These soft and chewy gingerbread cookie bars are so easy to make—no dough chilling, no dough rolling, no cookie cutters required! They’re delicious plain, or topped with spiced cream cheese frosting. Skip the fuss and make gingerbread bars instead!
This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find it in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
One reader, Christi, commented: “These gingerbread cookie bars are so good, I found myself returning to ‘taste test’ them again and again—and that was before adding the spiced cream cheese frosting! The flavor and texture are irresistible! ★★★★★”
One reader, Rebecca, commented: “My husband and I made these yesterday, and they are so good! They taste just like a delicious cookie! Soft, slightly chewy, with creamy warm icing… I can see myself making these whenever I need a little Christmas in my day throughout the year. So easy and comforting. ★★★★★“
When you need a big batch of cookies but are pressed for time, cookie bars are the way to go. This dessert recipe makes a generously sized 9×13-inch pan of soft, chewy gingerbread cookie bars, perfect for sharing, especially at the holidays.
If you love the holiday-favorite flavors of warm spice and molasses, like you enjoy in gingerbread cookies and crisp molasses cookies, you’ll find those same cozy flavors here; but the texture is oh-so soft and chewy—like a gingerbread version of a brownie!
Why You’ll Love These Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Cookie bars are super soft and chewy, not cakey
- Packed with that nostalgic molasses and spice flavor associated with the holidays
- Makes a large pan to serve a crowd
- No dough chilling, no dough rolling—no fuss!
- Quicker and easier to make than many cookie recipes
- Can add white chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels for texture variety
- Top with a layer of cinnamon-spiced cream cheese frosting
Unlike these soft molasses cookies, gingerbread latte cookies, or traditional gingerbread cookies, there’s no dough chilling, no rolling dough into individual balls or rolling out dough to cut into shapes (and then re-rolling), and no baking in batches. The only waiting you’ll have to suffer through is for the pan to cool for 1 hour before you cut them into bars. (I’m sorry!)
Simple Ingredients
Like with these favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies, using melted butter makes for the softest, chewiest bar cookies. I usually like to use melted butter in bar recipes like homemade brownies and blondies because the bars taste chewy, not cakey. I tested this recipe with creamed softened butter, and the baked result ended up looking more like a puffy sheet cake.
Here’s everything else you need for these gingerbread cookie bars:
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of this recipe.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps these bars rise as they bake, and we use a good amount of it to stand up to the heavy melted butter and molasses.
- A Generous Amount of Spices: Ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg; plus, a pinch of black pepper—the same secret ingredient I always add to pumpkin pie!
- Salt: Salt adds flavor and balances the sweetness.
- Sugar: Use a mix of brown sugar and white granulated sugar.
- Molasses: Use unsulphured; blackstrap is too bitter for these.
- Egg: An egg binds everything together.
- Vanilla Extract: For flavor.
White Chocolate Chips (Optional): If you love white chocolate chip molasses cookies, feel free to add some white chocolate chips to these bars, too. Fold them in as the last step in making the dough, just like we do with chocolate chip cookie bars.
Have I Mentioned No Dough Chilling?
Just melt, mix, press, and bake!
The dough will be slick from the melted butter, but should be easy enough to spread/press into the pan. Pat it down as best you can. It may seem like it isn’t enough dough, and the layer will be thin. But the bars rise as they bake.
Success Tip: Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Once the bars are cooled and frosted, simply lift the whole thing out using the parchment overhang. Set it onto a cutting board and slice. Easy!
Bake just until the top is set, and avoid over-baking. Cool the bars for at least 1 hour inside the pan before frosting and/or slicing.
Top With Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
These gingerbread cookie bars are fabulous on their own, but then again, a little frosting is always a good idea. My favorite cream cheese frosting is far from basic; it’s incredibly creamy, silky smooth, and has that subtle tang to it. We’re scaling it down, and also kicking the flavor up a notch by adding pinches of some of the spices used in the cookie bars. The result is similar to the spiced cream cheese frosting on these pumpkin bars.
And, of course, some sprinkles are the perfect festive accessory on top. I used gingerbread cookie-shaped sprinkles, something like these, and some Christmas-colored nonpareils. Here’s a 4-pack of Christmas sprinkles, and I really love these snowflake sprinkles, too. Lots of options!
If you’re not planning to frost these gingerbread cookie bars, I recommend sprinkling the top with coarse sugar or festive colored sugar sprinkles before baking. Because a little sparkle is always welcome at the holidays!
