If you love soft frosted sugar cookies but don’t love rolling, cutting, and decorating dozens of individual cookies, these sugar cookie bars are the answer. They’re buttery, extra soft, wonderfully chewy, and topped with a thick layer of creamy vanilla buttercream and colorful sprinkles. Best of all, there’s no cookie dough chilling required, making them a quick and easy dessert for birthdays, holidays, and celebrations year-round.
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since updated it with new photos, a video tutorial, and additional success tips.
If you’re a fan of super-soft frosted sugar cookies, and love the chewy texture of sprinkle-filled chewy drop sugar cookies, these frosted sugar cookie bars combine the best of both!
Why You’ll Love These Sugar Cookie Bars
- No dough chilling required
- Thick, soft, and chewy centers
- Rich, buttery sugar cookie flavor
- Thick, fluffy vanilla buttercream
- Easy to customize with your favorite flavor of frosting and color of sprinkles
- Perfect for holidays and celebrations year-round
- Freezes beautifully
One reader, S, commented: “After years of making cupcakes, pies, cookies etc. for my friends, this is unanimously the favorite recipe of anything I’ve made. Each bite transports me back to being a child and having those youthful first experiences of sweets and birthday parties. ★★★★★“
Sugar Cookie Bar Ingredients
You only need a handful of basic baking ingredients for the cookie bars: flour, baking powder + baking soda, cornstarch, salt, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla + almond extracts. Plus rainbow sprinkles, of course!
These aren’t simply sugar cookies baked in a pan. Each ingredient is carefully chosen to create an exceptionally soft, tender texture that stays fresh for days.
A few notes about some of the key ingredients:
- Cornstarch: Just a small amount of cornstarch helps create an exceptionally tender sugar cookie bar. It keeps the cookie bars soft without making them cakey. It has the same job in chewy chocolate chip cookies.
- Butter: Be sure to start with proper room-temperature butter, which is still cool to the touch. If you’re a baking beginner, this post + video tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar together is a great place to start!
- Extra Egg Yolk: 1 egg binds everything together and 1 additional egg yolk adds richness, moisture, and chewiness. It’s one of my favorite tricks whenever I want cookies to stay soft for several days. Same story with these chocolate chip cookie bars.
- Sprinkles: Use jimmies-style sprinkles (the strands) in the dough, because nonpareils (the tiny balls) tend to bleed their color. Nonpareils are great for decorating the frosted bars, as pictured here with confetti quins (the flat discs).
Let’s Make Sugar Cookie Bars
This is an easy, straightforward recipe that’s wonderful for beginner bakers. Simply whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl, then use a second bowl and an electric mixer to cream together butter and sugar. Mix in the remaining wet ingredients, add in the dry, and combine.
Expect a very sticky, thick dough:
What’s great about this recipe is that you don’t have to chill the cookie dough. Just press the dough into a lined pan and bake right away.
Success Tip: Flour your hands to help press the sticky dough into the pan. I used an offset spatula here, but floured hands work like a charm!
The key to soft sugar cookie bars is not overbaking them.
Bake until the edges are lightly golden and the center still looks a little underdone. This usually takes around 25 minutes. The bars will continue setting as they cool, giving you a soft, chewy texture instead of a dry one.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
We’re topping these bars with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting recipe, only slightly scaled down. It’s sweet and fluffy, and I tinted it pink with a small drop of red gel food coloring. Tinting the frosting is completely optional.
As you can see, the frosting layer is just as thick as the cookie layer. In some spots, even thicker… and those were the best bites!! The frosting recipe as written makes a ton, so don’t be afraid to frost the bars with a heavy hand.
Top with rainbow sprinkles, or use different colored sprinkles to match a holiday theme.
Success Tips Summarized:
- Measure flour correctly by spooning and leveling or weighing with a kitchen scale.
- Use room-temperature ingredients. Room-temperature butter and egg incorporate more easily into the dough and create a more even texture.
- Line the baking pan with parchment paper—makes cutting the bars much easier.
- Flour your hands to press the dough into the pan. It’s a sticky dough, and floured hands are the best tool for the job!
- Do not overbake. Pull the bars from the oven when the edges are lightly golden but the center still looks slightly underdone. They’ll continue setting as they cool, giving you perfectly soft bars instead of crumbly, fluffy ones. Think: the dense and chewy texture of brownies!
