These easy bars feature a buttery almond shortbread crust, homemade cherry filling, and a crunchy crumb topping. Use fresh or frozen cherries to make this recipe year round.
What sets this recipe apart
Ease: These bars feature the same mixture for the crust and topping and the filling comes together in minutes! Very similar to my almond crumble cheesecake bars.
Almond + cherries: Almond paste, almond extract, and sliced almonds pair wonderfully with cherries.
Pie vibes: These bars are a cross between a cherry pie and a cherry cobbler that can be eaten with your hands. Bonus: no pie crust to roll out!
Visual recipe overview
Full written recipe below in recipe card.
Crust & topping
Make the mixture for the crust and topping. Press the crust into the pan and bake.
Filling
Cook the cherry filling on the stovetop.
Assemble
Add the cherry filling and the crumb topping to the pre-baked crust.
Bake
Bake, cool, slice, and enjoy!
My recipe testing tips and notes
Almond paste: Almond paste can be found in the baking aisle of well stocked grocery stores. You will likely have more than you need for this recipe, the leftover almond paste can be frozen. Or you can make an almond cake!
Cherries: You can use fresh or frozen cherries. I recommend sweet cherries, but if you want to swap some for sour cherries that would be fine. I do not recommend all sour cherries.
Chill time: These bars need to cool completely before cutting. If you refrigerate them they will cut nicely into clean slices.
Recipe
Cherry Almond Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Crust and topping:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- ½ cup almond paste*, about 3oz
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ⅓ cup sliced almonds
Filling:
- ¼ cup water
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch, increase to 3 scant tablespoons if using frozen cherries
- 4 cups pitted sweet cherries, fresh or frozen (1-pound bag of frozen works well here)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- pinch salt
Icing:
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons milk
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
Crust and topping;
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×9 square pan with foil (leaving overhang on two sides) and grease the foil. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter, almond paste, and almond extract. Blend on medium-low speed until the butter and almond paste pieces are the size of small pebbles, and the mixture resembles wet sand. Remove 1 heaping cup for the topping, set it aside.
- Pour the remaining mixture into the prepared pan and press it evenly over the bottom. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling:
- In a medium saucepan, whisk water, lemon juice and cornstarch. Add cherries, sugar, butter, and salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and simmer until thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Spread filling over crust. Stir sliced almonds into the reserved topping mixture, then sprinkle the topping over the cherry filling, occasionally pinching the topping together to form small clumps.
- Bake until the filling is beginning to bubble and the topping is light brown, about 25-30 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing:
- Whisk all icing ingredients, adding more milk or powdered sugar to reach your desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled bars (I place my icing in a ziptop bag, snip off the corner, and drizzle the icing straight from the bag). Store in the refrigerator. The bars cut more neatly if they are chilled.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Monette says
How much longer would you need to bake a double batch in a 9×13 pan?
Celebrating Sweets says
Hi, Monette. I don’t think you will need to double it. My recipe is written for a 9×9, so you will likely need closer 1-1/2 of the recipe. Bake time should be similar (give or take a couple minutes). Enjoy!
Varsha Rao says
How do you make the Almond paste?
Allison says
I use store bought.
Barb Cattie says
Hi – these look delicious! Can they be made without almond paste and the almonds?
Thank you!
Barb Cattie
Anne Wallace says
Hi,
You mention using fresh or frozen. All I can find locally is canned. Is this not a good option?
I love the sound of using almond paste in the crumble.
Do you have to refrigerate because the filling will be too soft at room temperature? Cherry pie can sit out so curious why?
Love your blog.
Cheers,
Anne
Allison says
Hi, Anne. Are you thinking of using canned pie filling? I’m assuming that would work.
I store these in the refrigerator to keep the crust from getting too soft. If your kitchen is cool you should be able to store them at room temperature. Enjoy!
drl says
Are the photos even of your own baking? or stock photos? Because your photos show bright red TART cherries but your recipe does NOT use them- it calls for DARK purple-ish BLACK SWEET cherries.
Allison says
Hi! Yep, every photo on this site is OF MY OWN BAKING. The red cherries you see in the photos are fresh sweet cherries (purchased from Whole Foods). But, if you’d like to make this recipe with frozen cherries, which are often the dark purple color, you can do that, too. The video of this recipe uses the darker variety and the photos show the lighter variety. As long as you’re using sweet cherries it doesn’t matter how light or dark they are.
Cheryl Glas says
Fabulous! I used a 9 x 13” pan. Doubled the recipe which worked well for the pastry dough. Having used frozen cherries, my filling cooked up a bit more abundantly, so held back on using the lady cup of the cherry filling sauce.
It was perfect with or without the icing! I iced most of them but left a quarter of them without. My husband preferred them with no icing. Definitely a new favorite either way! Thank you for perfecting and sharing the recipe with us!
Allison says
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Laura Zitting says
Amazing!
Sheun says
My household loved this recipe. I used frozen cherries. It was a little loose so will add a little more thickener next time. Will go into my faves box.
Allison says
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Penny Pearson says
Can I substitute almond flour in the recipe for amond cherry streusel bars?
Allison says
No, I would not recommend that. The bars need all purpose flour for structure.
Kathy Perez says
I have cans of black cherries in there own juice can I use them?
Allison says
You’d have to play around with it. Would you be using the juice? It would need to be thickened. Or you could likely drain them and proceed with the recipe as written.
Tim says
Can I use clear jel instead of cornstarch?
Do you know the volume of the filling in the recipe? Cups, pints or quart? I can my own pie fingers ing pints and quarts.
Allison says
Hi, Tim. I’ve never used clear jel so I can’t say for sure. I don’t have a volume measurement for the filling. You can just eyeball it when adding it to the crust. Enjoy!
Andra says
Will this work with gluten free flour?
Allison says
I’ve only made the recipe as written. You’d have to play around with it. Usually a 1:1 gluten free flour is the best thing to try.
Cherill Gabrielson says
Looks delish! Can’t wait to make it. Thank you so much.
Allison says
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
Lesa says
Thank you Allison. Hugs Xo. I’m going to try and I love Cherries. ❤️
Cathy says
I have fresh picked cherries that I had to freeze . Do I thaw them so not so watery?
Allison says
You don’t need to thaw them first, just be sure to add the extra cornstarch to the filling. Enjoy!