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
can these be made in a half sheet pan?
Hi Lily, you can double the recipe for a 9×13-inch pan. We haven’t tried scaling them for a half sheet pan, but let us know if you do.
do you have any good bars recipes that you can make in a half sheet pan?
Hi Lily, our cake pan sizes and conversions guide will be helpful for scaling recipes to a half sheet pan.
These bars are so cute and they taste awesome. Making them again today for my great grandsons. Your recipes have consistently turned out well for me. Thank you.
Best sugar cookies bars!
Hi Sally,
Love ALL your recipes. You used to have a similar recipe to the sugar cookie bar on your site – it was a pan sugar cookie but it had lemon zest in it. I cannot find the recipe anywhere and need to make for my daughter. Can you help? Thank you!
Hi Anne! We wish we could help more, but we haven’t archived an older recipe like you described. Perhaps it could have been from a different recipe website? We hope you find it!
This recipe is a keeper !! I don’t usually leave reviews but It is easy to follow and easy to make… And so many compliments !! Yummy !! Thanks for sharing
This is the best thing I have ever tasted!
Can you make these without the sprinkles?
Absolutely!
I made these for my daughter’s birthday party and everyone loved them! I doubled the cookie part and baked in 9×13 pan. I did not double the frosting and it was still plenty. They sunk quite a bit in the middle, but looked fine after being frosted and tasted great!
So good! I substituted Trader Joe’s Brown Sugar Oat Creamer for the heavy cream bc I didn’t want to buy a whole jug and it gave the icing the best flavor. The bars themselves are delicious and have an unexpected nuttiness to them
I’ll be making these this weekend
Are these bars easy to cut?? Any advice on making them look neat?
Hi Wendy, it’s helpful to line the pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil so that the baked and cooled bars can be lifted from the pan. Then, use a sharp knife to cut clean pieces. You may want to wipe off the knife between cuts to keep it neat. Hope you enjoy them!
My family loves these! Instead of baking in a pan, I roll it out like a pizza on a cookie sheet. The edges get a little crunchy, and the middle stays soft, which I happen to think is the perfect texture combo!
Hi Sally, although I like this recipe I do think it’s worth mentioning that the bars take less time to bake in a 9×9 square pan and it’s not really noted in the directions. If I may make a suggestion to add that in the recipe? I’m assuming the current recipe’s bake time is for an 8×8 pan.
Hi Nicole, thank you so much for your feedback. I find that the bars take close to the same amount of time when using a 9-inch square pan. Let me retest again, as it’s been a couple years since I made these, and see if I need to adjust the span of time.
Delicious! I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×13 pan for my daughter’s easter party. The middle did sink compared to some high outer edges so I just trimmed the edges off for my husband and I to snack on and frosted the middle to cut into bars. I did pink buttercream but did not double that, did just the amount per the original recipe and it was plenty especially with just frosting the center. Added blue and yellow sugar and they were so cute! : )
Very good! I made these with the half recipe of frosting, and my kids and I all really enjoyed them!
I made these at Christmas with green frosting and cut them into little triangles so they looked like Christmas trees! They were a HUGE hit and I think I’ve made them three times since then! The frosting to cookie ratio is impeccable!! And I have celiac disease, so I substitute the flour with King Arthur’s Gluten Free measure-for-measure flour and no one is able to tell the difference! These will be a staple in my family for a looooong time!
I made these for Valentine’s Day, and I do recommend them. I halved the frosting, and it was still plenty. The middle sank A LOT, which made for some small center pieces. I am wondering if there is a way mound the center so they even out when they cool. The taste is lovely, and the frosted bars are very pretty.
They look amazing! Is there an egg free version or substitute possible?
I love these cookies so much! They are easy to make and tastes wonderful! I like to substitute Lorann Princess emulsion for the vanilla and it makes them even more divine!
I want to make these for my grandson who loves sprinkles, but I find the directions for making in advance a bit confusing. If I do make 2-3 days before serving, they will keep frosted and covered tightly in the refrigerator? Or is it still necessary to bake 2-3 days ahead,, keep covered in refrigerator but wait to frost them until it’s being served? I know he’s going to love these! Thank you.
Hi Fran, the completed bars + frosting will stay in refrigerator for up to 5 days, so you can take that approach if preferred. You can certainly make them separately and store per the recipe notes, and top the bars before serving. Hope your grandson loves these bars!
I tried these because the dough didn’t need chilling and they take up less space then traditional drop sugar cookies. Half the frosting was perfect! If making a 9″ pan, definitely check for doneness sooner then the suggested 25 minutes.
I like the recipe but it sinks so much in the middle every time I make it? So when I go to ice them, the outer edge gets less and the middle gets a ton. You said some sinking is normal but mine is always a lot. 🙁
Hi Lisa, does the cookie seem overly wet in the middle? A little sinking is normal as you mention, but if it’s sinking too much, it could be possible that it’s not quite baked through. An extra minute or two in the oven should help.
I like the recipe but would make a couple modifications. I baked in an 8×8 pan for for 15 minutes and the bars turned out drier than I prefer. I also added a bit of almond extract into the frosting. Thank you for sharing!
Sally, These have become our favorite celebration cookie bar! Love the tender cookie base & love, love the buttercream frosting! Thank you!
What does the baking soda react with in this recipe? I assume 2 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder would suffice as well?
Can these be made with a chocolate frosting, if so do you have a recipe?
You could also make two pans of cookies, then sandwich the frosting between them. For better presentation, face the two bottom side of the cookie layers toward each other, then lightly wrap the cookies in plastic wrap, then bubble wrap to keep them from shifting around too much
Can you frreze these bars frosted or should you freeze then thaw and frost?
Hi Ellen, For the best results freeze the unfrosted bars for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, frost, cut, and serve.
I’ve made these cookies before with my middle school students for a special cooking class, and they turned out fantastically great!
Now, I’m wanting to make these and ship them to my brother’s family for Christmas. Do you think these will hold up in the mail? Will they go bad in transit?
Thanks! 🙂
Hi Gerri, we’re thrilled to hear you enjoyed the sugar cookie bars so much! With the amount of frosting on top, they might be a bit messy to send. You could try swapping some of the butter in the frosting with shortening for more of a “crusting” buttercream, and send them in a single layer to prevent them from getting smushed. Let us know what you try!
Do you sift the powdered sugar before or after weighing?
Hi Chelsea, We don’t sift the confectioner’s sugar in this frosting but you certainly can. If the recipe doesn’t say, then you should sift after measuring.
If a recipe calls for “1 cup of flour, sifted” — measure the flour, then sift it. If a recipe calls for “1 cup of sifted flour” — sift the flour then measure. It all depends where the word “sifted” is in the ingredient wording. If “sifted” is before the ingredient name, sift before measuring. If “sifted” is after the ingredient name, sift after measuring. I hope this helps!
Hi Sally,
I’d like to make these for my daughter’s upcoming school carnival. I think they would look great Halloween themed. However, to Covid each bar has to be individually packaged in a ziplock. Do you think the buttercream frosting will harden enough for this? Any tips? TIA!
Hi Nicole, it won’t completely harden, but should harden enough that wrapping individually would be just fine. If you want, you can swap out some of the butter for shortening for a “crustier” buttercream. Hope they’re a hit!
Thank you, Lexi! Do you have a recipe for a buttercream that has shortening? I’m not sure how much to add. 🙂