These tender and chewy frosted sugar cookie bars are topped with a thick layer of buttercream frosting (and sprinkles!). Take pleasure in freshly baked sugar cookies with hardly any effort!
Fast. In the event you’re huge on baking however not huge on time, sugar cookie bars are the reply. Have your cookie bars prepared in half-hour or much less, with out chilling or rolling out the dough.
Tender and chewy. In the event you love tender sugar cookies (just like the Lofthouse cookies of grocery store fame) wait till you style these selfmade frosted sugar cookie bars. Wealthy, buttery, slathered with a thick layer of frosting, they’re utterly irresistible.
Vacation-worthy. Sugar cookie bars are straightforward to brighten for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, you title it. Change up the frosting shade and add some sprinkles! That is one recipe you’ll need to save for each vacation and event.
Recipe Components
You can also make the perfect chewy sugar cookie bars with simply 8 straightforward components (plus your alternative of frosting). I’ve included some ingredient notes beneath. Don’t neglect to scroll to the recipe card for the complete quantities and recipe directions.
Sugar – Traditional sugar cookies name for good ol’ granulated white sugar.
Butter – Salted or unsalted, delivered to room temperature.
Cream Cheese – Additionally at room temperature. I like to recommend utilizing blocks of cream cheese quite than the spreadable form.
Egg
Vanilla – For the perfect taste, follow actual vanilla extract (versus imitation vanilla).
Frosting – I frost these bars with my favourite selfmade buttercream frosting and high them with rainbow sprinkles.
How you can Make Sugar Cookie Bars
Thick and scrumptious cookie bars are enjoyable and festive sufficient to make for the vacations, and straightforward sufficient to make every time a yearning for tender and buttery sugar cookies hits. Have your cookie bars baked and frosted in only a few fast steps:
Mix the dough components. Cream collectively butter, sugar, and cream cheese, adopted by the egg and vanilla. Subsequent, slowly add your dry components and blend till mixed.
Fill the pan. Press the sugar cookie dough right into a foil-lined jelly roll pan.
Bake. Bake the cookie bars at 350ºF for 20 minutes, simply till the perimeters are a bit of golden. Let the bars cool utterly earlier than frosting and adorning.
How you can Enhance Sugar Cookie Bars
Prime your bars along with your alternative of traditional buttercream, chocolate frosting, or any form of frosting you’d like! This creamy brown sugar frosting and heritage frosting are additionally scrumptious. Or, you may attempt my mint chocolate chip frosting or this funfetti party frosting for one thing festive. Frosting and adorning these sugar cookie bars is tremendous straightforward:
Make the frosting. Whip up a fast batch of your favourite frosting. Be at liberty to paint the frosting utilizing gel meals dyes.
Frost the bars. Pile dollops of frosting onto your cookie bars. Use an offset spatula or a knife to unfold the frosting evenly over high.
Add sprinkles. End your bars with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips, or chocolate shavings.
Suggestions for Success
Similar to conventional sugar cookies, there are a couple of key issues that make all of the distinction in terms of baking good bars:
Use room temperature components. Make certain to take your butter and cream cheese (and even the egg) out of the fridge forward of time. Room-temperature components mix extra simply with the opposite components.
Keep away from overmixing. Combine the dry components into the moist dough solely till the dough is mixed, and watch out to not overmix. Overly combined cookie dough yields dense, robust cookie bars.
Don’t overbake. The important thing to tender, chewy sugar cookie bars is to take the bars out of the oven whereas they’re nonetheless a tad underbaked. They need to be simply browned on the edges, and tender within the center. The bars will proceed to arrange as they cool.
Let the cookie bars cool. Talking of cooling, give the bars sufficient time to chill off utterly as soon as they’re out of the oven. If the bars are nonetheless heat, the frosting will slide proper off.
Straightforward Variations
These cookie bars are scrumptious simply as they’re, or you may simply change up the add-ins, flavors, and decorations on your subsequent special day! You possibly can flip nearly any sugar cookie recipe into bars simply by adjusting the baking instances. Strive these concepts:
Flavoring – Add a couple of drops of flavoring extract, resembling peppermint, almond, or orange extract.
Funfetti – Add a handful of rainbow sprinkles to the cookie dough. I like to recommend utilizing jimmies (the colourful rods) versus nonpareils (the little balls) as jimmies gained’t bleed shade into the cookie dough.
Snickerdoodles – Strive Snickerdoodle bars for a straightforward variation topped with cinnamon sugar.
Can I Put together These Bars In Advance?
Sure! You possibly can bake the cookie bars and make the frosting as much as 1 day forward. Retailer the cookie bars hermetic at room temperature and the frosting coated within the fridge till you’re able to frost and serve. Alternatively, freeze the unfrosted sugar cookie bars hermetic for as much as 2-3 months, and thaw them within the fridge earlier than frosting.
How you can Retailer Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
To Retailer. Retailer the frosted bars in an hermetic container at room temperature for 1-2 days. After that, hold them within the fridge for as much as 3-4 days.
Freeze. I like to recommend freezing sugar cookie bars earlier than they’re frosted (see above for make-ahead suggestions). Nonetheless, you may also freeze the frosted bars. Retailer them tightly and hold them frozen for as much as 3 months. Defrost the bars within the fridge earlier than serving.
These tender and chewy sugar cookie bars are topped with a thick layer of buttercream frosting (and sprinkles!). Straightforward to make in half-hour, and the dough doesn’t require any rolling or chilling.
