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A thick, chewy cookie base is topped with a layer of sweet frosting and festive sprinkles in these frosted sugar cookie bars. They can easily be adapted to any holiday or occasion, from Christmas to Valentine’s Day!
If you love sugar cookies, you will love this frosted sugar cookie bars recipe. Not only does the super thick, chewy sugar cookie base just melt in your mouth and provide the most satisfying and addictive texture, but the frosting is just sweet enough, reminiscent of cinnamon roll icing. The sprinkles on top add a crunchy bite, making this recipe a fan favorite of all ages.
The best part is that you can adapt this recipe to any holiday or occasion. I like to do pink frosting and heart sprinkles for Valentine’s Day, but they could easily be swapped for red or green for Christmas, Easter sprinkles, etc.
Why I Love These Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
- Perfect cookie base. These cookie bars are extremely thick and chewy (some say it tastes like pound cake meets sugar cookie) but crisp on the outer edges. It’s the perfect combination of chewy and crispy cookies that hold firm but melt in your mouth!
- The frosting! The cookies are topped with a thick layer of my favorite hardening buttercream recipe (very similar to a cinnamon roll frosting). The sweet, creamy texture is the perfect contrast to the chewy cookie base.
- Fun & festive. There are so many ways to customize these frosted sugar cookie bars! As you can see in the photos, I often make them for Valentine’s Day but you can dye the frosting any color and use any sprinkles. I also think it’s fun to cut or break them into different shapes instead of just basic bars for an added novelty factor.
- Quick & easy. Sugar cookies may be easy to make, but these sugar cookie bars are even easier. There’s no need to chill the dough or shape the cookies so they’re ready in no time. (Just remember to let the cookie bars chill before frosting!)
Key Ingredients
Let’s take a look at the primary ingredients in both the cookie base and the frosting. (The full list and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.)
Cookie Base:
- Flour
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: These help the cookie bars rise.
- Salt: Salt brings all the flavors to the forefront and helps them from being too sweet.
- Butter: Use room temp butter by leaving it out for a few hours on the counter. If you’re in a pinch for time, heat it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, turning every 5 seconds.
- Granulated Sugar: No brown sugar here. We use all granulated sugar – an essential ingredient for the classic sugar cookie taste and color.
- Eggs: We use 1 egg and 1 egg yolk for the chewiest sugar cookie base. The extra egg yolk also adds tenderness and extra richness.
- Vanilla Extract: A full tablespoon of pure vanilla extract adds delicious vanilla flavor. I definitely recommend pure extract and not imitation extract here.
Frosting:
- Butter: Salted or unsalted butter both work in the frosting.
- Powdered Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the frosting harden so these cookie bars can be easily bagged up for gifting.
- Almond Extract: A tad of almond extract adds just a little “oooh hello, what’s that!?” flavor to the frosting.
- Vanilla Extract: Be weary of vanilla “flavor” as it’s artificial and can add an icky taste to your baked goods.
- Whole Milk: Thins out the texture of this frosting so it’s easily spreadable.
Do I Need To Chill The Dough?
Because we’re baking the cookie bark in a 9×13 baking dish, we don’t have to chill the cookie dough or roll individual cookies. Simply make the sugar cookie dough and spread it into your prepared greased baking dish. It will never overspread because it’s contained in the dish– simple and easy!
Tips for Success
Here are a few things to consider when making these frosted sugar cookie bars for the first time.
- Don’t overmix the dough. Overmixing the dough can result in dense, dry cookie bars. I usually stop when the dry ingredients are mostly mixed, but there are still a few flour remnants around the edges of the bowl.
- Allow the cookie bar base to cool. Since the cookie bark base is so thick, it will take a full hour to cool. Keep it in the pan and allow it to cool on a cooling rack so air can circulate under the baking dish.
- Just add sprinkles! – Using sprinkles of your choice based on the holiday or occasion, layer on the sprinkles immediately before the frosting sets up (within two minutes).
- Use gloves. I like to wear food handling gloves when I make these sugar cookie bars since you have to do a lot of handling of the dough to evenly spread it in the pan.
- Let the frosting harden. The frosting hardens pretty quickly, in just 20 minutes or so. Give it a chance to do so before slicing the cookie bars.
How To Store Sugar Cookie Bars
- Storage: Once the frosting hardens, these sugar cookie bars can be stacked and placed in an airtight container on the counter. They’re best enjoyed within 4 days.
- For gifting: I used cellophane bags with cute ribbons to package these and gave them away as Valentine’s gifts to my friends and neighbors.
Looking For More Cookie Recipes?
I hope you enjoyed this recipe for my Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars! I look forward to your questions and feedback below.
Please be sure to tag me @BadBatchBaking using hashtag #badbatchbaking if you made this recipe, and I will feature you on my story! Plus, I LOVE to see your baking accomplishments.
Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Cookie Bark Base
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- nonstick baking spray
Hardening Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup butter (one stick), room temperature, salted or unsalted
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 4-5 tablespoons heavy cream substitute half and half or milk
- Sprinkle variety of choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Place the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. or in a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add egg + extra yolk, one at a time and mix on low until smooth, about 30 seconds. Beat in vanilla.
- Slowly mix in dry ingredients, being careful not to over mix. I usually stop when I still have some flour remnants around the bowl.
- Evenly spread the cookie dough to the bottom of the prepared baking dish. I used gloved hands as it takes a lot of handling to smooth out evenly.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning the dish halfway through. Cookie base is done when the edges are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake. Allow to cool in the baking dish until fully cool (about an hour).
Frosting
- Once the cookie base has fully cooled, turn out onto a parchment lined sheet pan, flipping right side up.
- In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar. Add vanilla and almond extracts and heavy cream and mix until smooth. Texture will be thick. Melt your icing in the microwave for about 30-45 second until it's smooth and runny.
- Pour icing directly onto the cookie base. Use an offset spatula to smooth out corner to corner. Immediately add sprinkles before the frosting has a chance to cool.
- Once frosting has hardened (about 20 minutes), use a large kitchen knife to break into cookie bark. You should get about ~24 pieces of bark.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Loved the taste and texture of these cookies