- Today I'm showing you how to make
my favorite sugar cookie recipe as sugar cookie bars.
Easier than making cookies,
they're so delicious, they're addicting,
you're not going to want to miss it.
(light music)
Hey, everyone, it's Dorothy with crazyforcrust.com
and welcome back to my kitchen.
Today, we're talking about sugar cookie bars.
Sugar cookies are my favorite cookie ever.
I like them even more than chocolate chip
and these are a bar version of my favorite recipe,
and it makes it, bar cookies are just so much easier
'cause you don't have to scoop,
you don't have to like roll 'em in sugar or bake 'em
or frost each one separately.
You just press the dough into a pan
and bake it and then frost it,
so much easier, serves a crowd.
These are, oh, they're so, so good.
For more delicious desserts and easy recipes,
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Now, let's get in the kitchen.
We're going to start off our cookie batter
with 3/4 of a cup of unsalted butter
that's been softened, put that in a large bowl.
We're going to use a hand mixer today,
but you could also use a stand mixer.
Add in 3/4 of a cup of granulated sugar
and mix that until it's nice and fluffy.
Then, add one large egg, a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
You can also add 1/2 of a teaspoon of almond extract.
I love the extra flavor in there.
1/2 of a teaspoon of baking soda,
1/2 of a teaspoon of cream of tartar.
That keeps them nice and soft.
And 1/2 of a teaspoon of salt.
Mix that together until the dough is nice and combined,
and then you're going to mix in two cups
of all-purpose flour.
Now, I love this dough for regular cookies
because you don't have to chill it.
When we're making bar cookies,
we don't even have to worry about that.
I'm going to press this cookie dough
into a 9-by-13-inch pan.
I've lined mine with foil and sprayed it
with nonstick cooking spray.
If you don't care about removing the bars
all nice and pretty, you don't have to use the foil,
but I highly recommend it.
Just press the cookie dough in.
It'll be thin, but it will stretch all the way to the edges.
If the dough at all sticks to your fingers,
spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray
and that will make the dough not stick.
Once you have the dough all into the pan,
go ahead and bake that at 350 degrees.
It's going to be about 18 to 25 minutes
until they just lose the glossy sheen.
Now, you'll notice that the top has an edge around.
The edges around are nice and light golden
and the top has just lost that glossy sheen.
So, you'll see underneath, it doesn't look totally done,
but the top looks done.
And that means these cookies are finished.
They will set and continue baking a little bit
as they cool, so you don't want to over bake them,
unless you like crunchy cookies.
If you want a crunchy cookie,
go ahead and bake them a few extra minutes.
While the cookies are cooling,
let's make the frosting.
This is just a basic vanilla frosting.
I could eat this with a spoon, but instead,
we're going to put it on the cookies.
The frosting is really simple to mix together
with 1/2 of a cup of butter
and two cups of powdered sugar.
Then you'll add in some vanilla and some salt
and some heavy whipping cream.
The higher the fat content in the milk or cream,
the more that you'll need.
So, if you're using milk or nonfat milk to make this,
you're probably going to need less than two tablespoons.
For heavy whipping cream,
you're going to need closer to three.
So, it just spends on also how soft your butter was.
You want this to be spreadable consistency.
Again, it'll probably be about two tablespoons,
maybe two tablespoons and a couple teaspoons, up to three.
Just keep mixing that 'til it's nice
and it's the texture that you want.
And then you're going to add this to the top
of your cookie dough bars that have been cooled.
Make sure they're cooled so the frosting doesn't melt
and spread it all over the top.
Now, you can also tint this frosting
before you frost the bars any color that you want.
Once the bars are evenly frosted,
you will decorate this with sprinkles.
I mean, unless you don't like sprinkles,
which, I don't know anyone who doesn't like sprinkles.
You can use your favorite rainbow jimmies,
nonpareils, you can use a specialty mix.
These are great for holidays, Halloween,
Christmas, Valentine's Day,
anything that you like.
Use any kind of sprinkles that you want.
When you slice into this cookie bar,
you can see how soft the bars are
and that frosting is nice and fluffy.
These are one of my favorites.
And now, I have my cookie bars here.
Mm, the smell, that Christmas sugar cookie smell,
that's what these smell like.
I love adding the almond extract.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
That adds such extra flavor and a great smell to it too.
Mm, these are like,
I have to be so careful with these
'cause I could eat the entire tray just myself.
That's how much I love them.
These are great.
You can store them in the refrigerator
for three or four days.
You can store them on the counter.
You could even freeze these frosted or unfrosted.
This is a great easy bar cookie.
Check out down below.
I have the recipe written down there.
I also have a link to my upcoming cookbook
that has tons of cookies and cookie bars in it.
And leave me a comment and let me know
if you will tint the frosting or what kind of sprinkles
you'll use and keep watching for even more cookie recipes.