Cherry Pie Bars

Cherry pie is a staple of summer, but baking a pie is a tedious task. These cherry pie bars give you all the delicious, buttery sweetness of a cherry pie but without the fuss. They are much easier to slice and serve and there’s no fork required, making them a lovely dessert for a dinner party or summer barbecue.

This easy recipe is also forgiving—use sweet or tart cherries, fresh or frozen, or swap with store-bought pie filling. You can even swap the fruit out altogether to put your own spin on it. The buttery crust doubles as the crumble topping, and an optional icing makes it feel and look fancy.

The Best Kind of Cherries for this Recipe

This recipe works with both fresh and frozen cherries, but I prefer frozen. Frozen cherries release more juices when cooked, so they will give you a more syrupy pie filling (plus they’re cheaper and available year-round). If you use fresh cherries, I recommend adding an extra few tablespoons of water to the cornstarch slurry to get the right texture.

Cherry pie bars can be made with sour cherries or sweet cherries. I prefer sour cherries for their complex tart flavor, but they can be hard to find in grocery stores. If you are using sweet cherries, just taste the pie filling before baking and add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice if needed.

Can I Use Store-Bought Pie Filling?

You can simplify this recipe by swapping the homemade cherry pie filling with 1 (21-ounce) can of store-bought pie filling. Ignore the filling ingredients and steps for making the filling and instead add the can of pie filling to the bottom crust before topping with crumble.

Tips for Making Cherry Pie Bars

Cherry pie bars are easy to make, but these tips and tricks will make sure they come out perfect every time.

• Be careful not to overmix the shortbread dough. The less you mix, the more crumbly and tender it will be.
• If your shortbread dough is sticky and you are having trouble working with it, place it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before assembling your bars.
• Taste the filling as you cook it. Depending on the cherries you use, you may want to adjust the sugar or lemon juice.

Easy Recipe Variations

This recipe is super adaptable. You can use it to make just about any fruit pie in bar form. Try swapping out the cherries with blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, peach slices, or a combination. Here are some other ways you can customize the bars:

• Add 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract to the pie filling for even more flavor.
• Add a dash of cinnamon to the cherry pie filling to give this summer recipe a warm fall twist.
• Add a handful of rolled oats to the shortbread crumble topping for texture.

Make-Ahead Instructions

One reason why I love this recipe is you can do most of the prep work ahead of time. Here’s how:

Make the cherry pie filling, let it cool to room temperature, and store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Make the shortbread dough, shape it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and store it in the fridge for up to a week. When you are ready to make your cherry pie bars, all you have to do is assemble and bake!

Cherry Treat Recipes

• Cherry Clafoutis
• Cherry Cake
• Cherry Hand Pies
• Sweet Cherry Cobbler
• Bourbon Cherry Crisp