Cherry Pie Bars with Brown Sugar Almond Streusel

Skip the pie crust and make these much easier Cherry Pie Bars with a homemade tart cherry filling and a buttery brown sugar, almond and oat crust/streusel topping. These are easy to make and they've received rave reviews from all of our friends and family! For the perfect summer dessert, try one warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Even better than pie 🥧

Look, I love a good fruit pie, but can we agree that they're kind of fussy? Pie crust isn't always the easiest to get right, and there's nothing worse than a runny fruit filling. (Or opposite: a filling that went overboard on cornstarch!)

That's why we love a pie bar even more! (See: four berry pie bars, raspberry crumble bars, and apricot crumble bars. All 10/10 recipes. We love the apricot one so much that it even made it into our new cookbook!)

You still get the delicious, jammy fruit filling (no canned filling here!), but the crust is much easier to make, and I'll honestly take a streusel topping any day over pie crust.

We tested this recipe several times with both tart cherries and dark sweet cherries, and although the dark sweet cherries taste great and work well, the tart cherries really give you that cherry pie feel. Plus, that color!

Tart cherries can be difficult to find fresh, so we use frozen. (We're also lucky to live in Michigan, the tart cherry capital of the world!) If you can't find any, regular cherries will be perfectly fine.

Cherries and almonds pair beautifully together (probably because they're so closely related). We add both almond extract and sliced almonds to the streusel and it really takes these to the next level.

The best part about this recipe? It's easy to make ahead of time for summer entertaining!

Key Ingredients Needed for Cherry Pie Bars 🍒

• Oats: We use quick cook oats here, not whole rolled oats. They incorporate better into the crust.
• Butter: Good news for vegans: this recipe also works great with dairy free butter. We tried it several times and they turn out the exact same!
• Flour: We have not tried this recipe with gluten free flour, but it should work well as a 1:1 substitute.
• Cornstarch: Don't skip this in the filling. It's essential for thickening the cherry mixture, which will otherwise be much too runny for these bars if you don't add it.
• Cherries: We use frozen tart cherries. If you can't find tart cherries/don't like them, you can use dark sweet cherries instead. If using these, wash, pit, and halve the cherries (they are generally larger than tart cherries). Reduce the cornstarch from 4 tablespoons to 3. They will cook a little faster than the tart cherries. 

How to Bake Cherry Pie Bars

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9x13" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper. 
2. To a large saucepan over medium heat, add the cherries, sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice and stir well. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until the mixture noticeably thickens, stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.   

3. To a large mixing bowl, add the oats, flour, almonds, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and stir to combine. Add in the melted butter, almond and vanilla extract and stir until well combined.

4. Set aside 2 cups of the crust mixture to use as a topping and pour the rest into your prepared baking pan.  Spread it evenly across the bottom of the pan and press it in firmly using your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup.
5. Spread the cherry filling over the top.

6. Sprinkle the remaining crumble over the top of the cherries.
7. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 32-34 minutes, turning the pan once while baking. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely to room temperature (~2 hours) before slicing. To speed this up, place the bars in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes after the pan is cool to the touch. 
8. Slice into squares (either 3x5 for 15 bars or 4x5 for 20 bars) and enjoy plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Top Tips from the CK Test Kitchen!

• Frozen cherries are a serious timesaver in this recipe because they're already pitted! (You need a lot – 2 pounds.) If you would rather use fresh cherries, we suggest pitting and then slicing them in half. This is the cherry pitter we like to use – it pits 6 at once, so it will speed up the process quite a bit.
• Keep these stored in the fridge: They store fine at room temp, but even better in the fridge! Plus, they're easier to slice.
• Make it nut free: Omit the almonds and the almond extract. Increase the oats to 2 cups (200g) and the flour to 2 cups (260g). Replace the almond extract with more vanilla extract.

More Summer Baking Recipes You'll Love

We can't wait for you to bake these cherry pie bars in your own home! If you do, be sure to let us know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo and tag @crowded_kitchen on Instagram. We can't wait to see what you're cooking!

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