- The center of the bars will sink down a bit as they cool; that’s expected. If you’d like, you can gently press down the edges with the back of a spoon as soon as the bars come out of the oven, to make things a little more level.
- Wipe your knife clean between slices for neat squares.
Yes. Double all the ingredient amounts and bake in a lined 9×13-inch pan.
No. The dough is designed to bake immediately, making these much faster than traditional cut-out sugar cookies.
Yes. It simply adds that classic bakery-style sugar cookie flavor, but the bars are still delicious without it.
The most common reasons are too much flour or baking a few minutes too long. Measure your flour carefully and remove the bars from the oven while the center still looks underbaked.
Absolutely. The unfrosted cookie bars stay soft for a full day at room temperature before frosting. You can also: refrigerate frosted bars for up to 5 days; freeze unfrosted bars for up to 3 months; freeze individual frosted bars for quick treats.
These easy sugar cookie bars are perfect for birthdays, baby showers, holidays, bake sales, classroom parties, or anytime you’re craving that nostalgic bakery-style sugar cookie taste.
They’re simply everything you love about sugar cookies with none of the fuss: no dough chilling, no rolling, no individual cookie cutters, no special decorating skills or tools needed. 🙂
More Cookie Bar Flavors
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- S’mores Cookie Bars
- Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Magic Cookie Bars
- M&M Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie and Brownie Bars
Sugar Cookie Bar Tools
Sugar Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars
- Category: Bars
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These frosted sugar cookie bars are soft, chewy, buttery, and topped with a thick layer of creamy vanilla buttercream frosting and colorful sprinkles. No dough chilling, rolling pin, or cookie cutters required.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
- 6 Tablespoons (60g) rainbow sprinkles (not nonpareils)*
Vanilla Buttercream
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 and 1/4 cups (270g) confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream or half-and-half*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch of salt, to taste
- optional: gel food coloring (I used 1 drop red) and extra sprinkles
Instructions
- Make the bars: Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9-inch square pan or an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper, making sure to leave enough overhang on the sides. I use and prefer a 9-inch square pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extract (if using). Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until mostly incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until completely combined. The dough is thick and sticky. Finally, beat in the rainbow sprinkles.
- Press the cookie dough evenly into the prepared baking pan as best you can. Use a spatula or lightly floured hands to press evenly; it will seem like a thin layer of dough.
- Bake for 25–26 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. The center will still look very soft, that’s OK; the bars will continue to set as they cool. Do not over-bake.
- Allow the bars to cool completely in the pan set on a cooling rack. The center will slightly sink—that’s expected.
- Make the frosting: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cream, and vanilla extract and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if frosting is too thick. Taste; beat in a pinch of salt if the frosting is too sweet. Beat in food coloring, if using.
- Lift the cooled bars out of the pan by gripping the parchment paper overhang; transfer to a cutting board. Spread the frosting over the bars and decorate with extra sprinkles if desired. Cut into squares. Use a very sharp knife and wipe the knife between each cut for neat slices. Store bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make these bars and the frosting 1 day in advance. Store the bars, covered, at room temperature overnight and store the frosting, covered, in the refrigerator. Bring the frosting to room temperature and give it a quick mix before using.
- Freezing Instructions: You can also freeze the frosted or unfrosted bars for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, frost if needed, cut, and serve.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Square Pan (preferred) or 8-inch Square Pan | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: Just a small amount of cornstarch helps create an exceptionally tender sugar cookie bar. It keeps the cookie bars soft without making them cakey. If you don’t have any, you can simply leave it out.
- Extra Egg Yolk: 1 egg binds everything together and 1 additional egg yolk adds richness, moisture, and chewiness. Do not skip.
- Sprinkles: Use regular rainbow sprinkles (aka “jimmies”) in the cookie bar base. Nonpareils (the little balls) will bleed their color in the dough. Save those for the topping, if desired.
- Cream: Cream or half-and-half makes for the creamiest, fluffiest frosting, but whole milk also works.
- Larger Batch: You can double this recipe and bake in a 9×13-inch pan; the bake time is about 35–40 minutes.
