These cherry pie bars are sweet and tart with a delicious dough base, crumbled dough topping and a simple sugar glaze to finish it off. The gorgeous vibrant chunks of cherries and sauce are on proud display, peeking out between the pockets of crumble topping.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil. Beat with a hand (or standing) mixer until combined - mixture will be thick.
Remove half of the mixture and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
Bake for 15 minutes then remove from the oven.
Spread cherry pie filling over the top of the baked base. One can of pie filling will cover the pie bars lightly - use up to 2 cans of pie filling for extra cherry filled pie bars.
Sprinkle the reserved dough in clumps over the top of the cherry pie filling.
Return the baking dish to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, until the top of the bars are just beginning to brown.
Cool bars completely.
Whisk together powdered sugar, almond extract, and enough of the milk to make a sugar glaze. Drizzle over the top of the cooled cherry pie bars.
Cut into bars and serve.
Notes
This recipe uses a vanilla cake mix but you can substitute it with either a yellow or white cake mix. They are both perfectly suitable.
Put the remaining dough to chill in the refrigerator whilst preparing the base and the filling. Once chilled, the dough becomes easier to break into bits as the topping. Make sure that you leave enough gaps between the blobs of dough for the cherry mix to be seen.
Allow this freshly baked dessert to completely cool before you cut the bars otherwise the cherry pie filling is likely to run out.