Skinny Cherry Pie Bars

Cherry pie flavoured bars covered with a light and creamy glaze.

We recently went cherry picking with friends. Their backyard has a big cherry tree, with a lot of low hanging branches, that were the perfect height for my toddler-sized daughter. She loved picking the bright red fruit right off the tree and putting it in the bag that I was holding.

With all the fun she was having, we ended up with a bag full of delicious cherries. Knowing that I needed to do something with them, I decided to make Skinny Cherry Pie Bars and Chocolate Cherry Muffins. The Skinny Cherry Pie Bars were an instant hit. They’re delicious, fat free, and even lower in sugar.

Small desserts are my favourite. Not only are the bars sweet, satisfying, and bursting with cherry pie flavour, but they are the perfect size to snack on and enjoy guilt-free.

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Servings: 12 bars
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

These Skinny Cherry Pie bars are delicious on their own, but the glaze is truly the frosting on this cake. You won’t even realize that these are fat free when you take your first bite. All you’ll be thinking is, “Mmm, more please!”

Ingredients

Cherry Filling:

2 cups cherries, pitted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Bar:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
5 tablespoons egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium heat, add berries, lightly stirring for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they release their juice.
Add remaining cherry filling ingredients, lower heat, simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat when done.
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Spray baking pan with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, combine apple sauce, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add in flour.
Reserve 1/2 cup of dough. Press remaining dough into baking pan. Top with cherry filling.
In small pieces, drop remaining 1/2 cup of batter over cherry filling.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.
Once bars have cooled, whisk together sugar, milk, and vanilla for the glaze. Drizzle over bars.
Cut into 12 pieces, serve, and enjoy!

Note: If you don’t want to make your own cherry pie filling, you can use store-bought filling.

If you love fruit-filled sweet treats, you may also enjoy Apple Honey Cake