- Update in 2026: This recipe used to call for 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda but over the years, I have found that is simply too much. Use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda as instructed above, plus the 1 teaspoon baking powder. We also reduced the sprinkles from 1/2 cup (80g) to 6 Tablespoons (60g), and updated the bake time to help ensure the bars turn out soft and chewy, rather than dry.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I have been making this recipe ever since it came out – way back when!! It is one of my Go-To’s when I know there is a function where I need to take cookies! They are easy to make and decorate, and you can cut them large or small (my hack is to use a Pizza cutter!!!). I can’t wait try your updated version, as I’m pretty sold on the original, and your tweaks usually are just what a recipe needs, even though we didn’t know it needed tweaking!
Has anyone tried this recipe GF and also DF? Thank you!
Hi Debbie, We have not tested this recipe with gluten and dairy free substitutes. Let us know if you try anything!
Cookie taste perfect! I’ve made buttercream tons of times, not understanding why mine came out a slightly weird texture. Maybe because I used heavy whipping cream and not heavy cream? I made sure not to over whip. It’s more of like a silky wet texture versus a substantial thicker cream. Probably wouldn’t use the icing recipe again.
Hi Shavone, Thank you for trying this recipe and we are glad you enjoyed the cookies! If your frosting was a little greasy it’s possible that your butter was a bit too warm. Here’s more on room temperature butter (it may be cooler than you think!). Your cream could also have been a bit too warm (which can melt the butter). Or it could have simply been too much cream or not enough sugar. If you try again, use slightly less cream and if if the frosting is still too thin you can add more sugar.
These are amazing. The only thing I did different was i put just a tiny bit, like a drop or two, of almond extract in the frosting as well. Game changer
Sugar cookie + brownie consistency + no chill + frosting = Yes! Wish I had come across this recipe sooner. Really enjoyed these.
Absolutely phenomenal! They were perfect-tons of compliments! Thank you so much
I made these in hopes of finally achieving a dense sugar cookie bar like the ones my bakery serves, but the results have eluded me yet again. I followed the instructions precisely and got a dry, cakey cookie bar, even after taking them out of the oven several minutes earlier than the 25 in the recipe. I would check them at 20 minutes, just to be sure. The frosting is nice and light. I had to add extra sugar to thicken it up a little because my kitchen was so hot, but I would use the frosting recipe again.
Hi Dawn! Sorry to hear these didn’t turn out the way you expected. These should be soft with chewy centers, not dry or cakey. As you mentioned, the key to soft sugar cookie bars is not overbaking them to give you a soft, chewy texture instead of a dry one. If you decide to give them another try, be sure to measure your flour correctly by spooning and leveling or weighing with a kitchen scale. Pull the bars from the oven when the edges are lightly golden but the center still looks slightly underdone. We also recommend using an oven thermometer to ensure your oven is baking at the correct temperature. Many ovens run a little (or a lot!) off. Thanks for giving this recipe a try!
These are delicious. I would probably use more sprinkles in the dough next time — I used 6 TB and I couldn’t see them in my bars as well as in the pictures. The pink frosting is so pretty — I might add some raspberry flavoring next time.
Sooo good and tasty! I used Amish Roll Butter for the cookies and frosting and added some dehydrated strawberry powder to the frosting. That really took the cookies to another level of yumminess!
These are fantastic! I followed the recipe exactly. I used Karrygold butter.
I’ll be making this again, and again and…
These are delicious and fairly easy to make! Brought them to a party and they were gone quickly. Only thing I would do differently next time is not putting the buttercream in the fridge. I thought I should while the bars were cooling but then the buttercream became crumbly and stiff.
I made these today and they’re probably the best thing i’ve baked! So easy, delicious and chewy, also so pretty too! I really appreciate the cup measurements too as someone without a scale lol!
I actually purchased a stand mixer for this recipe because I wanted to make these for My Son‘s birthday. I baked mine for 25 minutes and it did not seem that I had cooked them long enough, but after I put them in the refrigerator to get cool for about an hour, I was able to frost them and chill them some more and they turned out deliciously, chewy and sweet. I’m happy with these treats and love the festive look with sprinkles!
Will this work in a round pan as a cookie cake?
Can’t see why not! You may also love our Funfetti sugar cookie cake recipe.
First time making these. Would Sally’s Cream Cheese Frosting be good on these or would the flavors conflict?
That would be delicious, Georganne!
If I doubled the recipe, would I also need to double the frosting as well?
Delicious bars!
I subbed in GF 1:1 flour and chilled the dough for 45 minutes. They turned out great.
This is so good to know! I’m dying to try making these but I would have to make them GF.