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.
Perfect consistency, and such as easy recipe. Thanks for helping me use up some extra cherries.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you love these bars!
I just made the chocolate chip cherry Blondies and they turned out fabulous! I want to make them for work but I need to have a lot of them. Have you ever made them in a 13 x 9 pan? Would I just double the recipe? I just want to make sure before I do it that they will cook well in the center if I’m if I make a double recipe. Can’t wait to try your other recipes! Thanks again! :-)
I’ve never made them in a 9×13 but if you were going to do that, yes I would just do a straight doubling of everything. Cooking through shouldn’t be an issue because the overall thickness of the bar should remain roughly the same in the larger pan despite more batter. Glad you loved them!
Try this: https://smile.amazon.com/Prepworks-Progressive-Cherry-Cherry-Pitter/dp/B0041DV0WY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501365269&sr=8-2&keywords=cherry+it+pitter A nifty cherry pitter that does 4 at a time, either large ones or small ones, at Amazon. It closes completely so that you don’t splatter juice. I’m heading to the kitchen to try your recipe!
Looks like quite the cherry pitter! Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I’m glad this was a small batch: we couldn’t stay out of them! The 2 of us ate them all in 2 days… these are the bomb!
Glad it was a hit for you two!
These were so good, and I got so many compliments on them when I brought them to a mom’s group. The cherries were really a delightful surprise for many! I used fresh cherries, but I found I had to double my cooking time. It was quite raw in the middle after 30 min. So either I will increase the amount of flour, or just continue to cook them for 60 min.
With the amount of juice in cherries, it’s not surprising that sometimes things take longer to bake for one person than another, given all cherries and their juiciness varies. Glad you just baked until done and really enjoyed these!
Do you cool them in the pan?
yes
Thanks Averie. I like the idea of large pieces of cherry instead of small. I’ll halve them to pit and use the halves. The pictures make my mouth water. Thank again.
This sounds yummy but I am confused. In one spot you say you don’t like cherry pitters so you slice the cherry. In another spot you say you don’t half them because you like the pieces big and chunky. Could you please clarify this. Thank you.
I halved the cherries by hand (I think….I made this recipe years ago) rather than using a pitter. Remove pits any way you see fit and slice/chop as fine or coarse as you like. Enjoy!
Absolutely delicious! I love the burst of fresh cherries as you eat them.
I added some Persian fairy floss (just because) and next time I would add extra flour to make them a bit more solid at room temperature. I found they needed more than an hour to cool enough to cut.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! I love King Arthur flour because it has a slightly higher gluten content than other brands and therefore baked goods have a bit more structure and aren’t as likely to crumble.
There is no leavening agent in this recipe, and it didn’t occur to me to ask before I made it. I’m at the first 30 minutes in, and the dough is as ‘doughy’ as it was when I put it in. What am I doing wrong? I double checked my ingredients to make sure I put in the ingredients called for.
Some cherries are very juicy and that could explain why the batter is still on the wet side. Your oven could not be functioning properly. You could have mis-measured ingredients. Hard to say what the cause is but correct no leavening.
Can you substitute dried cherries that is all i have?
I’d make these then https://www.averiecooks.com/cranberry-chocolate-chip-blondies/
O h ok thanks have u ever used almond extract too?
No I haven’t.
I love this recipe but was wondering if you have ever tried to use a substitute for the all-purpose flour, such as almond or coconut flours?
No I haven’t tried. LMK if you do!
These were great. I used blueberries, cherries and white chocolate chips for 4th of July. Thanks!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Sounds festive and perfect for The Fourth!
Can I use canned cherries?
I haven’t tried it that way so can’t say for sure about the results.
If you make them with canned cherries, please let me know how they turn out. I have a couple bottles of cherries in my pantry and I was wondering if they’d work. They are cherries in syrup, so maybe I would need to slightly cut the sugar?
Would it work with dried tart cherries?
Yes and I have a recipe for that! https://www.averiecooks.com/cranberry-chocolate-chip-blondies/
I was originally looking for your cherry bread recipe, I baked it a couple of months ago and it was a complete hit in my family. But I saw this pop up on related recipes and decided to give them a try. They were really good, I used cherries, blackberries and white chocolate chips because those were the things I had in the kitchen.
Note: I substituted the brown sugar with 3/4 jaggery (in Venezuela is almost impossible to get brown sugar) and they turned out just fine. Great recipe!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!