Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars
These cream cheese sugar cookie bars deliver everything you love about a frosted sugar cookie - soft, dense, and topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting - without any rolling, chilling, or cutting. The cream cheese goes into both the dough and the frosting, giving these bars a richer, more tender texture than a standard sugar cookie bar recipe. Ready in under 30 minutes of active prep, they're the easiest dessert to bring to any party or celebration.
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What Do I Need to Make Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars ?
Since these dessert bars have the flavor and texture of classic sugar cookies, you'll need classic sugar cookie ingredients. Grab these supplies to prepare this easy treat:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream Cheese
- Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Powdered sugar
- Cornstarch
- Food coloring (optional, I used pink for mine)
- Sprinkles
Looking for more cookie recipes to try? Give these holiday favorites a try!
How Do I Make This Sugar Cookie Bars Recipe?
While these bars taste like sugar cookies, they're much quicker and easy to prepare. Simply follow these five easy instructions to make these colorful treats for your next party:
Step One: Prepare the Dry Ingredients
Before you start baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, butter a 9x13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper to prevent the bars from sticking. After that, combine the flour and salt in a small bowl. Whisk the ingredients together and then set the bowl aside.
Step Two: Mix the Dough
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese until very smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix until well combined, scraping the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated.
Step Three: Add the Dry Ingredients
Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl and beat until the dough is just mixed, making sure not to over-mix your ingredients. Spread the dough evenly in the prepared pan, lightly pressing it down as you spread.
Step Four: Bake the Sugar Cookie Bars
Place the pan in the oven to bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is soft, but no longer wet. Make sure not to overbake the bars so they're soft and chewy!
Step Five: Make the Frosting
Place the pan of cookie bars on a wire cooling rack to cool completely, then add the butter and cream cheese to a bowl and beat until they're smooth and creamy. Slowly add the powdered sugar to the butter mixture, mixing on low speed. After that, add the cornstarch and continue mixing until all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Finish by adding the vanilla extract, salt, and 1 to 3 drops of food coloring (if desired) to the bowl. Mix until smooth and no white streaks remain.
Step Six: Decorate the Cookie Bars
Make sure the cookie bars are cooled completely, then remove them from the pan. Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cooled cookies and top the icing with sprinkles. Slice the cookies into bars and serve.
Sugar Cookie Bars Recipe Tip
While these cookie bars are simple to make, you can always use a few tips to help you along the way! Use these baking tricks to help ensure your cookie bars taste amazing the first time you bake them.
- Use room temperature ingredients. When preparing your cookie bars and frosting, it's important that you start with room temperature butter and cream cheese. Before you start mixing, allow these ingredients to sit on the counter for around one hour. You can also speed up the softening process by placing the butter and cream cheese in the microwave in 10 second increments until soft.
- Don't overmix. To keep your sugar cookie bars soft and chewy, be careful not to over mix your dough. Mix until the ingredients are just incorporated, which helps keep the dough from becoming too thick and dense.
- Avoid overbaking. Another easy way to ensure your cookie bars are soft and chewy is to remove the pan from the oven before the cookie dough is completely baked. When the bars are light golden brown around the edges and slightly soft in the center, take them out of the oven. Then, allow the cookie bars to cool in the pan. The dough will continue baking while the pan is warm, which means the center of the cookie dough will finish baking as the bars cool.
Cream cheese adds fat and moisture to the dough that butter alone doesn't provide, which is what gives these bars their dense, soft, almost bakery-style texture. It also keeps them from drying out as quickly as a standard sugar cookie, so they stay tender for several days after baking.
You can, but the cream cheese frosting in this recipe is what sets these bars apart from a basic box mix cookie - and it comes together in just a few minutes. If you're short on time, a whipped vanilla frosting works as a substitute, though you'll lose the slight tang that makes the flavor so well-balanced.
Pull them out of the oven when the edges are set and lightly golden but the center still looks slightly underdone - this is intentional. The bars continue to bake from residual heat as they cool in the pan. Overbaking is the number one reason sugar cookie bars turn out dry and crumbly rather than soft and chewy.
Yes - these are actually great make-ahead bars. Bake and cool the bars a day ahead, then frost and slice them the day you plan to serve them. You can also frost them ahead and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to five days. Bring to room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving for the best texture.
Your sugar cookie bars can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days or in the refrigerator for up to five days. Make sure to place a piece of parchment paper between layers to keep the icing from sticking
Yes, with one caveat: freeze them unfrosted. The cream cheese frosting can get grainy after freezing and thawing. Store the unfrosted bars in a freezer-safe container for up to two months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and frost just before serving.
Absolutely. The food coloring is purely decorative and has no effect on flavor or texture. Skip it for a classic white frosting, or use any color to match a birthday, holiday, or party theme. Gel food coloring gives a more vibrant result than liquid drops if you want a saturated color.
Sugar Cookie Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
Frosting
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1-3 drops food coloring optional
- Sprinkles for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.
- Beat the butter and cream cheese until very smooth and creamy.
- Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract; mix until well combined, scraping down the bowl.
- Gradually add the flour mixture and mix just until incorporated.
- Spread the dough evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes, until the edges are set and the center is no longer wet. Do not overbake.
- Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before frosting.
Make the Frosting
- Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
- Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing on low speed.
- Add the cornstarch and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add the vanilla extract, salt, and 1-3 drops of food coloring, if desired; mix until smooth and evenly colored.
- Beat on medium-high speed for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Spread frosting evenly over cooled cookie bars.
- Top with sprinkles, slice, and serve.
Notes
Use room-temperature ingredients for a smooth batter and frosting. Mix the dough just until
combined to avoid dense bars. Slightly underbaking helps keep the bars soft and moist. Storage
Store frosted bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the
refrigerator for up to 5 days. Unfrosted bars can be frozen for up to 2 months
