Chocolate Chip Cherry Bars — Not sure what to make with cherries? These cherry bars use my favorite blondie base and turn out perfectly every single time! These bars are seriously so good and are a reader favorite!
Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cherry Bars
This cherry dessert recipe has been a reader favorite since July 2012. Here it is again for the newcomers.
Have you been buying your weight in summer fruit every time you go to the grocery store or pass a farmers market? Okay, well I have. Especially cherries.
I love cherries. They are just so perfect. Their sweetness, their hearty flesh, the chewiness. The only thing not perfect about them are their little pits. Pits are a PITA.
I do have a cherry pitter, but I find it just splatters cherry juice everywhere and doesn’t always poke out the pit. More misfires than proper pokes. If the cherry pit is slightly off-center, the gadget just stabs the cherry down the middle, misses the pit, and said cherry juice splatters even more, so I tend to just slice the cherries with a paring knife and am pretty fast with that.
I’m also pretty fast with polishing off a one-pound bag of fresh cherries. But between the watermelon, nectarines, blueberries, grapes, standard issue bananas and apples, and then the cherries, even I was running out room. In both my stomach and crisper drawer.
So I decided to make chocolate chip cherry bars. The beauty of this cherry dessert recipe is that it’s fast, one-bowl, and no mixer is required.
I almost used white chocolate chips but then thought, no, semi-sweet chocolate and cherries just go together. After all, dark chocolate-covered cherries are the confections that overpriced Valentine’s Day candy assortment boxes are made of.
Because of the fruit and the fruit juices released while baking, to say they’re moist and juicy is an understatement.
There’s no granulated sugar in them; just brown sugar. In cookie baking, a higher ratio of brown to white sugar keeps cookies extra soft and moist, and it does the same thing for blondies. It also imparts a caramely-buttery richness that I adore.
The chocolate chips melted everywhere. Can you say hot, juicy, beautiful mess? Cherries and summer fruit never tasted so good.
What’s in These Chocolate Cherry Bars?
For these amazing chocolate chip cherry bars, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Fresh cherries
Seriously, that’s all you need to make this easy cherry dessert!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cherry Bars
- Melt a stick of butter in a big mixing bowl in the microwave.
- Then stir in the brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, and flour.
- Fold in the cherries (and maybe a few raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries) and chocolate chips and you’re ready to bake.
- You’ll know these chocolate cherry bars are ready to come out of the oven when the edges start to pull away from the pan and the center is set. Depending on how gooey you like your blondies, you may want to bake these for a little more or less time than the recipe calls for.
- Cool them properly and well before digging in!
Can This Recipe Be Doubled?
Most likely, yes! I’ve only made this cherry recipe as written, but you should be fine to double the ingredients and bake in a 9×13-inch pan.
Should I Use Fresh or Frozen Cherries?
Although I have experimented and made these bars with frozen cherries and although they theoretically work, frozen cherries tend to release too much juice into the batter and the resulting bars tend to be extremely soft.
For much more of a guarantee that the bars will work for you and set up without worry, I recommend fresh cherries.
Can I Make These Bars with Dried Cherries?
If you have dried cherries on hand, I recommend making my Cranberry Chocolate Chip Blondies (just use dried cherries instead of cranberries, it’ll definitely work!). It’s pretty much the same recipe, but I know for sure that one works well with dried fruit.
Can I Add Other Fruits?
If you want to use a combination of fresh cherries and other stone fruits like plums, nectarines, peaches, apricots, pluots, or similar, they will work just fine.
You can also try berries such as blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Cherry Bars
These chocolate cherry bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Can the Bars Be Frozen?
Yes! You can freeze these chocolate chip cherry bars for up to 3 months. Let them cool completely on your counter, then slice and store in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container.
When you’re ready to enjoy them, either reheat them in the oven until the chocolate starts to get gooey, or set them on your counter to thaw.
