Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars & Bites
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This is the best Sugar Cookie Bar (and bite) recipe out there! These Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are fast to make, easy and they feed a crowd. Soft, chewy, tender and piled high with a creamy vanilla buttercream frosting.
Whether you decide to cut these into cookie bars, or use a cookie cutter and make one bite bites, these cookies might just rock your world!
If you are looking for more large batch recipes that are simple, but make a lot, try these Espresso Brownie Bites, Mint Fudge Brownies or Easy Blondies.
Whether for a church event, team feed, pot-luck, school party, baby or bridal shower or even for a wedding, these cookies rock!
I made these for a work retreat, meals are assigned by condo, so we all pitched in to make these mini meatballs for Italian Wedding Soup along with Cobb Salad, Green Chicken Chili, Asian Ramen Noodle Salad, and several other items!
Patty, the beautiful blonde in the middle is the one who gave me the Italian Wedding soup recipe!
Julie, the sweet-hearted beauty on the far right, gave me the wonderful Easy Yeast Rolls recipe.
And Janice, the darling rock star on the far left, saved our family a few weeks ago when we had all been sick by bringing us a delicious taco bar dinner. I am surrounded by wonderful cooks!
And our hubby’s…well they were all working hard…on work!
Notice what is on the table in front of them? The sheet pan of frosted sugar cookie bars! We’ve shared a lot of life together over the years with these families, whatever you do, do not do life alone!
THE BEST SUGAR COOKIE BARS & BITES
Start by preheating your oven to 375° and lining a cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick spray.
For extra thick sugar cookie bars (like those shown above), line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper and press into pan, baking for about 10-12 minutes (max) if you want them super soft.
Start by plopping your room temp butter into your mixer bowl, then pour in your all natural cane sugar.
BUTTER SOFTENING TIP | Remember, if you forget to take your butter out, just microwave it for 8-12 seconds (every microwave is different, so start out on the low end).
CREAM BUTTER & SUGAR FOR SOFT, CHEWY COOKIES
Cream sugar and butter for a couple of minutes (3-5 minutes) at medium to medium-high speed.
I use all natural cane sugar, which is not bleached and not quite as fine as bleached white sugar, so it takes a bit longer to cream into fluffy perfection. Scrape down sides before adding eggs.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium for about 1 minute per egg! Scraping down sides after each addition.
While your eggs are whipping up, in a medium bowl mix together all purpose flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk, set aside.
Pour in a few teaspoons of vanilla, and then add flour mixture into your batter, ½ cup at a time, mixing on low until blended, scraping down sides often.
Try and not overmix, but make sure all of your flour is incorporated.
Dump dough into the prepared 1/2 sheet pan or 9×13 pan for thicker sugar cookie bars, if there is a little bit of flour and crumbly parts, just knead it into the dough.
Spray a non-stick piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper and put on top of dough to aid in spreading. Smoothing to the corners to evenly distribute the dough.
When I’m doing my sugar cookie “button” bites, I line the pan with parchment or foil so I can lift them out for easier cutting.
How Long to Bake Sugar Cookie Bars for the Softest Sugar Cookies
Bake for 10 minutes, no longer, they will look pale and undone, therein lies the beauty of these babies!
Remove from oven and cool completely prior to frosting.
If you don’t have one, get a reliable kitchen timer, get one that is long, loud, annoying and goes for a bit so you can hear it anywhere in the house.
DO NOT OVERBAKE YOUR SUGAR COOKIE BARS
Resist the urge to bake for longer than 10 minutes, if you are a baker, you will think they are undercooked.
But if you bake them longer, instead of chewy soft cookies, you will instead get a crumbly, dry cookie, trust me on this one!
Edges should barely be golden and center look almost undone.
I typically cool mine and then cover with foil or tight plastic wrap and frost the following day.
MAKE AHEAD TIP
- If making multiple batches for a large crowd, I suggest you freeze the entire cookie in the pan; once frozen, remove cookie “slab” using the parchment paper.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, place back in freezer, repeat with other batches, stacking one on top of the other.
- When ready to cut, allow to sit at room temp for about 10-15 minutes, cut as planned.
How to Best Frost or Pipe for Sugar Cookie Bars
This is a delicious, light, fluffy, buttery, out-of-this-world creamy frosting!
If piping the frosting, reduce the amount of cream/milk for slightly stiffer frosting, but this frosting may be easily spread over the top of the bars as well.
If desired, tint buttercream with food coloring, add sprinkles or keep plain and simple, nothing wrong with that!
How to Cut Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars | Clean and Easy
- Once frosted, I like to cut through cookies with a hot knife scoring through the frosting.
- Chill for 30-60 minutes to allow frosting to firm up slightly before cutting completely. Make as big or small as you like!
- Sprinkle with seasonal sprinkles, this is a fun assortment or I like these all-natural colored sugars.
- Bottom line, dress them up or keep them plain, your choice!!
PRO TIP | I typically cut off the brown, uneven edges in order to get nice clean sliced and evenly sized cookies.
Divine!
