Sugar Cookie Bars

by Sabrina Snyder

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5 from 8 votes
30
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
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Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are the best recipe to geat soft, chewy sugar cookies for any occasion. Ready to serve in under an hour!

Buttery, soft Sugar Cookies with Frosting are one of the most well-loved and easy Cookie Recipes. This cake-like twist on a classic cookie is sure to be a go-to party dessert!

Dessert bars in stack with sprinkles

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Put away your cookie cutters and ice cream scoops, you won’t need them for these amazingly easy dessert bars. These bar cookies are an easy way to make a lot of cookies fast with only one cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Plus there’s no waiting around for the cookie dough to chill before you can start baking.

If you’ve never had a cookie bar, you’re in for a real treat (pun intended). These bars are soft and chewy, just like store bought bakery cookies. The thick layer of buttery vanilla cream cheese frosting is just the right amount of sweet and is so creamy and smooth.

Made with all the same ingredients as a traditional sugar cookie, this dessert can be made whenever a craving hits or you need a last minute dessert. I love that this double batch of cookie dough makes about 30-40 cookies, so it’s a great recipe for a crowd.

Serving Idea

The frosting in this dessert recipe is a richer cream cheese frosting with extra butter. You could easily serve them without frosting and dust with granulated sugar or use a Buttercream Frosting instead. Scoop them out of the pan before they cool and serve with Vanilla Ice Cream for a Sugar Cookie cobbler-style dessert.

Tips and Tricks

  • For extra chewy Sugar Cookie Bars, add an extra egg yolk to your cookie dough. You can also pop the hot pan into the fridge right after baking.
  • Don’t over bake these cookie bars! They should only be slightly golden around the edge, slightly pulling from the sides of the baking pan.
  • Soften the butter and cream cheese at room temperature before using. If you want to use salted butter in the frosting and cookie dough, skip the salt.
Dessert bars in baking dish

Variations

These Sugar Cookies are a fun party treat at any time of year. You can easily swap out the food coloring and sprinkles to match whatever theme or holiday, like bakery cookies at the store. The best kind of sprinkles to use for sugar cookies are the softer, larger ones. They hold their shape and don’t melt into the frosting.

  • Mix-ins: Sugar cookies have thicker cookie dough so use creamy mix-ins like white chocolate chips, caramel chips, or butterscotch chips.
  • Chocolate Chips: Turn these into Sugary Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars by folding in a ½ cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips. Top with Chocolate Frosting or Chocolate Ganache.
  • Sour Cream: Make Lofthouse Sugar Cookie Bars by adding ½ cup sour cream to the cookie dough and reduce by 1 egg.
  • Frosting: Use other flavor combinations, like lemon juice or cherry extract, instead the almond extract with the vanilla extract.

How to Store

  • Serve: If you frost the bars, they can be at room temperature for up to 2 hours. Unfrosted cookie bars will stay fresh for 3-4 days.
  • Store: Refrigerate them up to 1 week in an airtight container and bring to room temperature to serve.
  • Freeze: Freeze unfrosted bars wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for up to 4 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before frosting and serving at room temperature.
Dessert bars in stack, top-down view

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Dinner, then Dessert

Sugar Cookie Bars

Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are the best recipe for soft, chewy sugar cookies for a party. Sweet cream cheese frosting and sprinkles make this a fun dessert!
Yield 30
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
dessert bars in baking dish
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

Sugar Cookie Bars:

  • 1 1/2 cups butter , softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
  • 1/2 cup butter , softened
  • 5 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • pinch salt
  • 2-3 teaspoons milk
  • Food coloring , optional
  • Sprinkles , optional

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 17 x 12 inch baking sheet with non-stick or baking spray.
  • With a stand mixer on medium speed, cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract, until well blended.
  • Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.
  • Press into prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Cool completely, then frost.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • On low speed, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, almond extract, and salt in a large bowl until smooth.
  • Slowly add powdered sugar, beating until creamy, adding milk as needed. Stir in food coloring, if using, until fully incorporated.
  • Spread frosting over cooled cookie bars in a thick, even layer. Top with sprinkles, if desired.

Nutrition

Calories: 339kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 269mg | Potassium: 59mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 452IU | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg

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Can This Be Made Ahead?

These can be made ahead of time and are easy to transport since the frosting will harden as it sets. It stays soft and creamy when you bite into it, but the harder top means you can stack them to store or take them on the go.

collage of dessert squares

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  4. Wow – we really loved these so delicious! I made them last weekend and think I might need to make them again soon, thanks!

    Reply

  7. So easy and the cream cheese frosting is to die for! Love the addition of almond extract – it really gives the bars more of a cake-like flavor.

    Reply

  8. My kiddos and I made this together! We have been spending a lot more time in the kitchen lately and its so fun. They really enjoyed making this recipe but they enjoyed eating it even more! Thanks for this delish creation, we are adding it to our “make again” list!!

    Reply

  10. Hi
    This recipe looks delicious! We don’t have these cookies in the UK so I always make sure I eat lots of them when I’m in the US which hasn’t been for a few years now. What type of sugar is needed for these cookies? We tend to use caster sugar for a lot of our baking so wasn’t sure if that’s the correct sugar I need to be using for these cookie bars.
    Many thanks
    Alicia

    Reply