Frosted sugar cookie bars are everything you love about a big, soft, frosted sugar cookie, in an easy to make bar form. This beloved sugar cookie recipe has been a fan favorite for years. They’re perfectly soft and buttery. However, the downside of sugar cookies is that they’re a lot of work. Discovering you can bake the whole batch of dough in a rimmed baking sheet is a game changer. You still get the perfect soft bite and a layer of fluffy buttercream icing, but they take just minutes to whip up. You have a lot of flexibility on quantity as well. Cut these sugar cookie bars into big squares for some drama, or little bites to stretch for a crowd of 50! These will become a go-to for party treats for sure.
Ingredient and Equipment List
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs – It’s important to use large or extra large eggs in this recipe or your dough may turn out a little dry.
- Vanilla Extract
- Almond Extract – I love almond extract in my sugar cookies, but if you aren’t a fan, you can omit this, or replace with additional vanilla, or even another flavor extract of your choice (lemon is also pretty great).
- Flour – Use regular all purpose flour. It’s very important to measure your flour carefully in this recipe, see tips in recipe.
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Powdered Sugar
- Milk – Just a small amount of milk is used for the consistency in the frosting. Any type of milk will work just fine, even a plant based one.
- Sprinkles and food coloring – Optional but fun!
How to Make Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
TIP: If you have a stand mixer, you’ll want to utilize it for this recipe. Besides being a very large amount of dough, this recipe comes together better with a stand mixer. If you are using a hand mixer, you might find that it doesn’t feel like it’s coming together at first. Keep mixing, and even knead it with your hands at the end if you need to and it will come together!
This is a simple overview of the recipe, you’ll find a full printable recipe below.
- Preheat your oven to 350° and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment.
- Prepare your dough by creaming together butter and sugar, adding egg and extracts, and finally adding dry ingredients until you have a soft, cohesive dough.
- Press the dough into your lined baking sheet. I find it’s easiest to drop dough in small piles first, evenly over the baking sheet, and then press them down evenly with your hands. To get a nice smooth and even top, place a piece of parchment over the top of your dough and use your hands to smooth it out.
- After the dough is cooked and removed from the oven to cool, you can prepare your buttercream icing.
- To prepare frosting, whip together butter and sugar, add extracts and salt, and then add liquid until you get the consistency you like.
- Spread frosting on completely cooled bars and cut.
Storing and Other Tips
- These frosted sugar cookie bars should be stored in an airtight container so they don’t dry out. Although best if eaten right away, if stored well, they will stay soft and fresh for 2-3 days.
- You can also freeze these bars. If you need to make quite a few ahead of time, consider freezing just the cookie base to save time and then frosting them fresh. You can also freeze them frosted. You’ll just want to freeze uncovered in a single layer until frozen through, and then wrap thoroughly and store airtight to avoid freezer burn.
- Almond extract is my favorite addition to sugar cookies, but if you’re not a fan, feel free to sub with additional vanilla, or change up your flavorings. Lemon is pretty delicious!
Frequently Asked Questions
One of my most favorite tools for freezing baked goods is a Foodsaver. It vacuum seals food and will keep things fresh and delicious for several months. If I’m making large batch bars for a special occasion, I almost always vacuumm seal the cookie base and frost them fresh.
Aside from over-baking, the biggest culprit to dry cookie bars is over-measuring your flour. The best solution is to use a food scale for accurate measuring. If you don’t own a food scale, then first fluff your flour in its container using a large spoon. Gently take spoonfuls of flour and add them to your measuring cup, leveling with a knife when it gets full. Never scoop your flour with your measuring cup, or tap the flour down inside the cup.
These bars are best when slightly undercooked so they stay nice and soft. You want to watch the texture and color of the top of the bars. If they are turning golden brown, they are probably getting overcooked. I take mine out when they are still pale in color, but I can see that the texture of the top of the bars is set and matte and not shiny and slightly glossy from the raw dough.
Make sure you add sprinkles immediately after spreading the frosting. If you wait even a few minutes, the frosting quickly sets and the sprinkles won’t stick.
Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 cups butter softened to room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs large or extra large
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon almond extract
- 6 cups flour spooned lightly into the measuring cup and leveled with a knife.
