Cherry Oatmeal Bars Easy Dessert

Updated June 23, 2020 I am sharing a dessert from my childhood, Cherry Oatmeal Bars, also known as Cherry Dessert. Our good friends, who we consider family, made these easy cherry bars every February to celebrate George Washington’s birthday and I was always happy to help them eat them. Cherry dessert became a dessert staple in February and was often requested later in the year. Everyone loves these bars! So why cherries and George Washington? You know, because of the whole chopping down the cherry tree story. George Washington will always be associated with cherries. I am sure he would be more than ok with with these Cherry Oatmeal Bars for his birthday dessert. They are delicious! Our friends recently came to visit us and I asked if I could have the famous Cherry Dessert recipe and they happily shared it with me. Yay! I made the bars and they are just as good as I remembered. If you like cherry pie, you are going to looooooove these bars! I think they are even better than pie because they are super easy to make and the bars have an oatmeal crumb crust AND topping! The cherry filling is made with tart cherries, not cherry pie filling, so make sure you buy canned cherries and not pie filling. You cook the tart cherry juice on the stove with flour and sugar until it thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the cherries. If you want the cherries to be bright red you can stir in a few drops of red food coloring. I also stir in a little vanilla extract. Make the oatmeal mixture and press half of it into the pan, top with the cherry filling, and top with the remaining oat mixture. Bake until golden brown. We like to serve the bars warm with vanilla ice cream. The tart juicy cherries surrounded by buttery oatmeal crust and topping with creamy vanilla ice cream….soooooo good! These Cherry Oatmeal Bars remind me of my childhood and will always be one of my favorite desserts. I am so glad I have the recipe! I am going to make them all of the time, not just in February:) But make sure you make them this week to celebrate George. I am glad he cut down that cherry tree because it means we get to eat cherry dessert in his honor:)