Easy Cherry Bars

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

24 Comments

5 from 7 votes
24 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
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Easy Cherry Bars are a tasty summer treat! The cherry pie filled shortbread is perfect for snacking or serving at your next get together.

Summertime is the perfect time fill your kitchen and pantry with Fruit Desserts like Strawberry Crumb Bars and Peach Crumb Bars. Great for snacking on the go!

Sabrina’s Easy Cherry Bars Recipe

This recipe is so easy thanks to the canned cherry pie filling. While we all love fresh fruit desserts, sometimes you can’t beat the convenience of canned fruit filling. It’s budget friendly and you can use it to make your favorite pies and pasty desserts, like these Cherry Bars, whenever you are craving them.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Easy Cherry Bars Recipe

Easy Cherry Bars are a tasty summer treat! The cherry pie filled shortbread is perfect for snacking or serving at your next get together.
Yield 24 servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Bars are stacked on a plate.
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

Cherry Bars:

  • 1 cup salted butter , softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 large eggs , room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 cans cherry pie filling , 21 ounces each

Glaze:

  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 2-3 tablespoons whole milk

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 15×10 sheet pan with baking spray.
  • In a stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, then add extracts.
  • Gradually fold in flour to butter mixture until combined and dough forms.
  • Press 3 cups dough into prepared pan.
  • Spread with cherry pie filling covering all the dough evenly.
  • Drop remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over filling.
  • Bake 35-40 minutes, or until golden brown.
  • Cool completely in pan before glazing.

Glaze:

  • In a small bowl, mix confectioners’ sugar, extracts and enough milk to reach desired consistency.
  • Drizzle over top of cooled bars.

Nutrition

Calories: 279kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 180mg | Potassium: 85mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 385IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg

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Table of contents

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About this Recipe

These bars have a melt-in-your-mouth double shortbread crust that is made with just a handful of pantry ingredients. The key to bringing out the natural cherry flavor in the pie filling is to use both vanilla and almond extract. When distilled down to extract form, almonds have a slight cherry scent so it really makes a difference in these bars!

Can This be Made Ahead of Time?

Yes, bars are great for making ahead for parties, potlucks, or future snacking! This recipe makes about 48 bars, or 60 mini bars, so if you aren’t feeding a crowd, freeze half of the bars for a quick snack or dessert for up to 6 months. Simply pull a couple bars from the freezer and leave at room temperature until they are defrosted and soft.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

The sweet, powdered sugar glaze has almond extract for even more flavor. To make sure the glaze is the right consistency, and won’t disappear in to the bars, add a tablespoon of milk at a time until you can easily drizzle it. Drizzle a little glaze on the corner of one bar and let sit for a couple minutes. If it stays put, your glaze is good to go!

How to Store

  • Serve: Bars can be at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Line container with paper towels to absorb moisture.
  • Store: Refrigerate bars in an airtight container for up to 1 week. For best taste and softness, bring to room temperature before serving.
  • Freeze: Cool bars completely and freeze cut bars in a single layer in baking sheet for 1 hour. Transfer to a sealed container or freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 6 months.

Ideas to Serve

Just like cherry pie, these bars taste really yummy with Vanilla Ice Cream or Whipped Cream. Serve some of the fresh bars right from the oven with a scoop of ice cream. With this crowd-sized recipe, you’ll have plenty of bars left over to cool and glaze after you enjoy your pie bar sundae.

Variations

  • Pie Filling: You can use any pie filling you like for these bars. In the fall, try Apple Pie Filling or pumpkin pie filling. For more summer berry fillings, use blueberry pie filling, blackberry pie filling, or strawberry pie filling.
  • Black Forest: You can sprinkle ½ – 1 cup mini chocolate chips over the cherry pie filling before topping with the dough.
  • Fresh Cherries: To use fresh cherries, stir 2 cups diced, pitted cherries, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a medium bowl. Let sit for a few minutes for juices to seep out and thicken with cornstarch before spreading over dough.
  • Almonds: For more almond flavor, sprinkle chopped or slice almonds over the top layer of dough. You can use other nuts like pecans and walnuts too.
  • Crumble: Instead of the cookie dough topping, make a streusel crumble with brown sugar, butter, and flour. Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over pie filling.
  • Mini Pie Cups: Bake bars in a muffin tin for a little pie cup. Prepare dough as usual and divide (in batches) into a 12 cup greased or lined muffin tin. This should make about 36-40 mini pie cups. Top with cherry filling and dough, and bake for 22-25 minutes.

More Amazing Bar Recipes

Cherry Pie Bars collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. A lady made a tray of these for a get-together after church…huge hit! I asked for the recipe and will be making them for a bunch of concrete workers this week. Thanks for sharing such a fantastic recipe!

    Reply

  2. If you use salted butter, should you reduce the salt? It should say in the recipe if you are using unsalted butter

    Reply

    1. I use salted butter and took that into consideration when creating the recipe. Thank you Debbie for asking and I udpated the recipe card to be more clear. Let us know how your cherry bars turn out!

      Reply

    1. Yes! Cool bars completely and freeze cut Cherry Bars in a single layer in baking sheet for 1 hour. Transfer to a sealed container or freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 6 months.

      Reply

  5. what pumpkin pie filling do you suggest for making these bars, pumpkin pie filling is usually very liquid and it makes me wonder how the baking time and texture would change also. would you add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to the dough mixture to make pumpkin bars?

    Reply

  6. This recipe was easy to prepare and tasted absolutely delicious. I baked the bars for 45 minutes to get them lightly browned. My husband and some friends who ate lunch with us loved this dessert.

    Reply

  11. These look so yummy and scrumptious! Can’t wait to make these! My husband loves anything cherry. He’ll be all over them. So excited!!

    Reply

  14. Instead of using almond extract in the base, what are your thoughts on replacing one cup of flour with almond flour?

    Reply