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
Frosting
- 1 cup butter softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2-3 tablespoons milk or more, if needed milk; whole or evaporated if you have it handy
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a half sheet-sized rimmed baking sheet (13x18x1") with parchment, or spray with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, and extracts.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. *Note: weighing your flour is recommended. If you don’t have a food scale, use a large spoon to fluff your flour in its container first, and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cup, leveling with a knife.
- Slowly add flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture a little at a time until fully incorporated.
- Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking sheet. It helps to drop it by spoonfuls evenly all over, and then press down with clean hands. Place a piece of parchment on top and then use your hand to smooth it out as even as possible.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes. Ideally, you should remove from oven before it starts turning golden brown. You may see slight browning on the very edges, but the center should look pale, but set.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
- While the cookie bars are cooling, prepare the frosting. Whip the butter until light and fluffy and slowly add powdered sugar a bit at a time until incorporated.
- Add extracts. Very slowly, add a little bit of milk at a time until desired consistency is reached. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring.
- When the pan of cookies is completely cool, spread with frosting and sprinkle with colored sprinkles immediately.
- Cut into squares. The number of bars this makes will depend on how big you cut the squares, but these are VERY rich and you can get away with cutting these into 40+ servings!
Notes
- Weighing your flour is recommended. If you don’t have a food scale, use a large spoon to fluff your flour in its container first, and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cup, leveling with a knife.
- Make sure to use large or extra large eggs.
- Do not over bake!
Questions & Reviews
I made these for Valentines Day and they were a big hit
I just made these today and they turned out amazing! So yummy!!
Have you found it possible to overbeat this frosting? I accidentally let it go a little too long, and though the flavor was ok the texture was weird. It almost seemed to become a waxy consistancy. Tis odd because everything I have read online seems to indicate that it isn’t possible to overbeat buttercream…
Have you thought about listing the flour by weight instead of volume? This would produce a more reliable measure. Once I started baking by weight (bc of Alton Brown’s Baking Book), I found my results more predictable. If the flour is a big issue, this could help! Weigh the flour, then also fluff it up with a whisk before putting it in? Just a thought.
Okay, lame question, but would a half recipe work in a 9×13 Pyrex? I only have one pound of butter in the fridge and am not going out again in time to pick more up. I love this idea, I hate cutting and frosting 50 individual cookies!
Not lame at all! Lame would be, “So I’m out of butter, could I substitute a pound of applesauce??” Anyway. Yes, you can totally make half a recipe in a 9×13″ pan. 🙂
They turned out great! I did have to bake them the full 30 min even though it was a smaller batch. Probably because of my clear glass pan though. They were a hit at my baby sisters mission call opening!
Thanks for trying this out, Megan! I’m thinking of trying the half batch, after failing How To Read 101 the first time I tried this. 😉
Yum! I have made sugar cookie bars before and I loved how easy it was but the recipe I used wasn’t amazing but I love your sugar cookie recipe so I am excited to try it this way! Thanks for being so awesome!
I made these this weekend, and have heard nothing but good things ever since. (except for the part where I forgot to tell my nut-allergy friend that there was almond extract in them…agh!!) They are delish!! And I may never go back to making rolled out cookies.
Just FYI, on your frosting instructions it doesn’t say when to put in the extract. I put it in with the butter and powdered sugar. Thanks for the inspiration to make a yummy Valentine treat!
I have four baking sheets of this size, too! I love them all, and would definitely miss one of them if it disappeared. I am considering buying another couple just in case someone did try to steal one. 🙂 Thank you for your recipe for these that actually fits into this size pan. Other (inferior, I’m sure) sugar cookie bar recipes always seem to be for a 9×13 pan. That is not nearly enough yumminess to go around!
I’m going to make these for Valentine’s using a heart-shaped cookie cutter and then the “scraps” as “broken hearts” or “Take a little piece of my heart” along with the pretty heart shapes…
Update: I made these last night and used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter, pressed into the bars just after coming out of the oven and they came out perfectly! One pan made 36 hearts…and lots of “scraps” for me to eat. I may or may not have made myself just a litttttle sick on cookie last night.
Also, the almond extract addition to sugar cookies? Life. changing. Thanks for another home run ladies!