This classic cherry crumble bars recipe tops a buttery shortbread pie crust with sweet cherry filling. It’s like homemade cherry pie in the convenient form of a bar!
Crowd pleasing cherry bars
I grew disliking cherry flavored candies, vitamins, and drinks and thinking it meant I did not like cherries.
It wasn’t until high school when I tasted a ripe cherry for the first time and realized… I actually really love cherries.
And now? You will often find fresh cherries in my kitchen, canned cherries in the pantry, and frozen cherries in the freezer.
Today’s homemade cherry crumble bars are soft, chewy, and made entirely from scratch – no artificial canned pie filling or or cake mix here.
They are one of my family’s favorite easy summer desserts, and I hope you love this magical recipe as much as we do!
Also try these Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Cherry crumble bar recipe video
Ingredients list
Depending on the specific ingredients you choose, these cherry squares can be high fiber, low sodium, cholesterol free, dairy free, and low calorie (about 100 calories each).
Cherries – Sour cherries like Montmorency or Morello will give you that quintessential tart cherry pie taste. Sweet cherry varieties like Bing or Rainier are also wonderful here. I do not recommend maraschino cherries for this recipe.
Choosing fresh or frozen cherries is entirely up to you. I prefer frozen, because they often come already pitted, meaning less work for me!
Oats – Use quick oats, old fashioned rolled oats, or instant oatmeal. Substitute rolled quinoa flakes for gluten free bars.
Flour – I like whole grain spelt flour for these healthy cherry crumble bars. You can also use regular white flour, all purpose gluten free flour, or oat flour.
Almond flour tastes delicious in the recipe if you do not mind crumbly bars. For best results, do not use coconut flour because it is very dry.
Sugar – You can choose white sugar, brown sugar, xylitol, or granulated erythritol for the half cup sugar in the crust and crumb topping.
Any dry or liquid sweetener works in the fruit filling, including honey, pure maple syrup, stevia baking blend, or coconut sugar.
Butter – Salted or unsalted butter are both good options and do not have much of a taste difference in the final result. For vegan cherry bars, use melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, or plant based butter.
Other ingredients – The recipe also calls for ground cinnamon, baking powder, cornstarch or arrowroot, and a little salt.
Leftover cherries? Make Cherry Frozen Yogurt
Katie’s favorite flavor variations
Stir half a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, or the seeds from one vanilla bean, into the cherry filling to create a cherry vanilla flavor. Top with sliced almonds if desired.
Or for cherry chocolate chip, stir in half a cup of mini chocolate chips with the cherries. Garnish with more chocolate chips before baking.
Replace half a cup of oats with cocoa powder for black forest bars. Slice and serve with shaved chocolate and whipped cream.
Finally, you can replace some of the cherries with an equal amount of blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, or chopped peaches.
Feeding guests or a large family? Feel free to double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 inch pan.
How to make the best cherry crumb bars
- Gather all ingredients, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 177 degrees Celsius).
- Line the bottom of a square eight inch baking pan with parchment paper, or grease the pan very well.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and baking powder.
- Add the melted oil or butter, and use a fork or a food processor to mix until fine crumbles form.
- Firmly press two thirds of the oat streusel dough into the prepared pan, reserving the rest for later.
- Dice the cherries, discarding pits and stems. Then mix the fruit with one tablespoon sweetener of choice and the cornstarch.
- Spread the cherry pie filling over the dough in the pan. Sprinkle remaining dough evenly over top. Press down firmly.
- Place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven, and bake for forty five minutes. Carefully remove the cherry cookie bars from the oven and let cool.
- For clean slices with minimal crumbling, I recommend refrigerating until cold, because the chilled baked good is much easier to cut.
- You may leave the bars at room temperature for a few hours. For longer storage, keep leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer to ensure best freshness.
The recipe was adapted from my Homemade Cherry Pie Filling and these Peach Bars.
Cherry Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups quick oats or rolled oats (150g)
- 2/3 cup flour (spelt, white, or oat) (80g)
- 1/2 cup sugar or xylitol (100g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup oil or butter (100g)
- 2 1/2 cups chopped cherries (fresh pitted or frozen) (300g)
- 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot (7g)
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup or sweetener of choice (15g)
Instructions
- To make cherry crumble bars, preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8 inch baking pan well, or line the bottom with parchment paper. Stir the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in melted butter or oil, then firmly press 2/3 of the dough into the pan. Stir cherries, cornstarch, and sweetener of choice in a bowl. Spread this fruit filling on top of the dough in the pan. Sprinkle reserved dough on top. Press down very firmly. Bake 45 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate. The bars firm up considerably as they chill. For the best freshness, refrigerate or freeze any leftovers not eaten within a few hours.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More delicious fruit recipes
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
I adore cherries!! They’re grown in kent at this time of year so I get them whenever I can 🙂 This recipe looks amazing, if I get time on Sunday I’m making them!
I love cherries, especially if mixed with chocolate.
Yeah, why is it that cherries are so good and yet cherry-flavored things taste like concentrated evil? Blech!
Cherries…yum!! These bars look amazing!
Cherries are alright, but I’m really not a fan of sweet cherries. I like the sour ones you make pies and stuff with, but then again, I’m kind of a fan of sour fruit, lol.
I too, used to hate cherries… but that was until a ate a real one. Real ones are so much more awesome. And I LOVE dried sweet cherries, they really make a bowl of oatmeal. I’ve also made various batches of cookies and subbed out raisins for cut-up dried cherries. Works like a charm!
LOL you sound like my sister! I was lamenting how much I dislike the tiny blueberries because they aren’t sweet, and she said, “But I love sour blueberries! Sour fruit is way yummier than sweet fruit!”
just like with oreos, i wanna dig into that cherry center asap, then enjoy the delicious crumble layers afterwards- these are so impressive Katie!! <3
Mmm Kelsey, cherry oreos actually sound good lol!
I doubled the recipe, used half www flour and cake flour. WW pastry flour is not available here. I used 1/2 cup plus 3 T coconut oil. They taste great, though they are a bit crumbly.
Thanks for the great recipe.
Thank YOU, Dorothy. I am so glad someone tried them with coconut oil and reported back! 🙂
Cherries are great, but I refrain from buying them, because they are so damn expensive, even though we grow them in our province! Bah. I almost bought some on my way home from work today, but bought peaches that were on sale instead because of the cost. I love making choco-cherry smoothies with them…you know, when I have a working blender.
I used to despise cherry flavoured things like yogurt too, but have always loveeddd fresh cherries and this looks like the most perfect recipe to showcase their yumminess 🙂 Wonderful as always Katie!
Aww thanks, Sasha!
OMG!!! Katie, I saw these on foodgawker and was excited to see I had all the ingredients, so I made them right away. They are AWESOME!
To anyone reading this, MAKE THESE!!! They are so so good and you will be glad you did!