Tips for Making Cherry Bars
You can doctor these up with white chocolate chips or coconut flakes, or add most any other type of fruit from peaches to blackberries, fresh or frozen. I’ve tried many combos of fresh, frozen, half-and-half, and things always work out with this blondie base.
Note that baking times will vary based on the types of fruit used and the moisture content of the fruit; and how gooey you like your blondies.
A toothpick inserted into the middle may not come out clean due to the chocolate chips or juicy fruit. So use your best judgement when taking these babies out of the oven!
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Chocolate Chip Cherry Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt, optional
- ¾ to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup cherries, fresh or frozen*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter, about 60 seconds.
- To the melted butter, add the brown sugar and stir to combine.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and stir to combine. Add the flour, salt, and stir until just combined, taking care not to over mix or the blondies will be tough.
- Fold in chocolate chips, fruit (I don’t halve the cherries: I like them chunky and big), and pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula or offset knife if necessary.
- Bake for 27 to 32 minutes, or until edges begin to slightly pull away from sides of pan and center is set.**
- Allow bars to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving. Blondies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Cherry Desserts:
You can find all of my CHERRY RECIPES HERE. Some of my favorite cherry desserts are below.
Cherry Cream Pie — An old-fashioned pie with homemade scratch crust topped with NO-BAKE layers of sweetened cream cheese along with juicy cherry pie filling!! If you like cherry pie, you’re going to LOVE this amped up version!!
Soft Cherry Bread with Cherry-Almond Glaze — An EASY quick bread recipe that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day, Easter, or Mother’s Day! Because you can never have too much pink!
Mini Cherry Oreo Cheesecakes – EASY mini cheesecakes loaded with cherries and an Oreo cookie crust!
Triple Chocolate Cherry Cake — This cake is loaded with juicy cherries and topped with an easy homemade chocolate frosting. I used a few shortcuts in this recipe to save time, but this cake tastes completely homemade!
Glazed Cherry Pie Bars — The bars are like cherry pie, but easier. There’s a buttery, soft, tender crust topped with cherry pie filling before being baked and glazed.
Glazed Cherry Bonbon Cookies — Soft, buttery, pink cookies with the surprise of a juicy, sweet maraschino cherry in the middle that also helps keep the cookies moist.
Cherry & Cream Cheese Turnovers — The turnovers are so good that people will think you bought them from a local bakery, but they’re so easy, ready in 20 minutes, and you’ll never need to settle for storebought turnovers again.
Originally published on July 24, 2012 and republished on June 19, 2020 with updated text.
The first word out of my 15 year old’s mouth after the first bites was……”WOW !”
My husband went crazy for them. Caught him eating it right out of the pan with a knife happy as a kid ! I will absolutely make them OVER AND OVER again. I think next time I will try a raspberry / chocolate chip version.
THANKS SO MUCH AVERIE for this incredible recipe. I for sure now am going to save your website and try other recipes from it.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this was huge hit and you’ll make these over and over again!
I only have a can of Oregon cherries, due to the quarantine. Can I use those instead? Thank you!
I don’t know what those are specifically. If it’s pie filling, no.
I recommend fresh cherries for this recipe.
Five star rating because they are so delicious. However, even though I believe I followed your recipe to the letter, the batter was so thick, it had the consistency of pie dough and I wouldn’t have been able to spread it out in the pan. I decided to add enough orange juice to make the batter spreadable. Absolutely delicious, P.S. nobody else in the comments section seems to have had this problem, so I’m assuming I’m the one who incorrectly measured something, even though I was super careful. I had melted the butter but it had time to cool a little bit and I’m wondering if that might be the problem. In any event, thanks for posting. I will try more of your scrumptious recipes soon. Stay safe!
