CHERRY PIE COOKIE BARS

It seems like fresh cherry season is right here for some fleeting moments each summer time, and i attempt to take benefit of each 2nd due to the fact i like clean cherries extra than life.

We stay close-ish to numerous u-pick cherry orchards, and this year, in particular, we ended up with more cherries than we knew what to do with.

After consuming such a lot of, I thought we’d all be ill…and with bottled cherries nonetheless at the shelf from remaining yr, I decided to do the only sensible component and paintings on an excellent cherry pie cookie bar recipe (with a home made cherry filling!).

Ingredients

CHERRY PIE FILLING:

•  5 cups fresh Bing/candy cherries, pitted and halved (about 1 half of to two kilos) - see word
•  1/3 cup (2.5 oz) granulated sugar
•  1 tablespoon cornstarch
•  1-2 drops almond extract

COOKIE DOUGH:

•  1 cup (sixteen tablespoons, 8 oz.) butter, softened
•  1 cup (7.5 oz.) granulated sugar
•  2 tablespoons milk or buttermilk
•  1 teaspoon baking powder
•  half teaspoon baking soda
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
•  1 massive egg
•  1 massive egg yolk
•  2 1/four cups (eleven.25 oz.) all-cause flour

GLAZE:

•  1 cup (4 oz.) powdered sugar
•  Zest of one lemon (approximately a teaspoon)
•  1 tablespoon milk, plus greater as wished

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 tiers F. For less difficult cleanup, line a 9X13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. lightly grease the foil with nonstick cooking spray and set apart.
2. In a medium bowl, stir collectively the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and almond extract. allow sit at the same time as making the crust.
3. For the cookie dough, with an electric powered mixer (handheld or stand mixer), cream together the butter, sugar, milk (or buttermilk), baking powder, baking soda, and salt until mild and fluffy, 2-three minutes. upload the egg and egg yolk. mix till nicely-blended.
4. add the flour and blend until just blended and no dry streaks remain.
5. Take 2/3 of the dough (extra or much less) and press into the bottom of the pan. It helps to drop pieces noticeably lightly throughout the bottom earlier than spreading into a good layer. i exploit my palms - makes it top notch clean.
6. deliver the cherry filling a great stir and pour over the pinnacle of the bottom crust. Pinch off quoter-size pieces of the ultimate dough and drop on pinnacle. It may not cowl the cherry filling all the manner however will puff and spread even as baking.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes till the cherry filling is bubbling and the edges of the dough are lightly golden. allow the bars cool completely.
8. For the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon zest and milk until thick and pourable (add milk a little at a time if had to thin the consistency).
9. Drizzle the glaze over the pinnacle of the bars. Serve the bars at room temperature or barely heat with ice cream.