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Enjoy cherry pie in its best form: cherry pie bars! You can whip up a whole pan in minutes using cherry pie filling. They’re beautiful, easy to make, and always a crowd-pleaser!
Fruity desserts are the best! Try some more of my favorites like this delicious berry cheesecake salad, or my families favorite Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
Reason’s You’ll Love This Dessert
- Incredible Flavor: These bars combine buttery crust with sweet-tart cherry filling and a hint of almond, creating a delicious treat everyone will love.
- Quick and Easy: Simple ingredients and easy steps mean you can whip these up in no time, perfect for busy days or spontaneous cravings.
- Perfect for Sharing: Great for gatherings, these bars are easy to cut and serve, making them a hit at any party or family get-together. Plus, the glaze makes them look as amazing as they taste!
Cherry Pie Bars Recipe
My favorite pie is cherry pie! It’s so delicious and you can have it all year long, no matter that the occasion! But pie can be time consuming, and thats where this simple recipe comes in!
These cherry pie bars are so good, it’s like biting into cherry pie AND cookies. These bars are incredible — they’re soft, chewy, flavorful, and the glaze on top is the perfect finishing touch. Serve these with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream for the ultimate dessert!
Ingredients to Make Cherry Pie Bars
These ingredients are so simple, you probably just need to grab some cherry pie filling and you might already have the rest! Check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post for all of the exact measurements.
Bars
- Butter: Adds rich flavor and creates a tender, flaky texture.
- Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps create a golden brown crust.
- Eggs: Provide structure and moisture, making the bars soft and chewy.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the overall flavor with a warm, sweet note.
- Almond Extract: Adds a subtle, nutty depth that pairs well with cherries.
- Flour: Forms the base of the batter, giving the bars their structure.
- Salt: Balances the sweetness and enhances the other flavors.
- Cherry Pie Filling: Provides a delicious, fruity center that’s easy to use.
Glaze
- Vanilla Extract and Almond Extract: These complement the flavors in the crust.
- Powdered Sugar: Used in the glaze for sweetness and a smooth texture.
- Milk: Thins the glaze to a perfect drizzling consistency.
How Do You Make Cherry Pie Bars?
This recipe is so easy and comes together in less than an hour, start to finish! And most of that is baking time.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with pan spray and set aside.
- Cream: Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- Combine: In a separate bowl combine the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until combined.
- Add batter and filling to pan: Spread 3 cups of the batter evenly on the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with the cans of cherry pie filling, spreading evenly across the batter. Drop dollops of the remaining batter as evenly as you can over the top until all the batter has been used.
- Bake: Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is lightly golden brown. If you are using a 15×10-inch pan instead, the bake time may end up being a bit shorter, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
- Make the glaze: Whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cooled bars.
Cherry Pie Bars Tips
- Room-Temperature Ingredients: Use room-temperature eggs and butter for a fluffier texture. To quickly warm cold eggs, soak them in warm (not hot) water for 5-10 minutes.
- Measuring the Flour: For best results, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off. This prevents dense, heavy bars.
- Grease the Pan: Grease your pan well to ensure easy removal. I like using a pan spray with flour, like Baker’s Joy.
- Try Different Fillings: You can use any pie filling you like—apple, strawberry, peach, or blueberry. For a fall flavor, add a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Pan Size: A 9×13-inch pan with 2-inch high sides works best. If you use a larger pan, reduce the baking time by 5-10 minutes.
Storing Cherry Pie Bars
This dessert is great to make ahead of time because it stores great!
- At Room Temperature: Store the bars by tightly covering them with plastic wrap or placing them in an airtight container. They will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
- In the Refrigerator: If you prefer to refrigerate them, they will last up to 7 days.
- In the Freezer: To freeze, cut the bars into pieces and layer them with parchment paper. They can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for a few hours. For best results, wait to add the glaze until you’re ready to serve, as it may get sticky when thawed.
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Cherry Pie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 21-ounce cans cherry pie filling
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with pan spray and set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix until combined.
- Spread 3 cups of the batter evenly on the bottom of the prepared pan. Top with the cans of cherry pie filling, spreading evenly across the batter. Drop dollops of the remaining batter as evenly as you can over the top until all the batter has been used.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is lightly golden brown. If you are using a 15×10-inch pan instead, the bake time may end up being a bit shorter, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
- Whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cooled bars.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are easy, and so super delicious!! Better than actual cherry pie. I’m excited to try different flavored pie filling now.
