Julie Clark
Posted: Updated:
Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars
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Festive, sweet and salty Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars are an old-fashioned dessert to add to your holiday dessert table. These layered bars are an easy recipe to bake.
There are endless desserts to enjoy at Christmas. Oreo balls, snowballs, sugar cookies and gingerbread to name a few! These chewy butterscotch fruit cake bars are a classic recipe straight from my mom’s recipe box.
Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars
We have several fruit cake recipes that we’ll be sharing with you over the next week or so. I’ll be honest that besides these bars, I really didn’t have fruit cake too much growing up. I wasn’t sure what to think when I tested some fruit cake recipes this fall. The cakes, I could totally pass up, but chewy fruit cake bars that were almost like a cookie? I LOVED them. It was a surprise to me!
Are candied cherries real?
The fruit in this fruit cake bar recipe is red and green candied cherries. So what are candied cherries? Well, they are real cherries, they are just very processed. If you take maraschino cherries and process them even further by putting them in a heavy syrup, you get candied cherries. They are colorful and fun to bake with!
How long do candied cherries last?
Candied cherries have a shelf life at room temperature for 24 months in a cool dry place. If you picked up a package during after-Christmas sales last year, they are totally fine to use. It’s not recommended that you freeze candied fruit.
How to Make Fruit Cake Bars
There are two steps to this recipe The cookie base and the candy topping. You’ll mix up the cookie base and press it in a 9×13 baking pan. Bake that part for 15 minutes.
While it is baking, mix up the batter part of the topping. Pour it over the baked crust, then mix together the fruit, nuts and butterscotch chips. Sprinkle these over the sugary filling and bake for another 15 minutes. The egg, sugar mixture will bake up around all of the toppings.
You’ll end up with this:
How to Store Fruit Cake Bars
Allow the bars to cool completely before you cut them. Store the bars in an airtight container. They are ok at room temperature for about 48 hours, but we freeze them after that. The cookie bars freeze well! Just wrap them tightly and allow them to defrost completely in the packaging before opening them up.
Other Fruit Cake Recipes
{Coming soon!}
- Fruit Cake Cookies
- Christmas Fruit Cake Bars
- Fruit Cake Cookie Bars
Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars
Festive, sweet and salty Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars are an old-fashioned dessert to add to your holiday dessert table. These layered bars are an easy recipe to bake.
Servings 15
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Ingredients
Cookie Layer:
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter (softened)
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Topping:
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 11 ounces butterscotch chips
- ¾ cup chopped candied cherries (red and green)
- ½ cup chopped nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
- Add to the sugar mixture and blend together well.
- Spread the batter in a greased 9x13 baking pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- For the topping, beat the egg with the brown sugar.
- Blend in the milk and butter.
- Add the flour, baking soda, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.
- Spoon this mixture over the baked cookie layer and spread gently to cover.
- Mix together the butterscotch chips, cherries and nuts.
- Sprinkle these over the topping.
- Return the pan to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
- Allow the bars to cool before cutting.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the bars being cut into 15 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 bar. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information.**
Nutrition
Calories: 291kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 345mg | Potassium: 54mg | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 270IU | Calcium: 24mg | Iron: 0.8mg
My all time favorite Christmas bar cookie. This was a “secret ” recipe of a friend’s mother in law, but now I have it. Sometimes I make it half dried dates and half candied cherries for the toppong, because some people don’t like the candied cherries.