You could even top with a sprinkling of chopped crystallized ginger, like we do for these chocolate ginger sparkle cookies.
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Andes Mint Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
and here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes (includes cooling & chilling)
- Yield: 18-24 bars
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft and chewy gingerbread cookie bars are so easy to make—no dough chilling, no dough rolling, and no cookie cutters required! They’re delicious plain, or topped with spiced cream cheese frosting. Careful not to over-bake these; they’ll still feel and look quite soft on top, but the bars set as they cool. This recipe is also in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- small pinch of ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar (I recommend dark)
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (113g/80ml) unsulphured molasses (do not use blackstrap; I prefer Grandma’s brand)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 ounces (170g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- small pinch each of ground ginger, cinnamon, & allspice
- optional for garnish: sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Adjust oven rack to the center rack position. Line a 9×13-inch metal or glass baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the sides to easily lift the bars out of the pan. Set aside.
- Make the cookie bars: Whisk the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and molasses together until no lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and mix with a large spoon or silicone spatula until no traces of flour remain. The dough will be thick and shiny. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and press it into a smooth, even layer. It may not seem like enough dough, and it will be a thin layer—that’s OK.
- Bake for 23–26 minutes or until the top is set but still looks quite soft and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with only a few moist crumbs. Err on the side of under-baking. Bars puff up in the oven, but settle and firm up as they cool. Allow the bars to cool in the pan set on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour.
- Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the confectioners’ sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for 2 minutes until completely combined and creamy. Taste and beat in a pinch of salt if the frosting is too sweet. Spread the frosting on the cooled bars. Top with sprinkles, if desired. To help set the frosting, refrigerate for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
- Lift the bars out of the pan by gripping the parchment paper overhang; transfer to a cutting board and cut into squares. Cover leftover bars tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you skipped the frosting, cover and store plain gingerbread cookie bars at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to come to room temperature and continue with step 4. Baked and cooled cookie bars, with or without frosting, freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw bars overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×13-inch Glass Baking Pan or Metal Baking Pan | Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Gingerbread Cookie-Shaped Sprinkles | Christmas 4-pack Sprinkles | Snowflake Sprinkles
- Can I Halve the Recipe? Yes, you can halve the recipe for an 8-inch or thinner 9-inch batch of bars. The bake time is about the same, but begin checking for doneness at 22 minutes. It can be difficult to halve an egg accurately, so I do recommend making the original 9×13-inch batch, and you can freeze extras.
- Butter: Avoid letting the melted butter cool for too long, otherwise your dough will be crumbly instead of soft (and your cookie bars can end up cakey). As soon as it’s melted, stir in the sugars and molasses as instructed in step 3.
- Molasses: I use and recommend unsulphured or dark molasses. (I like Grandma’s brand. The kind I use is labeled “original” molasses.) Blackstrap molasses is extremely bitter and not ideal in this recipe.
- Cream Cheese in Frosting: Use brick cream cheese, not the spreadable kind that comes in a tub.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I made these a week ago for my co-workers, they all loved them! One lady wasn’t there that day and heard about them from the others and today I am making a second batch to share, again. Thanks for such an easy, TASTY treat.
Loved this so much! I love the idea of gingwebread but am always disappointed at the crispy cookie. This is the perfect consistency. The frosting was a little gooey for me. I prefer a fluffier frosting so added more sugar but the taste was great and still had a wonderful cream cheese flavor.
Do you have to use all of the spices? I don’t have all spice at home but I have everything else!
Hi Heidi, you can use the spices you have, but the flavor will not be as robust.
I had to chill the dough. Will this wreck them?
Definitely not!
This recipe was easy to make and so delicious! I made it for a Christmas get-together with friends, and they were gone by the end of the night despite there being other desserts available. I received compliments on how moist they were in comparison to other gingerbread recipes. Will be making yearly after the compliment!!
I made these last year, and they were a huge hit. I just made some for my husband to take to Bible study, and the guys kept saying “I don’t like gingerbread.” My husband said, “Just try it.” A huge hit, again!
These surprised me. They turned out delicious.
These were delicious and the frosting was unique. So easy and feeds a crowd. My only change would be to start checking for doneness at least 5 minutes before suggested. I took mine out at 23 minutes and the toothpick came out without crumbs and the cookies bars were not as moist as I would like.
