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When you hear the words “Sugar Cookies” do you get a little overwhelmed? Do you feel a little whoozie thinking of an all day project in the kitchen?
You know how a sugar cookie project goes. You can see it in your minds eye…. flour and dough flying everywhere with candy sprinkles and frosting stuck from here to Timbuktu. If you have the patience of a mighty she-ra and want to participate in that kind of activity (I have to admit, I do love a good sugar cookie project! Twice a year does me up just fine) you can click here to find my fabulous sugar cookie recipe. If you are in the mood to save your patience for filling Easter eggs, and shopping for cute Easter dresses then I have the recipe for you ladies and gents! These Sugar Cookie Bars will have you whistling Dixie in no time. Your kids will love them just as much as the cut out kind…and you will have your sanity intact and ready to take on the world. That is something to be grateful for.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 60 Bars (depending on how large or small they are cut)

Ingredients

Cookies: 
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 1/2 C flour
Frosting:
1/2 C butter softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 C powdered sugar
3-5 T milk
1 t vanilla
food coloring

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until nice and frothy. About 4 minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.
3. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them around so that all ingredients are well incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes.
5. Press the dough into a large jelly roll (cookie sheet) pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
7. Let the pan cool completely.
8. Time to make the frosting! In a medium sized bowl (or your stand mixer) combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth.
10. Frost your pan of cookies. Cut the cookies into bars and serve!
https://jamiecooksitup.net/2010/03/sugar-cookie-bars/

 

 As a fun decorative option, you could pipe a bit of white frosting onto the bars. Just take about 1/4 of the frosting out of the mixer before you add the food coloring. Put the white frosting into to sandwich sized zip loc bag. Carefully snip the tip and pipe some fun decorations onto the bars.

About Jamie

Thanks for dropping by today! I hope you find these recipes to be delicious!

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43 Comments

    1. I wish you were in my neck of the woods so I could have you make my 40th birthday cake!! p.s. my faiorvte of the ones you’ve profiled is the beach cake! love the sand, love the starfish, love you!

  1. Made these today for our game night and everyone loved them. They were so easy that I may never make the regular roll out sugar cookies again.

  2. mine turned out so raw. I followed exactly and just took them out at 20 min. thinking they would keep cooking, but they did not. The cookie sheet was the big silver one. I'm making them for a relief society function and I'm scared. The colors were amazing. Any hints.

    1. Judy,
      Every oven cooks a bit differently. A good way to check if they are done is to poke a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean then they are done. Hope they turned out well enough to take to your RS function!
      ~Jamie

  3. They loved these cookies, I tried your suggestion and got out my oven thermometer and made sure it was at 350 I then added 6 min. They turned out a little brown on top but were still very soft. I wouldn't be afraid to add another min. Thank you so much they are awesome.

  4. I made these for a graduation party this weekend. I love almnd extract so used that instead of vanilla. OMG!!!!They were delicious!!! Thank you so much for this recipe. I love sugar cookies but don't make them because of the work involved. I can no longer say that. Thank you so much!!!

  5. Hi, I would like to make these as party favours for my sons birthday will they be ok to put in little plastic wraps to give out or will the frosting stick to the bag? Thanks!
    Im not too keen on cream cheese frosting but everyone seems to love it!! 🙂

    1. Hi Panayiota,
      The frosting is a bit sticky, also the cookie bar itself is very soft and might have a hard time holding its shape in a plastic bag (or keeping a lolipop stick in its center). However, if you put them on a small paper plate and wrapped it in plastic wrap, or better yet wrapped the plate up in celephane with some cool ribbin around it…that would work. 🙂 Good luck! Hope you have a great party. 🙂
      ~Jamie