These Almond Cherry Bars are chewy, soft, and delicious! The most perfect almond and cherry flavors come together in this delightful treat! Enjoy with your coffee, or tea! Perfect for bake sales, afternoon tea time, breakfast, to pack in your lunch!
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine cookies
Keyword almond, bars, cherry, cookies
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
0 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour5 minutesminutes
Servings 9bars
Calories 250kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
2cupsall-purpose flour(9 oz, 255 grams)
1/2cupalmond flour(1.69 oz, 48 grams)
3/4cupgranulated sugar(5.29 oz, 150 grams)
1tspbaking powder
1/4tspkosher salt
12tbspunsalted butterat room temperature (6 oz, 170 grams)
1large egg
1/4tspalmond extract
1lemon (or lime)zested and juiced
3cupspitted cherries
3tbspgranulated sugar
1tbspcornstarch
Glaze
1/2cuppowdered sugarsifted (2.65 oz, 75 grams)
1tbspalmond milkor just regular milk
1/4tspalmond 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 9x9" or 8x8" 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
Flour: I've experimented making this recipe with half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, as per the recommendations from a reader, and it turned out fabulous!Baking time: Baking time could be up to 1 hour, depending on the pan you are using (smaller pan will yield thicker bars that may take longer to bake), and depending on your oven.Cherries: feel free to substitute the cherries for blueberries.