Holiday Fruitcake Bars Recipe for Festive Treats
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Enjoy a delicious and festive treat with these easy-to-make fruitcake bars. Packed with dried fruits, nuts, and spices, they’re the perfect holiday dessert or snack.
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Holiday Fruitcake Bars with Figs and Plums will become a new favorite on your cookie tray this season. These delicate, fruity, and nutty bar cookies deliver the holidays, bite by bite. Filled with the season’s finest sweet-smelling spices, fruits, and toasted nuts.
These fruitcake bars are perfect for gift-giving or holiday cookie lists. Or to enjoy a fireside evening spent with the twinkling lights of your Christmas tree and a favorite holiday movie. Or while reading a Christmas book.
Simple to Make Fruitcake Bars Everyone Will Love
Even non-fruitcake people will love these simple-to-make festive bar cookies.
Here are four reasons we love these Holiday Fruitcake Bars:
- Fruitcake flavor in a bar cookie.
- Simple to make in about 30 minutes.
- Wholly and utterly festive and delicious for the holidays!
- Even non-fruitcake people will enjoy these fruitcake bars.
Holiday Fruitcake Bars Ingredients
While ingredient measurements are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is a list of what you’ll need to make these bar cookies for the holiday season.
- All-purpose flour
- Butter softened to room temperature
- Brown sugar for rich flavor
- Dried fruit: I used dried figs, raisins, golden raisins, dried plums, and dried cranberries in these fruit cake bars, but you could also substitute these with your favorite combination of dried fruit mixture, like dates, etc.
- Spices: Ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg
- Vanilla extract for the best flavor
- Large eggs for stability and texture
- Dry sherry: You can also substitute the sherry with orange juice, molasses, or even water
- Chopped pecans, toasted for the best flavor
How to Make Holiday Fruitcake Bars
These fruitcake cookie bars are easy to make for the holidays. Step-by-step instructions for the full recipe are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but this will give you a brief overview of how to make them!
Begin by preheating the oven to 350°F and line a 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of paper overhanging the long sides of the pan for easy removal.
Step 1: Whisk Dry Ingredients
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the dried fruit: figs, raisins, plums, and cranberries. Toss to coat in the flour and spice mixture; set aside.
Step 2: Cream the Butter
Using an electric or stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Then add the eggs, beating until thoroughly mixed, and stir in the vanilla and dry sherry. Gradually add the flour and fruit mixture to the butter and eggs and mix until just combined and fold in the toasted pecans.
Step 3: Bake the Fruitcake Bars
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until cooked through, about 22 to 26 minutes. Test with a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle. They are done when it comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached, but no batter.
Place bars in the baking pan on a wire rack to cool for an hour. Using the parchment paper overhang, remove the bars from the baking pan and continue to cool completely.
How to Cut Fruitcake Bars
Once the fruitcake bars are cool, cut into 32 bars (8 cuts by 4 cuts) using a serrated knife. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
How to Store Fruitcake Bars for the Holiday Season
Store your fruit cake bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week, which makes them a perfect make-ahead Christmas dessert!
For longer storage, you can freeze the bar cookies in an airtight freezer container for up to 3 months.
More Holiday Recipes to Try
- Figgy Pudding: A Classic Every Christmas Table Needs
- Lighter Christmas Cake with Apple and Fruit
- Dresden Stollen (German Christmas Stollen)
- Easy Holiday Cheese Board
- 13 Recipes for Stir-Up Sunday
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Holiday Fruitcake Bars with Figs and Plums
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dried figs coarsely chopped
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup dried plums coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 2 sticks butter 1 cup, softened
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons dry sherry (or orange juice, molasses, or water)
- 1 cup toasted pecans chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of paper overhanging the long sides of the pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Add the dried fruit: figs, raisins, plums, and cranberries. Toss to coat in the flour and spice mixture; set aside.
- With an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating until thoroughly mixed. Add the vanilla and dry sherry; mix. Slowly add the flour and fruit mixture to the butter and eggs. Mix until just combined; fold in the toasted pecans.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until cooked through, about 22 to 26 minutes. Test with a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle. When it comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached, but no batter, they are done.
- Place bars in the baking pan on a wire rack to cool for an hour. Using the parchment paper overhang, remove the bars from the baking pan, and continue to cool completely. Once the fruitcake bars are cool, cut into 32 bars (8 cuts by 4 cuts) using a serrated knife. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.