This Glazed Oatmeal Cherry Bars recipe is easy to make for a perfect dessert choice. Using cherry pie filling, these dessert bars feature a buttery brown sugar and oatmeal crust and topping.
One recent Saturday morning, Barbara was the lead cook for her husband, our dad, and our Uncle Pat who were all in tractors in different fields. Typically, Kevin plants corn, while Uncle Pat plants soybeans, and Dad sprays and keeps the other two filled with seed and rolling.
She needed a quick sweet to go with some ribeye steak sandwiches that she made on the grill. So she turned to her trusty Pot O’Gold cookbook, and stumbled upon this Oatmeal Cherry Bar recipe.
Barbara tends to keep cans of cherry pie filling in the cabinet which is the main ingredient in this recipe. With that being said, she’s always looking for recipes using cherry pie filling. These Glazed Oatmeal Cherry Bars were done in no time and Barbara had lunch ready to deliver to the fields. All three men – as well as several family members – agreed that these bars needed to be on the menu again.
How to Make Glazed Oatmeal Cherry Bars
Instructions:
- The bottom crust and the topping on these bars are the same oatmeal mixture. Mix the ingredients and spread all but 2 cups of the mixture on the bottom of the pan.
- Then bake for 12 minutes before spreading the cherry pie filling over the bottom crust.
- Sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of the mixture over the pie filling before baking again for 20-25 minutes.
- While the bars are cooling, prepare the glaze. Drizzle the glaze over the bars and let them completely cool before cutting.
For the full recipe using cherry pie filling, scroll to the bottom of the post.
Want other recipes using cherries? Try our Easy Cherry Crisp, Grandma’s Cherry Fluff or Old-Fashioned Fruit Salad.
Linking up to Weekend Potluck #354.
Notes About Cherry Pie Bars:
- Cherry Pie Filling is a pantry staple.
- Line the jelly roll pan with parchment paper that hangs over the side. After baking, pull out the paper, and the cherry pie bars are easy to cut.
- These cherry bars use quick oats, not to be confused with old fashioned rolled oats.
- We love how these make a huge pan, making them perfect for pitch-ins.
Glazed Oatmeal Cherry Bars
Ingredients
Cherry Bars
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 cups quick oats
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups butter melted
- 21 oz. can cherry pie filling
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 10 x 15-inch jelly roll pan by spraying with nonstick cooking spray. For easier cutting, line with parchment paper.
- Mix flour, oats, brown sugar and baking soda together in a large bowl; stir in melted butter until completely moistened.
- Reserve 2 cups of oat mixture for the topping. Gently spread the remaining mixture in an even layer into the jelly roll pan.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven.
- Spread pie filling over crust, and sprinkle with reserved topping.
- Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes or until topping is lightly browned.
- Prepare glaze by mixing sugar, vanilla and milk until smooth.
- Let bars cool for 10 minutes.
- Drizzle glaze over bars.
- Cut bars when completely cooled.
Notes
- Cherry Pie Filling is a pantry staple.
- Line the jelly roll pan with parchment paper that hangs over the side. After baking, pull out the paper, and the cherry pie bars are easy to cut.
- These cherry bars use quick oats, not to be confused with old fashioned rolled oats.
- We love how these make a huge pan, making them perfect for pitch-ins.
- Love cherries? Try Grandma's Cherry Fluff, Cherry Dump Cake, and Easy Cherry Crisp.
These bars were incredible!!!! I made them last year for a Christmas party and they were a hit! I am pretty sure I used old fashioned oats because that is all I ever have on hand and they came out fine! I will try them this year with quick oats and see I notice a difference. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
So glad they were a hit!
How are these without glaze. I often feel, recipes don’t need it, makes it look nicer, but necessarily need it.
Sandy, You can leave the glaze off of these if you’d prefer. You’ll have the sweetness from the cherry pie filling.
They were good ,I don’t think the glaze is needed… Also I added walnuts☺️thanks !
Sounds like a great addition!
You don’t specify salted or unsaltedwhether the butter should be salted or unsalted
We usually use whatever we have in the refrigerator but go with unsalted butter if you have it!
After searching for a “healthier” cherry bar recipe, I came upon this one. My oldest daughter is vegan so I modified it by using 3/4 C coconut oil and 3/4 C applesauce instead of the melted butter. The texture turned out amazing!!! I did have to bake them about 10 minutes longer probably because of the applesauce. Another couple of additions I made was adding 1/2 C finely chopped coconut and 1/2 C slivered almonds to the remaining mixture for the top, 1/2 tsp almond extract to the oatmeal mixture and also to the glaze. Thanks for the recipe!!!