I love it when summer arrives; besides the warmer weather, it’s the cherry season! For the past several years, my family has been cherry-picking with our friends and their children (five families!). With the fresh cherries we picked, I’ve made Cherry Clafoutis and Cherry Ice Cream in the past, and this year, I made these delicious Cherry Bars.
Best Cherry Bars Recipe with a Secret Ingredient
What makes these cherry bars extra delicious? Brown butter.
Brown butter is butter taken to the next level, and the magic is real. It adds a deep, caramelized, and nutty richness to sweet and savory recipes that you’ll instantly notice.
Ever since I made the Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt, my family has been hooked on brown butter. Cooking brown butter makes my house smell like a cookie factory, and the kids just want to hang around the kitchen waiting to see what delicious dessert I am making.
The result of the cherry bars was absolutely stunning, and my family is already asking me to make these bars again! They were also a big hit with my neighbor and my husband’s coworkers. And yes, you can enjoy these bars with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, too.
How to Make The Best Cherry Bars
Here’s a quick overview, but you can see the Recipe Card below for the full recipe.
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line a baking dish with parchment paper.
- Make the crust by mixing melted butter, vanilla, and sugar in an electric stand mixer. Blend in flour and salt, and stir until incorporated.
- Press the dough into the baking dish and bake until golden. When the crust is done, transfer it to a wire rack and cool in the pan.
- Make the brown butter. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Make the filling by whisking eggs, sugar, and salt in an electric mixer. Add vanilla extract and blend in flour and whisk until smooth.
- Gradually blend in the brown butter and whisk until completely blended.
- Arrange pitted cherries over the cooled crust. Carefully pour the filling evenly over the cherries.
- Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the filling is puffed and golden. Cool the bars completely and they’re ready to enjoy!
How to Store Cherry Bars
Store the bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one day. You can keep any remaining bars in the refrigerator for up to three days or freeze them for up to a month.
Brown Butter for The Best Dessert
Brown butter, or beurre noisette (hazelnut butter in French), is an insanely delicious ingredient that started out in savory French dishes but is now used in anything that calls for butter. It’s got this deep golden color, flecked with brown bits, and has an amazing nutty aroma.
To make brown butter, you just slowly melt the butter, letting the fat and milk solids separate. The milk solids sink to the bottom, toast, caramelize, and brown, giving off that incredible nutty smell. It’s easy and takes just 10 minutes. The result? A dream dessert that cannot be beat!
More Summer Desserts You’ll Love
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Best Cherry Bars with Brown Butter
Ingredients
- 4 cups cherries (fresh, pitted)
- 2 tsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
Crust:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (12 Tbsp; melted)
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Filling:
- 1 cup unsalted butter (16 Tbsp)
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC). For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC). Line a 13 x 9-inch (33 x 23 cm) baking dish with parchment paper.
- Pit cherries and toss them with 2 tsp flour.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine melted butter, vanilla, and sugar. Mix on medium speed until well blended and smooth.
- Blend in flour and salt and stir until incorporated.
- Press dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Bake until the crust is golden and slightly puffed, about 18 minutes. When the crust is done, transfer it to a wire rack and cool it in the pan.
- Meanwhile, let’s make the filling. Cut the butter into pieces and place it in a saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter completely stirring frequently with the spatula. As the butter heats, it will begin to foam and then bubble. After several minutes, the milk solids will start to become brown on the bottom of the pan. Make sure that milk solids do not stick to the pan. Continue stirring until the butter is evenly browned, being careful not to burn. Remove from the heat and pour browned butter into a glass bowl to cool slightly.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine eggs, sugar, salt, and extracts in a medium bowl and whisk all together.
- Gradually blend in flour by ⅓ at a time, but do not overmix.
- Gradually blend in browned butter and whisk mixture until completely blended.
- Arrange cherries over cooled crust. Carefully pour the filling evenly over the fruit.
- Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for about 30 minutes, until the filling is puffed and golden. A skewer inserted in the center should come out clean. Cool the bars completely in the pan on a wire rack. Carefully lift the parchment paper to remove the cooled bars from the pan and place them on a cutting board. Cut them into squares using a knife.
To Store
- Store bars in an airtight container for up to one day at room temperature, then store any remaining in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on June 9, 2013. It was updated with more helpful content on May 30, 2024.
