A soft cookie base spread with cherry pie filling and dotted with more dough on top. Five dozen small bars.
Five dozen means very small bars
Sixty pieces from a 15x10x1 pan, which works out to roughly two inches by one and a quarter each.
That is small, and it is worth knowing before you plan. At 112 calories a bar these are a tray-bake for a crowd rather than a dessert portion.
Cutting into twenty four larger bars is perfectly reasonable and gives something closer to a normal serving. The nutrition figures would then be roughly two and a half times what is stated.
Cream a full five to seven minutes
Butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy.
That is considerably longer than most recipes ask and it is doing real work. There is only butter and eggs leavening this; no baking powder or soda anywhere.
All the lift comes from air beaten into the butter during creaming and from the four eggs. Cut the creaming short and the bars are dense.
Light and fluffy means visibly paler and increased in volume. Scrape the bowl once or twice.
Eggs one at a time
Beating well after each.
Four eggs added together would flood the creamed butter and break the emulsion, which shows up as a curdled-looking batter and a heavier finished bar.
One at a time lets each incorporate before the next arrives. Room temperature eggs emulsify more readily than cold.
Three cups of dough go down, the rest goes on top
Which is the structure of the recipe and easy to misread.
Measure three cups into the pan and spread it as the base. What remains, roughly a third of the batter, gets dropped in teaspoonfuls over the cherry filling.
Those dollops spread as they bake and partly cover the fruit, giving a cobbled top rather than a sealed lid. The gaps are intentional.
Almond extract in both layers
A quarter teaspoon in the dough and half a teaspoon in the glaze.
Almond and cherry is a classic pairing because they share aromatic compounds. Cherry pie filling on its own tastes flatly sweet, and almond extract is what gives it depth.
A quarter teaspoon is enough to notice without dominating. Almond extract is potent and more is not better.
Cool completely before glazing
In the pan on a wire rack.
A thin glaze poured over a warm tray bake soaks straight in and disappears. Cooled, it sits on the surface and sets into a distinct white drizzle.
Completely means genuinely at room temperature, which takes an hour or more for a pan this size.
Milk to consistency
Two to three tablespoons, added until the glaze reaches the thickness you want.
Start with two. A glaze thin enough to drizzle from a spoon in ribbons is about right; any thinner and it runs off the edges.
Add the last tablespoon in small amounts, since powdered sugar glazes go from thick to runny very quickly.
A 15x10x1 pan specifically
Which is a jelly roll pan rather than a standard baking sheet.
The one inch rim matters. A rimless sheet lets the filling run off, and a deeper pan gives a thicker bar that needs longer than the stated thirty five to forty minutes.
Grease it properly. There is a lot of sugar in this and it sticks.
Storing
Covered at room temperature for three days, or refrigerated for a week.
The glaze softens slightly in the fridge but the bars keep their texture well. They also freeze for three months, best done before glazing.
Other fillings
Any 21 ounce can of pie filling works in place of the cherry. Apple and blueberry are the obvious swaps, though almond extract suits cherry best of the three.
Making them ahead
Bake and freeze unglazed, then thaw and glaze on the day. The glaze does not freeze well and goes cloudy.
Cherry Pie Bars
Description
Cherry pie bars baked in a jelly roll pan and drizzled with an almond glaze. Makes five dozen.
Ingredients:
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, a full 5 to 7 minutes, since this is where all the lift comes from.
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Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition so the emulsion holds. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, then gradually add the flour.
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Spread 3 cups of the dough into a greased 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan. Spread the cherry pie filling over it, then drop the remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over the filling, leaving gaps.
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Bake 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, which takes an hour or more.
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In a small bowl mix the confectioners sugar, both extracts and enough milk to reach a drizzling consistency, starting with 2 tablespoons. Drizzle over the cooled bars..
Note
Five dozen from a 15x10x1 pan means bars of roughly two inches by one and a quarter, which is small; cutting into 24 larger bars is reasonable and the nutrition figures would then be about two and a half times what is stated. Cream the butter, sugar and salt a full 5 to 7 minutes, since there is no baking powder or soda in this recipe and all the lift comes from creaming and the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time so the emulsion does not break. Three cups of dough form the base and the remaining third is dropped in teaspoonfuls over the filling, leaving intentional gaps. Almond extract goes in both the dough and the glaze and is what stops the cherry filling tasting flat. Cool completely before glazing or it soaks in. Use a jelly roll pan with a one inch rim, not a rimless sheet.