Fruit Cake Cookie Bars

These chewy Fruit Cake Cookie Bars will melt in your mouth. This Christmas dessert with pecans, dried cherries and pineapple has a rum glaze. 

I love cooking with cherries during the holiday season. Cherry pies, cherry jello, merry cherry bars, and…Grinch Bread? Yes! You have to check that out.

Fruit Cake Cookie Bars Recipe

Until this recipe, I never knew how much I liked candied fruit. These bars, with a chewy brown sugar texture, melt-in-your-mouth rum glaze and crunchy pecans brighten up any holiday cookie platter.

Pecan Cookie Bars

One thing I love about this cookie bar recipe is how it starts. Lay out pecan halves on a large baking sheet (10×15″). Then mix up the batter and pat the cookie batter over the pecan halves.

*The cookie batter will be very wet. Dampen your fingers in order to spread it over the pecan halves.*

Cookie Bars with Candied Fruit

Have you ever worked with candied fruit? If not, you may not be sure where to find it. You can of course order it online, but this time of year you can usually find candied cherries, pineapple and fruit cake mix in the baking aisle, or in the aisle center where all of the festive baking supplies are.

We used candied cherries and pineapple. Dice them up in a food processor, then sprinkle them over the cookie dough. Press down lightly on the fruit so it bakes into the cookie dough.

Powdered Sugar Rum Glaze

My favorite part of these bars is the rum glaze. Or I should say that the rum glaze perfectly brings the bars together. It will help these bars melt in your mouth.

Simply whisk together powdered sugar, rum extract and heavy cream until smooth. If you don’t have rum extract, you can use vanilla extract.

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled bars, then sprinkle with chopped pecans.

How to Store Cookie Bars

You can keep these bars at room temperature in an airtight container. They also freeze really well! I had a hard time not eating these straight from the freezer. They were that good.

Other Fruit Cake Recipes

• Fruit Cake Cookies
• Butterscotch Fruit Cake Bars
• Christmas Fruit Cake Bars

Tools to Make This Recipe

• Ninja Express Chop: Mini food processor…this is one of my most-used kitchen tools!
• 10×15″ Baking Sheet: A large sheet pan that fits these cookie bars perfectly.

Next, try our brown sugar cookie bars!

Fruit Cake Cookie Bars

4.70 from 13 votes

These chewy Fruit Cake Cookie Bars will melt in your mouth. This Christmas dessert with pecans, dried cherries and pineapple has a rum glaze. 

Servings 20

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

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Ingredients

 

US Customary - Metric

For the cookie bars:

• 2 cups pecan halves
• ½ cup butter (softened)
• 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• Dash of salt
• ½ pound candied pineapple (chopped)
• ½ pound candied cherries (chopped)

For the Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract (or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract)
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans (for topping)

Instructions

 

• Spread pecans evenly over the bottom of a greased 10x15x1” baking pan.
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Crema together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
• Add the flour and salt. Blend well.
• Spoon the batter over the pecans. Dampen your hands and gently press to spread the dough evenly over the pecans.
• Sprinkle the chopped fruit over the batter. Press down on the fruit slightly so it pushes gently into the dough.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes.
• Once the bars are cooled, prepare a powdered sugar glaze.
• Whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla and 3 tablespoons of heavy cream. If needed, add additional heavy cream until the glaze is at drizzling consistency.
• Drizzle the glaze over the cooled bars.
• Sprinkle with chopped pecans, if desired.
• Cut the bars and store in an airtight container.

Video

Notes

The calories shown are based on the cookies being cut into 20 pieces, with 1 serving being 1 cookie 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: 313kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 53mg | Potassium: 79mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 205IU | Vitamin C: 1.7mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 0.7mg

Author Julie Clark

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Calories 313

Keyword christmas bars, christmas dessert, cookie bars, fruit cake bars

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