It was a Washington Post recipe. I've put the link below. There is a very minor error - the ingredients list starts "for the filling" and then lists all the ingredients for the recipe. The first three ingredients are for the filling and the rest are for the dough. I think the dough would be good with a raspberry or blackberry filling too. Perhaps the sugar in the dough should be cut back a bit for that because the filling wouldn't be as tart. The funny thing is that once all my baking was done, I pulled some cookies from the freezer to assemble my shalach manot boxes (goodies to give to friends for Purim) and underneath them was a bag of cranberries that I'd put in the freezer in November. Arghh! And I'd though there were some in there and had looked but didn't think to pull up the cookies. I'll have to make the recipe with them sometime to see how close I came with the dried ones. Here is a link that might be useful: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2007/12/12/cranberry-oat-bars/

Since it is basically a crust with a fruit topping, you could sub fresh for the dried, but I would probably cut the cranberries in half rather than leaving them whole, and use them instead of part of the pears, adding some form or other of dried fruit instead of the dried cranberries to maintain the texture. Were it me, I might try a 2 to 1 ratio, pears to cranberries, and then add chopped, dried apricots to sub for the dried cranberries. It would make for a bar more tart than the original recipe, but I like tart flavors.

Mdgardengurl, your recipe sounds a lot like one my aunt ussed to make. Thanks. When cranberries are on sale around Thanksgiving, I always make a few batches of this and freeze in freezer bags. Kids like the pink color. HOLIDAY APPLESAUCE 4 lb. sweet apples (Red or Golden Delicious, Empire, Winesap, etc.), cut into chunks (donÂt peel or core) 3 cups cranberries (12 oz.) 1 cup unsweetened apple cider Two 3-inch strips lemon zest 1/ 2 cup sugar 3/ 4 tsp. ground cinnamon In covered pot, simmer apples, cranberries, cider and lemon peel, stirring occasionally, for 1/ 2 hour or more, until apples are very tender. Add sugar and cinnamon. Simmer, covered 10 minutes. Discard zest. Pass mixture through a food mill. Add honey, sugar, or brown sugar to taste. Makes about 2 quarts. Can be frozen.

Sounds great! I will try to make this sometime soon. My husband loves cranberry bread.