Sugar Cookie Bars

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Happy 4th of July! I was looking for something to take to our friends’ house the day before the 4th of July. Initially I had thought about making a trifle. I have a really yummy banana pudding trifle dish, but it has Cool whip in it and the dairy free kind is way too much coconut for me. So as usual I was perusing Pinterest and came across this recipe from Lauren Allen at Tastes Better From Scratch. She’s got a wide variety of recipes to choose from and this one sounded really good. I love sugar cookies, but my sugar cookie recipe is not a warm humid friendly recipe. So I figured we’d give this one a try.

What all will I need?

• unsalted butter, room temperature
• sugar
• 2 eggs
• vanilla extract
• all purpose flour
• baking powder
• salt
• powdered sugar
• milk
• sprinkles/jimmies, M&M’s, white chocolate chips for topping

Do I have to use unsalted butter?

Short answer is no, but if you use salted butter you need to omit the salt from the recipe. Some recipes it really does make a difference, but typically you can get away with it. Just make sure if you use salted butter DON’T add the salt later on!

I decided to double the recipe because I wasn’t sure one recipe was going to be enough for everyone. If I was making them to keep at home one recipe would have been plenty. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Also make sure to set out your butter so it softens to room temperature.

You will need 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks). I used dairy free and put it in your mixing bowl. Add 1 cup granulated sugar and cream well. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 2 large eggs. It did not say to add them one at a time, but most baking recipes have you add them one at a time, so I did. Make sure to crack your eggs into something else before dumping them into the bowl just in case. Eggshells are a pain to dig out of batter. Mix this up well.

Ta-dah almost ready to stick them in the oven and smell yummy sugar cookies cooking!

This is one of those recipes that come together quickly. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour. Remember don’t add the salt if you used salted butter! Mix well but don’t over mix it.

Wasn’t that easy? Now it’s time to talk pans.

The recipe says to use a greased 9×13 pan. However her pictures showed that she used a glass 9×13 pan with parchment paper. This is a good option if you’re worried about it sticking to the bottom. However spreading things on parchment paper can be tricky. My batter decided it wanted to go flying out of the pan instead of spreading nicely. Decide what works best for you and will cause you the least amount of grief. Just make sure to grease it well if you go that route.

Spread the batter and press it down with a spatula to get it as evenly around the pan as you can.

That was the easy part, baking isn’t so easy.

The recipe says to cook for 10-13 minutes and not to over bake. You want them just set in the center without the sides getting brown. I cooked mine for 20 minutes… however I doubled the recipe and was cooking in a convection oven. Convection cooking often changes how long things cook for and I’m not sure I evenly divided my batter. So yeah, I know that wasn’t very helpful.

Here’s what I will do the next time I make them; when I can use real butter and milk. I’m going to cook for 10 minutes and look at them. If they look squishy cook for 3 more minutes. Mine looked raw until 18 minutes. I don’t like a doughy squishy cookie. I want it done but not dry. Mine turned out just fine, but probably could have cooked just another minute. So look at the picture below and that’s what you’re aiming for.

And the best part… icing!

Let the cookie part cool completely. It’s thin so 30-40 minutes and you’ll be good to go. Pull out 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) of butter to soften while you wait. It’s just enough time to wash your mixing bowl, run a toddler through the potty, feed/water the chickens, pick some blueberries, and come back in to a screaming baby. Yep mine sat a lot longer than they needed, but my tiny 3 year old dictator wanted to go outside with me and no isn’t in her vocabulary currently.

If your butter gets too soft, like mine often does, you can always throw it in the freezer for a bit and that’ll help it out. Cream together the softened butter and 2 cups powdered sugar. Let it mix a good 3 minutes or so until it’s nice and fluffy. Then add the remaining 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Once that is smooth add in just enough milk to get it to a frosting consistency. The recipe says 3 Tablespoons, but you probably won’t need that much. I added too much so my frosting wasn’t exactly like I wanted it, but when you have one screaming and the other underfoot sometimes you call it good and move on.

Time to spread on the sweet stuff

Smooth that frosting over the bars and pull out your toppings. I picked up a container of patriotic sugar, sprinkles, and jimmies to use. If you are not living the nondairy life grab you some red, white, and blue M&M’s and white chocolate chips to throw on too. This was reward time for my toddler letting Mama bake. She had a blast throwing on the “prinkles” she had been begging for all day.

There you go! Yummy sugar cookie bars ready for you to cut up and enjoy. I stored mine in the fridge as the heat and humidity is ridiculous in NC right now. My only caution is they are super sweet. So cut them small for toddlers so you don’t have the sugar high crazies after they eat one!