These Sugar Cookie Bars are a simple bake-in-the-pan kind of cookie with a sweet frosting on top.
If you’re looking for an easy dessert to share with others, this is a good one to try. These are delicious, little hand-held bars. There’s nothing fancy about them unless you really want to decorate the tops of them with piped frosting or holiday sprinkles. But they’re always a hit. Everyone likes sugar cookie bars.
How to make Sugar Cookie Bars:
The complete, printable recipe is at the end of this post. You will need an electric mixer and rimmed half sheet pan.
Follow the instructions in the recipe for making the sugar cookie dough. Spray your pan with nonstick spray, and then add the cookie dough to the pan. It’s a very thick cookie dough. So it’s easiest to do this if you spray your (clean) hands with nonstick spray and use them to pat the dough evenly into the pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until light golden brown.
The next step is adding the frosting. Follow the directions in the recipe for making the frosting. If you want to add coloring to the frosting, that’s up to you. Spread it onto the cooled sugar cookie bars. Add sprinkles, if you’d like!
Cut the big slab of frosted sugar cookies into bars. It’s easiest to do this if you chill the frosted bars for a bit. You’ll get the cleanest cuts.
They’re a hand-held treat. Or you can display plates for serving. These are decorated as Valentine’s Day sugar cookie bars, but you can certainly make them for any occasion and use any color for the frosting.
They seem like a spring recipe to me. Or something you might like to serve at a baby shower or at a party. Maybe it’s the tinted icing, or maybe it’s the festive sprinkles. In any case, they seem to make people happy. Enjoy!
Here are a few more recipes for sugar cookies that you might like to try:
- Crunchy Nutmeg Sugar Cookies
- Easy Frosted Sugar Cookies
- Sugar Cookie Truffles
- Best Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Sugar Cookies
Sugar Cookie Bars
Ingredients
COOKIES:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
FROSTING:
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup shortening
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar (sift after measuring)
- 5 tablespoons milk
- food coloring, if desired
Instructions
PREPARE THE BARS:
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Spray a 13x18-inch pan with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Then mix in the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add to the wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread the sugar cookie dough into the prepared pan. The dough will be just like cookie dough- heavy & sticky- so it's best to spray your hands with a little nonstick spray and use them to help mold the dough into the pan.
- Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
PREPARE THE FROSTING:
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cobmine the butter and shortening until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla and salt. Add the powdered sugar (1 cup at a time) until combined. Then add the milk and mix until it is a smooth, spreading consistency. Add a few drops of color, if desired. Spread over the cooled cookie, then cut into bars.
Notes
- TIP: *Refrigerate the bars until firm... it will be easier to get nice, clean cuts.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I liked the taste of these cookie bars alot but they seemed very dry to me. Any idea why they turned out so dry? Thanks for any suggestions.
Hmmm, baked too long?
Hi! I would love to make this in a 9×13 pan…any suggestions on how to divide the recipe ingredients for a pan that size? thanks!!!
I guess I’d probably make the recipe as is- create a layer in the 9×13-inch pan and then use another pan for the extra dough.
A 9×18 pan is 234”, a 9×13 pan is 117”, exactly 1/2 of the large pan. Divide recipe in half and it should work.
I just made these for Valentines Day tomorrow and I am excited to see how they taste. I am just waiting for the bars to cool before I frost them. My only complaint is that the frosting is too buttery. It tastes like pure butter, I would probably find a better frosting recipe for my next batch.
OMG, these bars ROCK! This recipe is a keeper for sure!!!!!
My sugar cookie bars are baking right now. What I did, was floured my small rolling pin and it rolled the dough out nicely!
I had to stop and say thank you. My honey-do and I stumbled these and decided to bake a batch for his office, and a smaller batch for ourselves. They turned out amazing!!! I’d love to share some pics with you if you have the time 🙂 Let me know, and tanks again. With love from Denver.
Has anyone else had issues with spreading the dough? For me it was a very wet, sticky, heavy dough. There was not “spread it into the pan” I had to eventually do the wet hands tamping the dough all around the pan trick.
@Marjorie Hansen, You are exactly right… the dough is just like cookie dough, so it’s not easy to “spread.” I sprayed my hands with nonstick spray and used them to help pat the dough into place. I added that into the instructions above. Thanks so much for pointing this out.
these look so nice 🙂 i want some too