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 Iโve made. Each bite transports me back to being a child and having those youthful first experiences of sweets and birthday parties. โ โ โ โ โ “
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 paperโmakes 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 9ร13-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. ๐
More Cookie Bar Flavors
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Sโmores 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
- Makeย the bars: Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Line aย 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 25โ26 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 sinkโthat’s expected.
- Makeย 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 35โ40 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 am brand new to your site and videos and so happy to find you. I tried this recipe with a few variations. We have to be dairy and egg free due to allergies so I used non dairy butter and subbed applesauce for the eggs, and soy milk in the frosting. I was very pleased with the result, and everyone in the house loved them!
I really wanted to like theseโฆmuch too sweet, especially with the frosting. Also, I think I should have taken them out about 5 min earlier than the stated time. They were a bit dry. Could I reduce the amount of sugar somewhere?
Hi Kimm! Sugar is used for moisture and texture in baked goods as well as taste. You can certainly try reducing the sugar, but the resulting texture will be different than intended. You could certainly use less frosting next time if you prefer!
I doubled the recipe. I followed your instructions about the baking time being 35-40 minutes for the doubled batch, but I think it was too long. I shouldโve started checking at 30 minutes. Everything was a bit too golden brown. Either way, they came out soft enough, and I honestly liked them more than regular sugar cookies. Theyโre great!
I want to make these for a reception where the cookies will be individually wrapped. . . . Could anyone tell me if you think these bars would go into a clear cellophane bag and not look smeared or messy?
Hi Mollie, this isn’t a crusting buttercream, so they aren’t the best candidate for stacking or packaging in that way. The frosting may get a bit smudged.
Made these and topped with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. So good.
Ended up upping the salt and vanilla a touch – but other than that followed the recipe to tee. Love it and was very popular in the household!
Hi, do I have to use sprinkles or can I skip them?
You can skip them if you prefer!
Can I use a glutten free four in this receipe? Like a 1-1 flour?
Hi Barbara, we haven’t tested it, so we’re unsure of the exact results. Let us know if you do give it a try!
Made these with my grandson. I don’t know why we were surprised at how delicious they were – very very good. Thank you for all the detail.
These are so yummy! Thank you Sally for the recipe.
could you leave a link to the brand of sprinkles that are used in this recipe?
Thanks
Hi Diane! I used a variety of sprinkles for the pictured bars! I used Giant grocery store brand rainbow sprinkles in the dough, and then these rainbow pastel quins on top, and rainbow nonpareils on top as well.
I can’t wait to try these cookies. How much freeze dried strawberry powder would you add to the frosting?
Hi Sally, you could halve our strawberry buttercream recipe and top these bars. Yum!
These bars only taste good because of the frosting. The bars themselves are very bland.
Thanks so much for your feedback, Kari. Did you happen to use the optional almond extract? That addition definitely helps give more flavor. Additionally, be sure to use pure vanilla extract if you didn’t; imitation definitely isn’t flavorful enough!
Delicious! Has anyone tried these with gluten free flour?
Sadly these are a miss for me. I was hesitant given many of the reviews, but made them any way because I love so many of Sallyโs recipes. Weighed everything, used correct temps (oven thermometer, etc.).
Are these a more dense bar? Mine turned out a bit heavy. Is this how it’s supposed to be? I did not use any sprinkles though.
Hi Cathy! Yes, these should be dense and chewy.
I have been wanting to make these for the last year. I brought them to a birthday lunch and they were a hit! The soft sugar cookie and fluffy frosting were delicious! My only regret is not making these sooner!
These turned out great! I followed the recipe as stated and was sure to not overtake!
Thanks!
How would you adjust the baking time for cookie cupcakes? And how much would you fill each one? Thanks!
Was a bit skeptical with some reviews saying their bars turned out dry, so I opted to add the full 2 eggs instead of one + just a yolk. Mine are definitely not dry, and taste great. I underbaked them a bit (that’s on me, I think I pulled them out a bit too soon and at the very low end of the bake time listed) but fortunately, I like a gooey bar. I did 3/4 recipe for the frosting and it was plenty for a 9×9 pan. I love frosting but the full recipe might even be a bit much for my taste. The bars poofed up quite a bit in the oven and sunk when pulled leaving a tall edge- something I don’t personally mind, since everyone has preferences for edges, middles, and corners so it’s best of all worlds. I would make this again- they were exactly what I wanted in a sugar cookie bar!
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.
These came out so cute but I was so nervous about overcooking them that Iโm pretty sure theyโre completely raw :-/ cooked for 27 min at 350.
Do you think it would be possible to cut these into heart shapes? Or would that squish the cookie/be too hard to frost?
Hi Jessica, you could cut these into heart shapes, sure!
Holy moly these are amazing! Perfectly moist, great crunch on the edges, and nice and even after cooling. I double the recipe and baked in a half a sheet and they came out perfect!
These are SO GOOD! Seriously, huge hit! Thank you for the recipe!
These are so good! And easy to make. I did double the recipe. But…I’m pretty sure I forgot to put the baking soda in. The interesting thing is that they didn’t sink down in the center. They were level from the edges to the center. I love that these have a tender bite, but hold together well. Thank you for the recipe! (The icing had a lovely texture, as well.)