Insanely good! Making them again today! I actually followed the recipe exactly (shocker for me!), baked in a glass pan, so I watched it carefully because I didn’t want to overtake it. But this is a quick way to make gingerbread without doing the cut-out thing. I ended up just dusting with powdered sugar. Another amazing recipe from Sally and her team!!
Excellent recipe! Will be making again
Did you publish a different gingerbread squares recipe baked in an 8” square pan? Well I made those and my only complaint is it didn’t make enough! LOL I had some frozen maple SMBC that I used up on this batch but tomorrow I will make your icing. They are so so delicious!
Hi Sally..can I put the gingerbread cookie bars with the cream cheese frosting in cookie tins for cookie gifts? Will they be ok ?
Hi Deb! Cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated after a day.
Incredible!! What a wonderful treat! Thank you!!
I successfully halved the recipe. Mine finished baking in just 12 minutes. Also I used homemade molasses and honey. Everyone loved the flavor combo of the spices. Thank you for the recipe!
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes! Could I make them in a mini muffin tin for gingerbread bites? I think they would look adorable to gift that way.
Hi Babs, we’re sure you could. It would make quite a large amount. Let us know if you give it a try!
I’ve baked these delicious bars twice. First batch was perfect, soft, slightly chewy, delicious. The second was a little dry although not baked for as long. Frosting complements bars perfectly. Will definitely bake these again.
I just made this tonight, I’m not a great baker or cook, I wasn’t sure I could make this and it taste good, it was amazing. So easy too.
Can these be made in a smaller pan to get a thucker bar and if so, do I adjust time
Hi Val, yes, you could, but we are unsure of the bake time. It would be longer, and will depend on the size of your pan.
I’ve made this several times now, YUM! My newest favorite way: butterscotch chips inside is divine: then top with finely chopped pecans and coarse sugar before baking. No frosting. The CRUNCH from sugar and nuts goes so well with the gooey bars, and the nuts cut the sweetness. In love
If you add colored sprinkles before baking, does the colors run?
Hi TJ, do you mean to add them in the dough, or on top? We don’t recommend adding sprinkles to these bars, except for on top of the frosting.
YUM!! Made these for a Christmas party and they were SO good. Thank you for sharing something quick, easy and delicious for the holidays!
Can I make these in a foil pan for easy gifting?
Definitely! Bake time may be a little shorter.
Hi Sally, happy holidays, I baked the gingerbread cookie bars and it’s so delicious but without the cream cheese frosting but can I do melted white chocolate on top of it to give it n add sprinkles on it so I could freeze it because I want to box it and give it out to friends n family and mail it out! Please tell me.
Thank you!
Hi MM, yes, you could drizzle some melted chocolate on top and top with sprinkles. Enjoy!
Hi Sally! I’m from a country where Molasses is not readily available in most supermakerts. What would you recommend as a replacement for this recipe? 🙂
We would use our spiced brown sugar cut-out cookies instead – happy baking!
Good day! Just needed some clarification. I make the cookie bars, frost them, cut them into squares, then freeze? Wasn’t sure if cream cheese freezes well if not baked?
Hi Jackie, yes! Baked and cooled cookie bars, with or without frosting, freeze well for up to 3 months.
Divine!! I usually make gingerbread men each Xmas but it is a bit of a faff. I saw this recipe on Instagram so thought I would give it a go. It is so easy, and absolutely delicious. The icing is just perfect. I followed the recipe with the exception of using treacle instead of molasses – but I’m not sure if there is actually a difference between these two things or whether treacle is what we call molasses where I’m from (New Zealand). My bake time was 23 mins and I use an oven thermometer to ensure temperature accuracy. I strongly recommend this recipe and will absolutely be making it again.
ive made these before and i love them! im making them in advance this year for christmas and i thought i had enough molasses, but i have about half of what the recipe called for. the unbaked dough is going in the freezer for now – can i save this or do i need to make it again? thank you!
Hi Michelle! It would certainly be worth baking the dough, though they may not turn out *exactly* as expected.
Hi Sally! Is there another vanilla, not cream cheese based, frosting or glaze that you’d recommend to use with these bars?
Hi Shana, you can use vanilla buttercream instead, or even try this white chocolate buttercream. Here are all of my frosting/topping recipes.
So delicious! If you’re a gingerbread fan, these are quick and easy and so satisfying! I did make the spiced cream cheese frosting but only used a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and it was perfect.
This came out great! Not sure we have molasses in the UK but used golden syrup and the final bars are perfect ☺️
Hi Dotti, I use treacle instead of molasses and it works great