We love these bars in our family! I made both apple and cherry bars for our grandson’s baby shower. I added cinnamon to the batter for the apple bars. This is the 3rd weekend in a row my granddaughter and I have made them. We have strawberry bars in the oven now. First time trying them with strawberries. Plan to try peach filling next weekend!
I have made this recipe for years, after finding it in a charity cookbook gifted to me in the mid 1980’s. They called it Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake. The only difference is your addition of the almond and vanilla extract in the glaze, which I will include the next time I make this. This is such a tender, tasty recipe and is always a hit at the many, many gatherings we have taken it to. Tip – hand mix the dry ingredients and do not over mix, and bake just until starting to turn golden on top. I have also used blueberry pie filling. Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe with the world!
My adult taste testers liked this fairly easy dessert. Ideal for a children’s party. However, I felt there was too much batter on the bottom crust. The crust was moist and shortcake-like that held together very well when cut. I creamed the ingredients very well and even without leavening, the crust had a nice, soft texture. But it seemed too heavy for my personal taste for a “bar” style dessert. I prefer a thinner, crisper bar crust. I also didn’t care for the globs of dough on top of the dessert; they seemed unattractive and appeared bland with no eye appeal. I baked the dessert longer than specified just to get some color on the topping dough globs. The amount of icing was double of what I actually used – wasted ingredients. I made it Saturday morning and served it that evening; on Monday the dessert was still fresh enough to share with the neighbors. The heavy butter crust held up.
Wow! Amazing bars, they were a big hit!
So, I did the 9×13 glass pan. I had it on for 30 mins when I went into panic mode as it just looked plain raw. So I decided to put the heat up to 375 and cook it for another half hour. I pulled it out and checked the bottom and perfectly browned. I even decided to do the toothpick thing lol. I figured that if you put the toothpick directly through the batter on the top and push to the bottom, I was able to pull out a clean toothpick. I’ll admit, I was amazed lol. I thought for sure I was just going to get a bright red toothpick, feel foolish, and keep that tidbit to myself lol but hey, it worked.
This is my first time making these and they smell great. I am making them a day ahead, would you recommend storing these in the refrigerator?
Thanks.
Yes, that is best.
Can these be made a day ahead w/o getting soggy?
Yes, these are great the day ahead!
If I use peach pie filling instead of cherry, do I still need to use the almond extract? Would almond extract taste okay with the peach filling?
No, you do not have to use the almond extract unless you would like to. It still tastes great with peach filling.
These are in the oven as I write. I didn’t have a 15x10x1 pan so I used the 9x13x2.5. Question… I have a half sheet pan measuring: 12x17x1 and a quarter sheet pan at 9x12x1 could I have used the half sheet pan? Where did you get the 15×10 pan?
It looks like my top batter was too much and has spread to cover all the cherries, I love the way yours look so next time I will increase the bottom layer, perhaps b/c I used the 9×13? Also. interesting discovery on my part. You didn’t mention sifting the flour so I used my usual method of spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling off. I live in Florida, hence high humidity and semi caked flour, so I decided to run a whisk through the flour and re-measure… there was 1/3 cup of flour left after remeasuring the needed 3 cups! Now I am hoping my batch turns out! LoL. Timer dinged… So, for me, 35 minutes was not enough time, a very wet center, slightly golden edges. @ 40 min. still wet in the center and darker edges. Foiled the edges and returned to the oven for 5 more… The center has browned up to match the edges and it still needs 3 to 5 more minutes, for a total of 50 to 55 minutes…. maybe b/c too much top layer of batter? Ahhh so many unknowns, lol.
Absolutely delicious!!!! Can’t wait to make them again!!!
This looked so good!! I love Cherry Pie. There were several problems with my first try. I had way more batter and cherries than would fit in a one inch deep pan. I used a 10 × 15 × 2″ glass baking dish and the recommend 2 cans of cherries pie filling. After spreading all ingredients in the greased dish the depth was about an 1!/2 .The batter did not cook even after 45 minutes @ 350°. After it had cooled I drizzled on the icing. There was way too much icing. If possible please share some pointers to make the next batch turn out better. Also, the pieces did not remove easily from the baking dish.
I have a recipe that uses a layer of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, almond extract and 1 egg. Mix it all together until smooth then spread on top of batter. I used Strawberry pie filling this time. It is so yummy with the cream cheese layer.
Using sweet cherries I cooked myself into pie filling. They are in the oven now and house smells yummy.
These bars look delicious, Alyssa!
Did you say to use 2 cans of pie filling if baking in a jelly roll pan
Thanks
Lil
I would suggest just one can of pie filling for a jelly roll pan unless you would like it more fruity!