These peach pie bars have all the flavors of a classic summer peach pie without the difficulty and hassle of assembling and baking a homemade pie crust. The easy, buttery crust does double duty as a crumble on top. There’s no chilling, rolling out, or trimming required!
The shortbread-like crust is paired with a creamy peach filling. It’s an ideal summer bake since it’s quick, easy, and showcases ripe summertime fruit.
How to Choose Peaches
Use your senses to discern when a peach is ripe—it should smell sweet and fragrant and the skin will have a deep yellow hue. When gently pressed, the flesh will have a bit of a give, but should not be overly soft.
Depending on how firm the peaches are and how warm your kitchen is, unripe peaches can take up to a week to ripen. To speed up the process, place the peaches in a brown paper bag. The paper bag will capture the natural ethylene gas that peaches release, which expedites the ripening process.
How to Store Peaches
The best way to ripen peaches is to store them on the kitchen counter at room temperature. If you’re not quite ready to use the ripe fruit, peaches can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days before using. The cold temperature of the fridge slows down the ripening process.
Ripe peaches can also be frozen. The best way to do this is to pit and slice the peaches, flash freeze them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag. They will keep for up to 3 months.
How to Make This Recipe Using Frozen Fruit
While fresh peaches are preferable, frozen peach slices can be used to make peach pie bars in place of fresh. The sliced peaches can be used straight from the freezer—no thawing required. If you opt to use frozen fruit, the bars may require an extra 10 to 15 minutes to bake.
Delightful Pie Bar Recipes
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Cherry Pie Bars
- Key Lime Bars
- Apple Pie Bars with Crumble Topping
- Raspberry Chess Pie Bars
Preheat the oven and prepare the pan:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F.
Grease the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square pan with butter. Line the bottom and two sides of the pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on both sides.
Make the crust and crumb topping:
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Add in the cold, cubed butter and the vanilla extract, and use your fingers to work the butter into the dry mixture until it holds together when squeezed. Set aside 3/4 cup of the mixture to be used for the crumb topping.
Transfer the remaining mixture to the pan and press into an even layer. Set aside while you prepare the peach filling.
Make the peach filling:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream, sugar, flour, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt to combine. Add the sliced peaches to the mixture and toss to combine.
Spread the peach filling evenly over the crust.
Add the crumb topping:
Evenly sprinkle the reserved 3/4 cup crumb topping over the peach mixture. To form bigger crumb pieces, squeeze the mixture in your hand before sprinkling. Most of the pieces should be roughly pea-sized.
5 Bake the bars:
Bake until the crumble is a pale golden color and feels crisp, about 50 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.
The bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to a week. Once cut into squares, these bars freeze well for up to 3 months.
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