Christmas is a chocolate covered holiday. Just about anything edible is coated in chocolate, dipped in chocolate or has stuffed with chips of chocolate. Think about it, cakes, candy, cookies, soufflés, puddings, pastries, donuts, breads, muffins, frostings and so much more –all chocolate. Pretzels, fruit, nuts, marshmallows, straws even (I say to my shame) barbecued beef I have dipped in chocolate. I do love chocolate but even I have my limits. It is time for some variety. Here is a recipe that shouts Christmas that does not have any chocolate in it at all. It has as its main appetite attention getter another holiday favorite cranberries. Before you get your taste buds in an uproar the cranberries are craisens. I call it Craisen Paradise Bars.

Craisens I discovered taste really good with white chocolate chips. I had some in a trail mix one time. At the time I catalogued in my brain under interesting but good tastes, and filed it away for future use. One year I decided to I dive into cranberry recipes and made up the following. (I guess I don’t count white chocolate chips as “real” chocolate, just my own opinion I guess). It’s a real easy recipe.

Crainsen Paradise Bars

Ingredients:

1 box White Cake Mix

¾ cup Craisens

½ cup Chopped Pecans

½ cup White Chocolate Chips

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 cube Butter or Margarine

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a large cake pan or 2 smaller cake pans. (Very import step- the bars will stick to the pan if you don’t do it and you’ll ruin the shape of the bars digging them out of the pan.) In a large mixing bowl, cut in 1 cube of butter. A pastry cutter is the easiest, but you could use a food processor. Chop up the butter until it is finely crumbed throughout the cake mix. Stir in only ½ cup of you crainsens. Place the mix into your cake pan(s). Top with the rest of the dry ingredients. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake evenly. (The easiest way is to take the entire top of the can. That way the thick milk will pour out into a wider ribbon. It will also make it easy to get the last bit of it out of the can with a flexible spatula ) That’s it, easy right. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Don’t be afraid to go longer if needed. A poke with a cake tester or knife should come out clean and the mixture should look solid.

This is a very forgiving recipe and very versatile too. I’ve used coconut, added raspberry juice, any kind of nut, you get the idea. Happy Holidays

As All ways Good Luck to everyone Mark Parkinson