Cherry Pie Bars

   If I ask my husband what he wants for dessert he will inevitably say "Something red." That translates to something cherry. He likes strawberry and raspberry, but cherry is his favorite. Jon also likes the flavor of amaretto so I figured with the almond extract in these Cherry Pie Bars they would be a hit with him. Tonight when I should have run my bath and settled in for the night and headed for a chair with the book I am enjoying right now; I got the urge to bake. Nothing new, I know.
   I remember when I had no desire to get involved in Pinterest. The women at work were constantly talking about it, and honestly it was starting to annoy me. One of my co~workers and friends asked if I was on this Pinterest. I told her I wasn't and she said she was surprised. I asked her why and she proceeded to tell me that she saw my Scottie Cake on there. I was a little confused since I had no idea what all the "pinning" was about. She said to come to her desk once I had my coffee and she would show me. As the reader here I am certain you know what happened. Pinning came from everywhere including blogs. That Scottie cake on my blog had been pinned, A LOT. It was almost two years after that before I even got on Pinterest myself. I was looking to make something and thought that might be a good resource. Was it ever!!! I then realized I could have boards that would keep things organized, all in one place and I could access them so easily. When I realized there was an APP for Pinterest and I could look at my recipes, craft ideas and everything I had "pinned" while out and away from my computer, I decided to try it. Please just know, I am SO NOT an APP person. I keep my iPhone clean and with only what will rest on one screen. I should confess right here that I access my Pinterest page, A LOT. I use it for shopping and used it while at my daughters house because I had deliberately saved recipes to try for her family. Okay, here we go. I love Pinterest. I should tell my friend that. She knows I use it now because she follows one of my boards :-).  Anyway, this is one of the recipes I pinned to my Sweet Treats board with the idea of making it for Jon. That happened tonight.
   I cut this recipe in half and prepared and baked it in an 11 X 7 inch glass baking dish. Since this original recipe was designed to be baked in a Jelly~Roll pan, and they are typically between 10 X 15 and 13 X 18 inches, my pie bars were a little thicker than the photo of the batch shown on Pinterest. They are very good and I am excited about Jon having one when he gets home tonight. I will be baking these again during the Christmas season. Since they will be served to more than Jon and I, I will use my Jelly~Roll pan.

Here is the original recipe I found on Pinterest.

Cherry Pie Bars

Ingredients

1 c. butter, softened

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

3 c. flour

1 tsp salt

2 cans (21 ounce) cherry pie filling

Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

2 Tbsp milk

Instructions

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, beating after each addition. Mix in extracts. Add flour and salt. Mix until well combined.

Spread 3 cups of the batter in a greased jelly roll pan. Spread pie filling on top of dough. Drop remaining dough by tablespoonfuls on top of cherry pie topping.

Baked at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool.

Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over bars. If serving the next day wait and do this before serving or the bars will be a bit soggy!

   Here is the blog this recipe was pinned from.  Here is the page on Julie's blog for  these Cherry Pie Bars. I plan to follow this blog, Julie's Eats & Treats. She has plenty of wonderful recipes, for instance her recipe today is Overnight Pumpkin Cheesecake French Toast Casserole. HELLO!! Thank you Julie, for such a lovely blog.