Why You’ll Love These Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

These sugar cookie bars are soft-baked like a chewy chocolate chip cookie and thick like a peanut butter blondie. They style similar to my favourite mushy frosted sugar cookies, made with a fraction of the trouble! This recipe is:

• Fast. In case 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.
• Smooth and chewy. In case you love mushy sugar cookies (just like the Lofthouse cookies of grocery store fame) wait till you style these do-it-yourself frosted sugar cookie bars. Wealthy, buttery, slathered with a thick layer of frosting, they’re utterly irresistible.
• Vacation-worthy. Sugar cookie bars are simple to embellish for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, you title it. Change up the frosting shade and add some sprinkles! That is one recipe you’ll wish to save for each vacation and event.

Recipe Components

You may make the most effective chewy sugar cookie bars with simply 8 simple elements (plus your alternative of frosting). I’ve included some ingredient notes under. Don’t neglect to scroll to the recipe card for the complete quantities and recipe directions.

• Sugar – Basic sugar cookies name for good ol’ granulated white sugar.
• Butter – Salted or unsalted, dropped at room temperature.
• Cream Cheese – Additionally at room temperature. I like to recommend utilizing blocks of cream cheese somewhat than the spreadable form.
• Egg
• Vanilla – For the most effective taste, follow actual vanilla extract (versus imitation vanilla).
• Flour
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda
• Frosting – I frost these bars with my favourite do-it-yourself buttercream frosting and prime them with rainbow sprinkles.

Make Sugar Cookie Bars

Thick and scrumptious cookie bars are enjoyable and festive sufficient to make for the vacations, and simple sufficient to make every time a longing for mushy and buttery sugar cookies hits. Have your cookie bars baked and frosted in just some fast steps:

• Mix the dough elements. Cream collectively butter, sugar, and cream cheese, adopted by the egg and vanilla. Subsequent, slowly add your dry elements 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 sides are slightly golden. Let the bars cool utterly earlier than frosting and adorning.

Embellish Sugar Cookie Bars

Prime your bars together 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’ll be able to attempt my mint chocolate chip frosting or this funfetti get together frosting for one thing festive. Frosting and adorning these sugar cookie bars is tremendous simple:

• 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 prime.
• Add sprinkles. End your bars with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips, or chocolate shavings.

Suggestions for Success

Identical to conventional sugar cookies, there are a couple of key issues that make all of the distinction in the case of baking excellent bars:

• Use room temperature elements. Be certain to take your butter and cream cheese (and even the egg) out of the fridge forward of time. Room-temperature elements mix extra simply with the opposite elements.
• Keep away from overmixing. Combine the dry elements into the moist dough solely till the dough is mixed, and watch out to not overmix. Overly blended cookie dough yields dense, powerful cookie bars.
• Don’t overbake. The important thing to mushy, 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 mushy 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’ll be able to simply change up the add-ins, flavors, and decorations on your subsequent special day! You’ll be able to flip nearly any sugar cookie recipe into bars simply by adjusting the baking occasions. Strive these concepts:

• Flavoring – Add a couple of drops of flavoring extract, equivalent to peppermint, almond, or orange extract.
• Chocolate – Borrow my mushy chocolate sugar cookie dough and make bars as an alternative.
• 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 received’t bleed shade into the cookie dough.
• Sweet – Fill your bars with chopped chocolate bars, white chocolate chips, or add M&Ms to make M&M cookie bars. For the vacations, make sweet cane sugar cookie bars.
• Snickerdoodles – Strive Snickerdoodle bars for a straightforward variation topped with cinnamon sugar.

Can I Put together These Bars In Advance?

Sure! You’ll be able to 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.

Retailer Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

• To Retailer. Retailer the frosted bars in an hermetic container at room temperature for 1-2 days. After that, maintain 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 ideas). Nonetheless, you may as well freeze the frosted bars. Retailer them tightly and maintain them frozen for as much as 3 months. Defrost the bars within the fridge earlier than serving.