Five star rating because they are so delicious. However, even though I believe I followed your recipe to the letter, the batter was so thick, it had the consistency of pie dough and I wouldn’t have been able to spread it out in the pan. I decided to add enough orange juice to make the batter spreadable. Absolutely delicious, P.S. nobody else in the comments section seems to have had this problem, so I’m assuming I’m the one who incorrectly measured something, even though I was super careful. I had melted the butter but it had time to cool a little bit and I’m wondering if that might be the problem. In any event, thanks for posting. I will try more of your scrumptious recipes soon. Stay safe!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad the taste was great!
Regarding the thickness of the dough, this is a very thick and dense dough because I am accounting for the fact that cherries will give off their juices like crazy during baking and water it down by a ton so initially, yes it’s very thick and dense. However I do think that you waited too long for the butter and that it was re-solidifying and that was the issue. You don’t need to wait more than 2 minutes. Glad the OJ fixed it right up though!
I just made these cherry blondie bars after going cherry picking. My boyfriend and I have eaten almost the whole pan in less than 48 hours. SO GOOD! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
I just made these cherry blondie bars after going cherry picking. My boyfriend and I have eaten almost the whole pan in less than 48 hours. SO GOOD! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
How lovely to be able to make this with fresh cherries that you just picked! I bet it is soooo good – wish I was having some right now!
These taste delicious but after waiting overnight, they still seem way too soft and are falling apart too much to cut. I baked for about 40 minutes since I used frozen cherries but followed everything else in the recipe precisely. Should the cherries still be gooey and soft or more hard and baked in? Would throwing this back in the oven help? Thanks!
At this point no you can’t put it back in the oven.
The issue is that frozen cherries are juicier and mushier than fresh, and that is what caused the issue and caused the bars to be overly moist and not holding together I am thinking. They probably gave off an excessive amount of juice. I would say try fresh ones next time if you can get ahold of them.
Oh wow, what a simple but delicious recipe! So easy to make and soooo flavorful, loved it! I just reduces sugar to a 1/2 cup because we don’t like things too sweet but I will definitely do this again. Thank you!
Oh wow, what a simple but delicious recipe! So easy to make and soooo flavorful, loved it! I just reduces sugar to a 1/2 cup because we don’t like things too sweet but I will definitely do this again. Thank you!
Can I choose cherry pie filling??
They look so good and can’t wait to try this recipe.
Thanks
No only fresh cherries for this recipe.
Absolutely the best thing ever! I have made this 3 times in the last 5 weeks.
Absolutely the best thing ever! I have made this 3 times in the last 5 weeks.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you adore them and have made them 3 times in 5 weeks!
I made these today and they turned out great! I did however cut the sugar in half because I felt like a full cup was a bit much. Also only put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and the result is the right level of sweet :) I can’t wait to see how the texture and flavor evolve overnight!
I made these today and they turned out great! I did however cut the sugar in half because I felt like a full cup was a bit much. Also only put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and the result is the right level of sweet :) I can’t wait to see how the texture and flavor evolve overnight!
I’m glad you were able to reduce the sugar and chocolate chips and still get a great result.
The recipe was easy to follow and simple! I’ve never made anything like this before (or eaten anything like it). Both my husband and I were surprised at the biscuit-like texture and taste. I appreciated that it wasn’t too sweet, but I guess we’re just not fans of bars – now we know! But I’m glad I made these ones – can’t go wrong where cherries and chocolate is concerned, at least in my book.
The recipe was easy to follow and simple! I’ve never made anything like this before (or eaten anything like it). Both my husband and I were surprised at the biscuit-like texture and taste. I appreciated that it wasn’t too sweet, but I guess we’re just not fans of bars – now we know! But I’m glad I made these ones – can’t go wrong where cherries and chocolate is concerned, at least in my book.
Thanks for trying the recipe.
If I doubled the recipe, should I use a 13 x 9 pan or a15 x 10? They sound delicious but I want to make a larger batch!!! Thank you!
Either would work I think. But if you use a 15×10 they will be much thinner. I would opt for the 9×13 but it depends on what you think you’d prefer.