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Family-friendly meals made easy!
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
These easy Spumoni Bars are a bakery-style twist on the classic Italian spumoni dessert. Made with Pillsbury™ Sugar Cookie Dough, they feature a pistachio cookie base, creamy cherry filling, and rich chocolate topping. These colorful layered dessert bars are simple to make yet look impressive with sweet, nutty, and chocolaty flavors in every bite.
This is a new and improved version of our classic Spumoni Bars recipe, updated for more balanced sweetness and better overall flavor.
Gather your ingredients and get baking! Here’s everything you need to make Spumoni Bars.
Refrigerated Pillsbury™ Sugar Cookie Dough: Using this dough makes the soft-yet-sturdy cookie layer simple as ever.
Pistachios: The rich flavor of pistachios is classic and adds texture to the cookie base.
Gel Food Color: Just a small amount of green color enhances the pistachio layer, and a drop or so of red color gives a light pink hue to the cherry filling.
White Vanilla Baking Chips: Creamy white baking chips give structure to the cherry layer. Don’t use candy melts—they won’t function the same way.
Cream Cheese: Mixed with the melted white baking chips, cream cheese softens the filling and adds tang to balance the sweetness.
Dark Sweet Cherries: Find them frozen or canned. Make sure they are thawed and patted dry to avoid adding extra liquid to the filling.
Semisweet Chocolate: We prefer a balanced semisweet chocolate topping for these Spumoni Bars.
Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Vanilla extract, almond extract, salt, butter.
Here’s how to make these show-stopping Spumoni Bars. Follow the recipe for more detail!
Mix together all the Cookie Layer ingredients. Press into the prepared pan, and bake until golden brown. Let cool.
Combine the melted white baking chips and cream cheese, then stir in remaining Filling ingredients. Spread the mixture over the cooled cookie base and chill until set.
Mix the semisweet chocolate and butter, then spread over the cherry Filling.
Chill the bars until firm and set, then slice and serve. Enjoy!
This recipe makes about 16 large cookie bars, so you may have leftovers! Here’s how to store them.
Store Spumoni Bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If stacking, separate the bars with parchment paper to avoid smearing the chocolate. Enjoy straight out of the fridge, or let come to room temperature before eating.
For longer storage, store the bars in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before enjoying.
Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper, extending paper over the sides of the pan to allow bars to be easily lifted from the pan.
In a medium bowl, stir or knead Cookie Layer ingredients until well mixed. Press dough evenly into the bottom of lined pan.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile in a medium bowl, mix cream cheese with a spatula until smooth. In another medium heatproof bowl, microwave white vanilla chips uncovered on High 45 to 60 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted and smooth. Add the melted white chips to the bowl with the cream cheese, and mix vigorously to combine. The mixture may look dull at first; that’s ok. Continue mixing the filling until it is smooth and shiny.
Add chopped cherries, almond extract, salt, and 1 drop food color to the filling. Mix gently until evenly combined. Add an additional drop of food color if a deeper red color is desired. Spread filling evenly over cooled Cookie Layer. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, until firm and no longer tacky to the touch.
In a small microwavable bowl, microwave Topping ingredients uncovered on High 45 to 60 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted and smooth. Spread evenly over chilled filling. Refrigerate about 1 hour more, or until set.
Use overhang to lift bars from pan. To cut into bars, use a clean, cool knife to slice into 4 rows by 4 rows, wiping knife between cuts to avoid smearing the layers. Store covered in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Lining the pan with parchment paper makes removal and cleanup much easier. If you don’t have parchment paper, use aluminum foil instead.
We like the balance of semisweet chocolate on the top layer of these cookie bars, but feel free to experiment with using milk or dark chocolate if you prefer more or less sweet, respectively.
