Cherry Pie Bars

If you're like me, you won't want to wait until February to make a cherry dessert! These red and white, Cherry Pie Bars are so delicious and guaranteed not to make you blue! (Just had to work in a little 4th of July humor!) The crust definitely has a cookie taste, so don't bite in thinking it's like a little piece of cherry pie!

Be sure to grease your pan. I personally recommend butter for this dish. Crisco will be a bit too greasy tasting and oil or Pam may cause the crust to stick. Did you know oil and oil products can do that? That's my bit of useful trivia for the day!

There is a lot of sugar in this recipe; sugar in the crust, sugar in the cherry pie filling and sugar in the icing! To offset all of the sugar, I used half sugar and half baking Splenda in the crust and light pie filling. Not the total answer, but it does help. Spreading the dough in the pan can be a challenge. I tried a fork, a spatula and a regular dinner knife. The winner for this cook was the knife. And please don't try to make one can of pie filling stretch. I saw some recipes that suggested one can may be enough, but I am here to tell you it's not! I tried spreading one can first, just to see. You will not be able to get it edge to edge and you won't enjoy having a single cherry here and there.

The pan of cherry bars baked 45 minutes in my oven. Not only did I check with a toothpick as suggested, but I was also able to tell when the bars were done because the edges were beginning shrink back from the pan in a manner similar to a cake baking.

All in all, this recipe was fun to try and even more fun to eat! George Washington would be proud!