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Cherry pie in the best form possible: cherry pie bars! You can whip up a whole pan of these bars in minutes using cherry pie filling. They’re pretty, easy to make, and always a hit to serve!

Here are some more fruity desserts berry cheesecake salad, or strawberry pie.

Up close shot of cherry pie bars stacked on top of each other

Cherry Pie Bars

My favorite pie is cherry pie; I’ve never loved pumpkin pie, so cherry pie is my top choice for the holidays.

And these cherry pies have everything I love about cherry pie but in an easier bar form! 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!

process of making bars

How do you make Cherry Pie Bars?

  • Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Beat in extracts.
  • In a separate bowl combine flour and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Mix until combined.
  • Grease a 15x10x1 pan and spread 3 cups batter. Spread pie filling on top. Drop remaining batter on top of pie filling.
  • Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Cool on wire rack. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over the bars.

process of making bars

Cherry Pie Bars Tips

  • Use the right temperature of ingredients: when at room temperature, eggs and butter form an emulsion which traps air. While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy baked good. If possible, use room temperature eggs for this recipe. Soaking refrigerated eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for about 5-10 minutes is a quick way to get eggs to room temperature.
  • Measure carefully: the most important measurement is the flour. If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour you are likely packing in way too much flour which will yield less flavorful bars
  • Grease the pan: this will ensure your cherry pie bars come out nice and easily!

Finished up close cherry pie bar

Can I use any pie filling?

Yes! You can make this recipe with any pie filling you have — apple, strawberry, peach and/or blueberry. To make a fall flavored bar, add some cinnamon and nutmeg to the filling!

What pan should I use?

Make sure to use a 10x15x1 for best results and bars that are evenly baked through!
With this pan it takes about 30-35 minutes for the bars to be fully baked through.
cherry pie bars on display

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Cherry Pie Bars

4.80 from 64 votes
By: Alyssa Rivers
Cherry pie in the best form possible: cherry pie bars! You can whip up a whole pan of these bars in minutes using cherry pie filling. They're pretty, easy to make, and always a hit to serve!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 26 bars

Ingredients 

Glaze

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray pan spray on a 15x10x1 pan and set aside.
  • Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Beat in extracts.
  • In a separate bowl combine the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix until combined.
  • Spread 3 cups of batter 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 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. If using a 9x13 pan instead, the cook time may end up being quite a bit longer to get a toothpick to come out clean. Cool completely.
  • Whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cooled bars.

Nutrition

Calories: 204kcalCarbohydrates: 31gProtein: 2gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 44mgSodium: 162mgPotassium: 28mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 255IUCalcium: 9mgIron: 0.8mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!
 

About Alyssa Rivers

Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more.

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Recipe Rating




307 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    These are easy, and so super delicious!! Better than actual cherry pie. I’m excited to try different flavored pie filling now.

  2. 5 stars
    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!

  3. 5 stars
    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!

  4. 4 stars
    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.

  5. 4 stars
    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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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?

  8. 5 stars
    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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. Using sweet cherries I cooked myself into pie filling. They are in the oven now and house smells yummy.

    1. I would suggest just one can of pie filling for a jelly roll pan unless you would like it more fruity!