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These gluten-free cherry pie bars have all the deliciousness of a cherry pie without the time needed to actually making one! It uses nutrient-dense almond flour to make the crust and the crumble on top and is packed with fresh cherry flavor. These bars are gluten-free, dairy-free friendly, and the ultimate summer dessert!
Gluten-Free Cherry Pie Bars
Gluten-Free Cherry Pie BarsThere is nothing better than an awesome summer dessert that is easy-to-make and made healthier using simple wholesome ingredients. These gluten-free cherry pie bars are just so delicious and so quick to put together! The crust is made out of almond flour and the filling is jam-packed with cherries that are sweetened just the right amount.
We use the same mixture for the crust as well as the crumble topping, and precook the cherry filling on the stove top so that it’s just the right texture with minimal baking time!
Let’s talk cherries
We tested this with two different types of cherries: fresh sour cherries and frozen sweet cherries. They do result in slightly different flavors and textures but both are equally delicious. The fresh cherries are of course, a bit less sweet and have a firmer texture. The frozen cherries are sweeter and are a bit more juicy. The photographs shown in this article are the frozen sweet cherries and they have a darker color, but the video features fresh cherries. You can use whatever is available to you whether it be fresh or frozen cherries.
What you need to make these cherry pie bars:
- Almond flour
- Tapioca flour
- Coconut oil or butter
- Maple syrup
- Vanilla
- Sea salt
- Cherries, fresh or frozen
- Maple sugar (or coconut sugar)
- Arrowroot
Here are the kitchen tools you need:
- Large bowl
- 8″ x 8″ baking dish
- Parchment paper
- Spatula
- Pot
- Measuring cups
If you like this summer dessert, check out these others:
- Gluten-Free Key Lime Tart
- Homemade Jello (Healthy!)
- S’mores Pie (Gluten-Free)
- Strawberry Shortcake (Gluten Free & Paleo)
Watch the video:
Gluten-Free Cherry Pie Bars
Ingredients
For crumble crust and topping:
- 3 cups 288g almond flour
- 2 tablespoons 15g tapioca flour
- â…“ cup coconut oil or butter melted
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup see note
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
For Cherry Filling:
- 4 cups pitted cherries halved (see note)
- 1/3 cup maple sugar
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and line an 8x8 baking dish with a parchment paper sling.
- In a large bowl add almond flour, tapioca, coconut oil (or butter), maple syrup, vanilla and sea salt and mix well until it turns into large crumbles. Place â…” of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and press down evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Set aside.
- Meanwhile make cherry filling: in a medium saucepan add cherries, maple sugar, arrowroot and vanilla and mix well. Cook on medium heat, stirring often, until filling becomes thick, about 5 minutes.
- Pour cherry mixture into parbaked crust and sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture on top and bake for 20 minutes.Â
- Let cool completely before cutting.
- Store in refrigerator.
This looks so good! If I use butter instead of coconut oil should I cut out some of the salt?
Only if you are using salted butter!
Delicious!! Made these for a dinner party and everyone loved them!! I used frozen cherries and it did take them about 15 minutes to thicken versus 5 minutes in the recipe. Will make them again.
These are amazing!! Seriously so good and so easy. The whole family loved them.
Y’all, run, don’t walk to your pantry to make these. Made them this weekend and they were so amazing. Will definitely, be making them again!
🙂 🙂
I just had to try these since my bag of fresh cherries would not last many more days. Didn’t have quite enough so I added in some fresh raspberries. I’m telling you, these are so dang delicious!!!! I added some chopped pecans to the topping just because I love nuts in all my stuff. Cannot wait to serve them tonight! Everyone’s going to go nuts!!!!! Thank you for this recipe – and all of your recipes! They’re all good!!!!!! (The Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole was a ginormous hit!!!) You’re the best!!!!!!
I am SO happy you loved the bars!!!!
Hi Lexi, I love your recipes! I would like to make these soon but I’m all out of arrowroot. Do you think tapioca will work as a replacement in this case? I’ve seen them used interchangeably in lots of recipes but I’ve usually used arrowroot with fruit (like in cranberry sauce). Thanks!
I made this today and my family LOVED it! I mean, going on and on and saying it is the best dessert I’ve ever made good! Thank you so much for this recipe, I will definitely make it again and again.
I’m allergic to almond and coconut flours (including almond butter). Makes my scalp totally inflamed. Is there an alternative for the flour where this would turn out well?
No eggs in the crust?
This is so yummy! I actually made it with apples instead of cherries and it turned out great!! The apples were red delicious and a little on the softer/ripe side already, but I think crisp apples just would’ve needed longer 🙂
Thank you!
Well I was a complete disaster with this recipe. Like, did I even read the ingredients before I started? Once I was half way into it, I realized I only had 3 cups of cherries, I didn’t have arrowroot (so I just subbed with tapioca starch), and I didn’t have maple sugar (so I used coconut palm sugar and a little drizzle of maple syrup that I was able to get out of my empty bottle, lol). Whatever. It still looks and tastes good to me. I’ll do better next time! 😉
Sounds like pretty good subs!!! Hope they were good 🙂
This recipe sadly did not turn out! Something must be wrong with the list of ingredients for the crumble topping. The flour to butter ratio does not work for a crumble. Way too dry. The bottom crust is dry as well. The filling was great!
Lynne, that’s really strange. Many people have had wonderful success with this recipe. Did yo follow it exactly? It gets rave reviews!
These Cherry Pie Bars look yummy! I would love to make these but unfortunately I cannot have almond flour (hyper-allergic to all tree nuts except coconuts). Do you have any recommendations as a replacement for the almond flour?
Just made these with frozen cherries cannot wait to try it.
Let us know what you think! Enjoy!
Are canned cherries successful? No more cherries here.
Palaside peaches are in right now! Wondering how you’d switch out the peaches for cherries.
Lexi your blog is beautiful! And these look fantastically delicious! Can’t wait to try them!
This looks like a great recipe and I can’t wait to try it! I prefer blueberries so I’m wondering would it be 4c worth of blueberries I’d use or less?
I am wondering if you used pie cherries or sweet cherries. They sure look good.
These look delicious! I can’t wait to make them this weekend 🙂 What grass fed butter do you typically use?