These Cherry Pie Bars are like a piece of delicious cherry pie in an easy to make cherry bar. Cherry pie filling, sugar cookie dough double crust and topped with a sweet vanilla drizzle glaze. All baked on a sheet pan and ready in minutes!
Easy Cherry Bars
I love pie and cherry pie is one of my favorites. Making a pie, I don’t love so much.
This why I am obsessed with these Cherry Pie Bars! You get the classic taste of cherry pie in a bar! They are like a delicious sugar cookie and cherry pie mixed together. They are soft, chewy and the vanilla glaze is literally the icing on the top!
What is best about our cherry pie bars is that they are so easy to make!
Serve alone or top them off with some vanilla ice cream!
Why We Love This Recipe
- Super easy to make
- Just a few simple steps!
- Way easier than making a pie
- Sheet pan recipe
- Can be made with a variety of fillings
Ingredients / Shopping List
- Sugar cookie dough: This recipe works best using the dry sugar cookie mixture often found in the baking aisle of any grocery store. It can be found next to the cake mixes. Premixed refrigerated sugar cookie dough doesn’t work as well for this recipe (see notes).
- Butter: I used salted butter. Feel free to use unsalted butter but be sure to add in an additional ¼ teaspoon of salt to the batter.
- Egg
- All-purpose flour
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Cherry pie filling
- Heavy whipping cream: Heavy whipping cream can be replaced with call or 2% milk
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice: The lemon juice will not make the glaze taste at all like lemon. It is used to cut through some of this sweet glaze, and brighten up the flavor just a little bit. The juice can be fresh or from concentrate.
Useful Tools
- 9×13 inch pan
- Large mixing bowl
How to Make the Cherry Bars
This cherry bar recipe will come together in a few easy steps. I promise once you make these, you will be running back to the store to buy different flavor fruit pie fillings to try next!
The first thing you are going to do is combine the cookie dough mixture (just the mixture, don’t worry about the add in’s on the back of the box), the butter, egg, flour, vanilla and salt.
Next, take out ¼ of the dough and set it aside. Press the remaining ¾ of the dough onto the bottom or a 9×13 baking pan. (You will want to either grease it or line it with parchment paper).
Bake the dough in the oven at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. You want the edges to be just lightly brown.
Next, spread the cherry pie filling on the baked crust all the way to the edges.
Sprinkle the remaining ¼ of the dough on top of the cherry filling. It may look sparse, but don’t worry, it will expand as it cooks!
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil after 25 minutes, if needed, until golden brown. The sugar cookie crust topping will appear matte – this is normal! Let cool completely.
How to Make Vanilla Glaze
To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla together. Add 1 Tablespoon of cream or milk at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.
Drizzle the vanilla glaze icing over the top of the cooled bars.
Cut into squares and enjoy!
Cherry Pie Bar Tips and FAQs
Although it would make it a little easier to put these bars together using refrigerated sugar cookie dough, I highly recommend using the unmixed dry cookie dough mixture.
I found that refrigerated sugar cookie dough tends to be much sweeter. Because the cookie dough is so sweet, it will make your cherry bars a little too sweet to eat. The refrigerated dough also tends to be a little more on the greasy side as well, which makes it difficult for the bars to hold together.
Absolutely, feel free to get creative. Some of our other favorite pie fillings to use are apple, blueberry and peach.
Absolutely, feel free to get creative. Some of our other favorite pie fillings to use are apple, blueberry and peach.
To store, line an airtight container with paper towels. Store in a container at room temperature for about 4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
To freeze, cool completely, arrange in one layer on a flat tray, and freeze for an hour. Transfer to an airtight plastic bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Other Easy Dessert Recipes
Gooey Caramel Apple Dump Cake Recipe|Chocolate Chess Pie Recipe |Sopapilla -Cinnamon Sugar Cheesecake Bars |Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars |Magic Cookie Bars | Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries | Cream Cheese Danish | Boston Cream Cupcakes | Blackberry Cobbler | Mississippi Mud Pie | Homemade Magic Shells
Cherry Bars
Ingredients
Cherry bars:
- 17.5 ounce package sugar cookie dough
- ½ cup salted butter melted
- 1 egg
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 21.5 ounce can cherry pie filling
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease or line a 9×13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Add the sugar cookie dough mixture, butter, egg, flour, vanilla, and salt to a large bowl and mix until combined.
- Take out ¼ of dough and set aside. Press ¾ of dough into the bottom of your prepared pan until it reaches the edges.
- Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown.
- Drop cherry pie filling on top of dough and gently spread to the edges.
- Sprinkle the last ¼ of the dough evenly over the cherry filling. It is going to seem sparse, but it will expand as it cooks.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes, covering loosely with aluminum foil after 25 minutes if needed, until golden brown. The sugar cookie topping should take on a matte appearance. Cool completely.
Everything looks so yummy