HOW TO MAKE SUGAR COOKIE BUTTONS OR BITES
If you are making the Sugar Cookie Buttons/Bites using the parchment or foil, remove your cookie “slab” from the pan.
Place cookie slab on a large cutting board and using a 1″ round or square cookie cutter, cut buttons/squares of cookies as close together as possible.
Don’t throw away the cookie “guts,” the little leftover pieces after cutting out buttons.
Uses for cookie guts:
- crumble on ice cream
- stir into homemade ice cream
- stick in a baggie and toss in a lunch box
- Mix into a decadent milkshake
If piping frosting onto the bites, place frosting in piping bag fit with the tip of your choice, I used both the Wilton 1A large tip and the Wilton 32 star tip for the swirled look.
PIPING PRO TIP | Fold over the top of the piping bag and then place piping bag inside of a large glass while filling, it will make it easier to fill and keep it ready at hand.
Pipe a small swirl of frosting onto each button. If using sprinkles, pipe several cookies and then put sprinkles on before frosting has a chance to set up, if not, sprinkles will fall right off!
Change up frosting tips if desired for different effects.
If you know you will change your tips, either put frosting and tips on two different pastry bags, or make sure you use a frosting coupler so you can easily change the tip out, double check to make sure the coupler fits your frosting tip.
Can you see my reflection in the silver dragee?
A sheet pan makes about 86 bites! Figure 2-3 per person. May be frozen but, better freshly frosted!
I’ve also dipped the bites in melted chocolate (I like Ghirardelli Melting Wafers) then top with sprinkles!
Try this peppermint dust/sugar or fun snowflakes, perfect for Christmas treats!
Make them all Christmas-y by adding crushed candy canes or peppermint!
Like this recipe? Give these a try:
- Espresso Brownie Bites
- Browned Butter Sugar Cookie Bars with Salted Caramel Frosting
- Basic Fudge Brownies with Frosting
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Like this recipe?
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Equipment
Ingredients
SUGAR COOKIE BARS
- 1 cup real butter softened (2 sticks)
- 2 cups all natural cane sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
FROSTING
- 1 cup real butter no substitutes, room temperature
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla or 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped into frosting and beaten, or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- pinch of salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 4-6 tablespoons of milk or cream
- food coloring optional
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° and grease or parchment line an 18×13* (see notes on 9×13) inch pan (½ sheet pan).
- Cream butter for 2-3 minutes. Add sugar and beat until until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down sides. If using natural cane sugar, mix on high speed for at least 2-4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well (about 1 minute) after each addition, scrape bowl after each addition.
- While eggs are mixing, in medium bowl, measure out flour, baking soda and salt and whisk together. Once eggs are creamed in, scrape down sides of bowl again, add vanilla and mix well. Slowly pour in flour, mixing on low speed until all the flour is incorporated, scrape down sides of bowl. Mix on medium speed for 30 seconds.
- Spread dough into prepared pan, using a non-stick sprayed piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper, spread over top of of dough and spread evenly to all corners of the pan, making sure it’s as even as possible.
- Bake at 375° for 10 minutes, no longer, they will not look done, remove from oven and let cool completely. May be wrapped and frozen (cool completely). If making in 9×13 pan you may need any extra 1-2 minutes but no longer, you want it puffy, but should look dull, no shiny parts.
MILE HIGH BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
- While cookies cool (or take out of freezer, if frozen) make frosting.
- Place butter in the mixer bowl and whip on medium-high speed until light & fluffy, 2-4 minutes. Add the vanilla and pinch of salt and whip up well. Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing on low. Pour 4 tablespoons (with mixer running) of milk or cream and whip up well, depending on consistency needed (less milk for piping) a little extra for spreading typically.
- Add more milk as needed, whip for 4-8 minutes until cloud like light! If you’d like to color the frosting, add tiny amounts of gel food coloring until desired tint is achieved. If adding an extract, add at end and whip for additional minute. Spread or pipe onto baked goods. Add sprinkles, if desired
I love all the different ways you can use this recipe. It’s a keeper!
Absolutely, that’s what I love about it!
I made these last night and I LOVE them. Frosted sugar cookies are my favorite and these are wonderful!
Wahoo!!! I love hearing that Marci!! Thank you and Merry Christmas to you!
Oh My gosh, Kathleen, I just made these and cannot wait to serve them to my family—-, hopefully there will be some left by the time they get here! (I had to taste test one for good measure of course, now I’m willing myself to stay away from the kitchen- good thing the recipe makes so many!) Your directions were easy to follow. Spreading the dough out in the pan was my favorite part!
Thank you for this blog, can’t wait to try more of your delicious recipes!
Thanks Shelley! So glad you liked it and tried them and that they turned out the same! If you want to get recipes each week, via a weekly email please sign up or let me know if you want me to sign you up!
Can I put the dough in a mini muffin tin? Does this change the cooking time?
Gosh Kathy, they are much easier the other way and you’d be making them for a long time. Try it, bake until the top looks slightly dry but they are still pale in color and soft. Let me know if you do it and how they turn out.