Cherry Bars

These cherry bars are a soft cookie crust topped with cherry pie filling, more cookie dough and a drizzle of vanilla glaze. An easy and impressive dessert that's perfect to feed a crowd!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 40

Total Time 50

Servings

Calories 277kcal

Author Sara Welch

Ingredients

For the bars

1 cup butter softened
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 cans cherry pie filling
cooking spray

For the glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 10" x 15" jelly roll pan with cooking spray.
Place the butter, sugar and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Beat until fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
Spread 2/3 of the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan.
Spread the pie filling over the dough.
Place teaspoon sized dollops of dough all over the surface of the pie filling.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely in the pan.
To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, extracts and milk. Add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, if you prefer a thinner glaze.
Drizzle the glaze over the bars. Let the glaze harden, then cut into squares and serve.

Notes

Using an offset spatula makes spreading the dough and pie filling easy tasks.

This recipe calls for a 15" x 10" pan which is a somewhat unusual size. You can make the bars in a 9" x 13" pan instead, but the bars will be thicker and therefore take longer to cook.

Nutrition