These scrumptious Cherry Pie Bars bring out the best of cherries with a soft buttery crust, topping, and a simple four-ingredient powdered sugar glaze. They are the perfect combination of tart and sweet.
Amazing Cherry Pie Bars
These tasty bars come together quickly and easily with many simple pantry ingredients. They are always a huge hit with friends and family and a personal favorite of mine. My son and I are devoted sour cherry and fruit bar lovers. If you love this recipe, try some of my other bar recipes, like oatmeal bars, blueberry cream cheese bars, magic cookie bars, lemon bars, and carmelitas.
Cherry Pie Ingredients
For the bars, you will need flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, unsalted butter, granulated sugar, large eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract, and cherry pie filling.
You will need powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and milk for the glaze.
How do you make Cherry Pie Bars?
Start by whisking the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Now, using a handheld mixer on medium speed in a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in the vanilla and almond extract just until combined. Then add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mixing just until combined. Scrape down the bowl and beaters as needed. Spread all but 1 cup of the dough into a well-greased 9×13-inch pan using an offset spatula.
Spread the cherry pie filling over the batter. Drop the remaining batter by rounded tablespoons onto the cherry pie filling. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pan to a wire rack to fully cool for at least 1 hour up to overnight. Whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and enough milk to reach the desired consistency in a small bowl. Drizzle over the fully cooled bars.
Tips for making Cherry Pie Bars
- If possible, use premium cherry pie filling or, better yet, homemade cherry pie filling if you have the fruit and the time.
- Real butter is absolutely essential for making the crust delicious.
- Use pure vanilla and almond extract. It is well worth the added expense.
- You can easily substitute blackberry, blueberry, peach, or apple pie filling, as my late mother used to say to each his own.
- Bake the bars until the edges are bubbling and the top is golden brown.
- Please wait until the bars are cooled to room temperature to drizzle them with the glaze.
Storage
Store the bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Enjoy them chilled or warmed. Reheat individual slices in the microwave for 20 seconds at 70-80% power to take the chill off. To reheat the whole pan, cover it loosely with aluminum and place it in a 300-degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until warm.
How to freeze Cherry Pie Bars
To freeze, first fully cool. Then slice into bars and place on a parchment-covered baking sheet with space between the bars. Place on a level surface in the freezer until fully frozen. This technique is known as flash freezing. This will allow you to remove as many or as few bars as you want since they will not be frozen together. Once frozen, place in a sturdy freezer container with wax paper or parchment paper between the layers and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight
The weekend is coming. It is the perfect time to make your loved ones a special treat. These Cherry Pie Bars will leave you and yours with a smile on your face and a song in your heart.
Other cherry recipes!
Cherry Pie Bars
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 21-ounce can of cherry pie filling
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 2-3 tablespoons milk half n half, or water (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in the vanilla and almond extract just until combined. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture mixing just until combined. Scrape down the bowl and beaters as needed.
- Spread all but 1 cup of the batter into the prepared pan using an offset spatula. Spread the cherry pie filling over the batter. Drop the remaining batter by rounded tablespoons onto the cherry pie filling.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pan to a wire rack to fully cool for at least 1 hour up to overnight.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and milk. Drizzle over the fully cooled bars.
Notes
- If possible, use premium cherry pie filling or, better yet, fresh if you have the fruit and the time.
- Real butter is absolutely essential for making the crust delicious.
- Use pure vanilla and almond extract. It is well worth the added expense.
- You can easily substitute blackberry, blueberry, peach, or apple pie filling. As my late mother used to say to each his own.
- Bake the bars until the edges are bubbling and the top is golden brown.
- Wait until the bars are cooled to room temperature to drizzle them with the glaze.
- Store the bars in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave for 20 seconds at 70-80% power to take the chill off.
Nutrition
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https://www.smalltownwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Beth-1.pdf
Valentina
These cherry dessert bars are so delicious and easy to make! They are a great dessert for any time!
Melissa
Wow – I made these for dessert last week and the family love them!
Val
Wonderful and easy recipe. Made it 1 1/2 times bigger. Thank you
Beth Pierce
Thanks Val! So glad that you liked it!!
Dawn Rupard
I have a big cherry tree full of beautiful cherries so I was wondering how many cups of fresh cherries would I need for this recipe & how much sugar should I put with the cherries? Is there anything else I should do with the cherries other than remove the pits & add sugar to them?
Beth Pierce
Sorry about the delay. It has been a crazy week. You really only need a little over two cups. Here is a great post on cherry pie filling however you would need to scale it down.
Krissy Allori
My oh my, these bars are absolutely delicious. I’ll make them again and again for sure.
Kara
I think I like these even better than homemade cherry pie! And of course I love that there’s no need to roll out a pie crust. 😉
Toni
This is a really nice treat! I loved it!
Katerina
Such an incredible dessert! My family would love these crumble bars!
wilhelmina
I am obsessed with these bars! I am a huge cherry fan and I loved the way the buttery crust and crumb paired with the sweet-tart cherries. Delish!
Jamielyn
Loved these cherry pie bars! The crumble on top was perfect and added just the right amount of crunch.
Katie
Cherry pie is always my favorite at thanksgiving, so these make it possible to have them all the time!
Natasha
Oooh I love that these are so much easier to serve than normal pie and that you get twice the topping to filling ratio! My kind of dessert
Carol
I made these today, but made my own filling using frozen cherries. They are SO GOOD! Thank you!
Beth Pierce
Thanks so much Carol! I am so glad that you liked them! They are totally yummy!
Maryellen Heckman
Made this for dessert today and wanted a little more buttery flavor in the crust. Maybe next time I will drizzle a little melted butter on the crumble top since mine never quite got golden. Glad I stopped to buy the premium cherry pie filling and the pure almond flavor along with the pure vanilla . That part was quite tasty.
Beth Pierce
Let us know how the butter works out! Glad that you found the cherry pie part tasty!
Vicky
This was easy to make and tasty too without being overly sweet. I only have an 8×8 pan, so I had to discard some of the the crumb mixture. I might try it next time with a cream cheese layer to make it like a cherry cheese cake .
Linda
These sound so tasty. I totally agree about the “premium” pie filling. I only use “Lucky Leaf” brand, Premium Cherry Pie Filling ( or any other flavor for that matter ) The difference is night and day between the other brands! I enjoy all your recipes … thank you so much!