Cherry Pie Bars for #SundayFunday

Welcome to #SundayFunday! Wendy from A Day In The Life on The Farm invited fellow bloggers to kick back, relax, and share something tasty and fun each weekend. "Sunday should be a Family Funday. Please join us in sharing recipes that will help you to enjoy your Sunday." If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join!

For today's lovely Sunday gathering, Sneha invited us to share some fruity desserts with you!

See all of our delicious fruit inspired treats for the day:

Banana Enchiladas From A Day in the Life on the Farm

Blackberry Lemon Bars From Karen's Kitchen Stories
Boozy Nectarine Crumble From Food Lust People Love
Cherry Pie Bars From Making Miracles
Fruit & Chocolate Trifle From Sneha's Recipe
Lattice-Topped Apple Pie From Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Lemon Cheesecake with Lemon Curd Topping From Amy's Cooking Adventures
Mango & Vanilla Panna Cotta From Mayuri's Jikoni
Strawberry Fool with Meringue Topper/Base From Sid's Sea Palm Cookin

This is a decadent and absolutely DELICIOUS dessert recipe. The "pie" layer bakes up incredibly tender, and kissed with a lovely hint of almond. If you don't like almond extract, feel free to omit and replace with additional vanilla extract.

I love, love cherry pie filling - but you can of course use any flavor pie filling in the middle of these bars that you have on hand, or that you prefer. The tender dough and sweet sticky filling are a perfect treat - and they keep well in the refrigerator. This would be the perfect make ahead treat for a get together! Put them out, and watch them disappear. They're on the sweet side, so a little goes a long way!

Cherry Pie Bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened

1 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 21-oz can cherry pie filling

For the glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1-2 TBS milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter with the sugar and salt for a couple minutes on high speed until lightened and creamy. Lower the speed and add in 1 egg at a time, until well incorporated (scraping down sides / bottom as needed). Add in the vanilla and almond extracts, and then on low speed add in the flour, just until combined.
3. Spread about 2/3 of the pie batter onto the bottom of the prepared baking dish, spreading with a spatula or fingers to evenly coat the bottom.
4. Pour the cherry pie filling over the top, spreading gently to evenly cover the base layer.
5. Dot the top of the dish with remaining dough pieces, do not spread.
6. Bake in the preheated oven 35-40 minutes, until dough is golden and baked all the way through.
7. Set aside to cool completely.
8. Once cool, combine all glaze ingredients in a bowl and blend until smooth. Drizzle the glaze all over the top, slice into bars, and serve!

Recipe adapted from The Country Cook