Cherry pie bars topped with a sweet vanilla almond glaze. This screams summer to me. I love how easy this recipe came together, and how easy it is to serve! This dough is buttery, soft and full of almond flavour – it actually reminded me a lot of Ben&Jerrys Cherry Garcia ice cream. Normally I would rather make the pie filling, but a) cherrys are so so expensive in Victoria and b) I like how the pre bought cherry pie filling tastes like maraschino cherrys. I made these yesterday for my Dad’s birthday and they were a hit! The dough is a bit tacky and hard to manipulate, it took a lot of spreading to get it to be pretty even distributed along the bottom of the pan. The buttery, almond cookie like dough is topped with a simple cherry pie filling that is irresistible, topped with more dough. Its baked to golden perfection and drizzled with a creamy vanilla almond glaze. You are going to love these bars!
What You’ll Need
- Stand or Electric Mixer
- Medium Bowl
- Small Bowl
- 9 x 13″ Pan
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter - softened
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cans cherry pie filling
- 1 cup icing cugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
- Preheat your oven to 350, spary your 9 x 13" pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In your medium bowl combine the flour, baking poder and salt - set aside.
- Using your stand mixer cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Add your eggs one at a time until fully combined and add another.
- Mix in your vanilla and almond extract.
- Set aside 1 and 1/2 cups of the dough for the topping.
- Spread the rest of the dough into your greased pan and evenly distribute.
- Pour 1 and 1/2 cans of the cherry pie filling evenly on top of the dough.
- Using a small spoon, drop spoonfuls of the remaining batter on top of the cherry pie filling.
- Bake for 35-37 minutes, until top of golden brown - try not to over bake.
- Once done allow to cool fully before drizzling with the glaze.
- In a small bowl combine your icing sugar, vanilla and almond extract and 2 tablespoons of your heavy cream.
- Whisk until combined, adding more heavy cream until you reach your desired consistency.
- Pour into a small sandwich bag and cut a small piece of the corner off and drizzle over cooled bars.
- Let glaze set before serving - I popped mine into the fridge for about an hour before serving.
