Almond Cherry Bars
Hello friends! Today I bring to you a super easy recipe and video! These Almond Cherry Bars are super chewy, soft, topped with a delicious almond glaze! You will make these over and over!
This cherry bars recipe is one of my oldest recipes on the blog, and today I am updating it with new pictures, a new video, and fixing the baking time below on the instructions.
I had the baking time set to 20-30 minutes, and that was clearly wrong, since these bars take about 45 minutes to bake, and can take up to 1 hour, depending on the size pan you use, and on your oven.
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You can use a 9×9″ or 8×8″ pan to bake these bars. With the 9×9″, the bars will be just slightly shorter, and a bit thicker with the 8×8″.
These Almond Cherry Bars are perfect to pack for a picnic, or for a lunchbox.
And they will hold up pretty well for a few days stored in the fridge, but make sure to take them out and let them sit at room temperature for a while before serving. So that the butter in the dough has a chance to soften up.
I have also experimented to make these bars with part whole wheat flour, as a reader had suggested on the reviews below.
By the way, do read the reviews below and on Pinterest! They are awesome! These cherry bars are a crowd pleaser!
So when I made the bars with part whole wheat flour, they still came out pretty delicious, just a bit chewier, which is totally yum!
They also came out a bit dark as you can see on the pic below, the bars right below were made with 50% whole wheat flour, so 1 cup of all-purpose, and 1 cup of whole-wheat.
For the delicious glaze on top of these Almond Cherry Bars, I used an almond glaze. Simply sifted powdered sugar, mixed with almond milk (you can use regular), and almond extract.
If your glaze is too thin and runny, add more sifted powdered sugar to make it thicker.
Now if the glaze is too thick, add a bit more milk. And by a bit more milk, I actually mean a few drops. In glazes like these, a little liquid goes a long way, so be mindful!
Make sure to watch the video on this page and on Youtube, showing you how to make these delicious Almond Cherry Bars!
If you love soft and chewy bars, this is the dessert for you!
If you liked this recipe, here are some more recipes you may enjoy:
- Brookies
- Baked Oatmeal Cups
- Biscoff Brownies
- Chocolate Coconut Bars
- Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars
- Dulce de Leche Bars
If you make this recipe, please consider leaving a comment below, it helps my blog and also the other readers! And also tag me on instagram or share a picture on Pinterest! Nothing makes me happier than seeing you guys making my recipes that I put out with so much love! Thanks for reading!
Almond Cherry Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (9 oz, 255 grams)
- 1/2 cup almond flour (1.69 oz, 48 grams)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (5.29 oz, 150 grams)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 12 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature (6 oz, 170 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 1 lemon (or lime) zested and juiced
- 3 cups pitted cherries
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Glaze
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar sifted (2.65 oz, 75 grams)
- 1 tbsp almond milk or just regular milk
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF.
- Start by mixing the flour, almond flour, sugar, sugar, baking powder, kosher salt, and lemon zest in a bowl.
- Add the butter and mix with a spatula until the butter is incorporated into the dry ingredients. You can also use your hands to make this easier. There shouldn't be any chunks of butter in the dough, it should be totally incorporated with the dry ingredients.
- Add the egg, almond extract, and lemon juice.
- Fold to combine all the ingredients, until a soft dough has formed. It will be sticky, like a cookie dough.
- In a bowl, mix the pitted cherries, with 3 tbsp of granulated sugar, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch. Set aside.
- Line the bottom of a 9×9" or 8×8" pan with parchment paper.
- Spread half of the dough on the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the cherries over dough and spread evenly.
- Spread out the other half of the dough on top of cherries. Just drop equal amounts evenly distributed over the cherries. You can use a cookie scoop to do this, as I show on the video.
- Then use your hands to help spread out the dough and flatten it. If the dough is too sticky you may flour your hands lightly.
- Bake the bars for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
- Let the bars cool down before slicing.
Glaze
- Mix the sifted powdered sugar with the milk and almond extract. Adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar if the glaze is too thin, or adding more milk, if the glaze is too thick. Remember that a little goes a long way when it comes to adding liquids to glazes like this one.
- Drizzle the almond glaze on top of the bars. Sprinkle some more sliced almonds on top.
