
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Cornstarch
1 tsp. Orange Zest
¾ stick Cream Cheese
1 tsp. Vanilla
¼ cup Powdered Sugar
❃❃Make 24 ❃
Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 and spray a 9×12 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Line with parchment paper the short way with enough parchment to overhang both sides. Spray the parchment paper.
Zest orange, chop walnuts, melt butter for crust and make sure cream cheese is soft.
Crust
In a bowl combine flour, brown sugar, salt, melted butter, walnuts and pumpkin pie spice. Divide mixture in half and press half of the mixture into the bottom of the glass baking dish.
Filling
In a saucepan add cranberries and sugar. Cook on medium high heat until cranberries have popped and are soft. This will take about 15-20 minutes. Once cranberries are soft add cornstarch and orange zest. Remove from heat and cool.
In a separate bowl, with a handheld mixture, mix cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar together.
Assemble
Once cooled, add cranberry mixture on top of the bottom crust distributing evenly. Add doll-ups of the cream cheese mixture over the cranberries. Finally, evenly coat cranberries and cream cheese layer with the other half of the crust mixture, leaving it loose and crumbly.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 1 hour. Once cooled, run a sharp knife on the edges of pan where there is no parchment, lift bars from pan using the overhanging parchment and cut into squares.