Awesome Holiday Fruit Bars

These holiday fruit bars are the homemade answer to the dense fruitcake nobody actually eats. Same flavor profile (dried fruit, candied cherries, warm spices, citrus zest) but in a bar-cookie format with a buttery shortbread crust that gets devoured, not regifted.

The crust bakes first on its own. Cut cold butter into the flour-and-brown-sugar mix until crumbly, press into a 9×13 pan, and bake 15 minutes until set and lightly golden. That blind bake is what stops the bottom from going soggy under the wet fruit topping later.

The topping is essentially a quick chess-style filling: eggs, brown sugar, and melted butter beaten together, then loaded with two kinds of raisins (regular and golden for color), candied cherries, lemon zest, and a pinch of allspice and cinnamon. Pour over the warm crust and bake another 15 minutes until set.

Cool completely before cutting; warm bars tear and the topping is too soft to slice cleanly.

Pro Tips

• Toss the raisins and candied cherries in a teaspoon of flour before adding to the egg mixture; this stops them from sinking to the bottom in a single layer
• Two kinds of raisins is worth doing; the golden and dark together look more interesting and bring slightly different flavor notes
• Check at 12 minutes for the topping bake; over-baking dries out the eggs and makes the topping rubbery
• Line the pan with parchment paper overhang for easy lifting and clean cutting once cooled

Variations

• Stir in chopped dried apricots, dates, or dried cranberries in place of (or alongside) the raisins
• Add a half cup of chopped pecans or walnuts for extra crunch and protein
• Swap lemon zest for orange zest and the spice mix for a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice for a fall version