Storage
- Store the bars in the fridge for up to 5 days, covered. Let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
These bars are DIVINE and easy to make! Big hit at a dinner party I had! Thank you for this recipe, it is my rotation 100%!
Awesome, Rachael. Thank you so much!!
This turned out really good! I used frozen cherries and thawed them a little. I also made it with gluten free flour and half monk fruit sweetener. It’s delicious! I really wish people wouldn’t comment on recipes they haven’t made yet! Yes it looks delicious but don’t most desserts? I have to read through all the comments to find someone who actually made it!
Hi Belinda! Glad you liked it and the substitutions worked for you!
question: Love Love your recipe. During the non-cherry season
can canned red tart cherries be used in this recipe and how many cans would be needed? Of course, the cherries would be drained and perhaps some added cornstarch or tapioca would be needed as well? Your thoughts.
Thank-you kindly,
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie. It depends on the size of the can, I think there are 2 cups of cherries in a 16 oz can, so you just have to make sure you have 3 cups of it, and yes it would be drained.
And there’s already cornstarch in the recipe that gets added to the cherries.
I was excited when this recipe popped up in my Facebook feed today. I rushed to your website to see if I had everything to bake a batch. BooHoo. I don’t have almond flour.
Would these be good with all plain flour?
yes you can substitute all-purpose flour instead
Made these today and they are very tasty! Mine came out a bit crumbly but I think I got lazy while mixing the butter step. I was also worried it was going to be too much cherry but it’s the perfect balance of fruit to sweet to almond. You won’t be disappointed if you make these!
Awesome, thank you!!
I have made this recipe probably over 10 times already. I’ve made it for a bake sale, for my daughter’s friend’s birthday, for my dad, and another few more times just because!
my dough is very dry what did I do wrong
probably if you used cup measurements instead of weighing, sometimes you can scoop too much flour. Add like a bit of milk just a tiny bit until the dough becomes softer.
Que delícia 😋 😋 😋 😋 😋
Made these today. With some adjustments. I creamed the butter and sugar first then added egg, extract, lemon juice, and any wet stuff. The dry things were mixed together in a separate bowl.
I didn’t have a lemon so I used lemon juice (3 tablespoons) from the fridge and omitted the lemon extract.
I used frozen cherries which I rinsed under warm water twice- about 10 minutes after the first rinse. Added the sugar, subbed tapioca starch, and added a 1/4 t of almond extract.
Overall my batter was a little too lemony, but had the perfect consistency for a bar.
I refrigerated the dough for 10 minutes and put 2/3 of the batter on on the bottom of a glass pan. Baked for 10 minutes. Added the cherries without the juices. and the remainder of the dough. I baked for an additional 45 minutes until the edges were golden brown.
I have been wanting to recreate some bars from a favorite bakery and I think the dough for these bars will be perfect those bars.
The cherry bars were great!! I did use a food processor and ground some almonds as fine as I could and used that for the 1/2 cup almond flour. I also put some sliced almonds on top of the first layer of spread dough before pouring the cherries, so I had more almonds – and everyone loved them! Keeping this recipe to make again! Great results and most ingredients already in my kitchen.
I have a question on almond four. Can I use a spice grinder and just grind some almonds? Any adjustments for fat content based on what your recipe expects?
for this recipe yes you can grind up almonds yourself. If making macarons, otherwise, I dont recommend grinding your own almonds.
Hummmmm!! Que delícia!! A apresentação ficou maravilhosa!!
Loved this recipe Camila! I stumbled upon it yesterday and tried it today :). I made slight variations to remove egg and to suit my taste buds 🙂 and they turned out absolutely fabulous. Thank you for this recipe!
What do you think is the best substitute for eggs in this recipe? I used 1 1/4 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp water, 1 tsp oil, 1/4 tsp vinegar and I think mine were too crumbly.
Thank you so much. So I like to use aquafaba (water from a chickpea can) as a substitute for eggs, in the same volume.
Loved this recipe! I made these bars with slight variations to make it vegetarian and to suit my taste buds 🙂 and they turned out absolutely fabulous. Thank you!!
What do you think would be the best substitute for egg in this recipe? I used baking soda, oil and vinegar but I think mine were too crumbly.
I love using aquafaba (water from a chickpea can) as a substitute for eggs, in the same volume proportion.