Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars
A unique take on a Frosted Sugar Cookie, these Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars are delicious, chock full of sprinkles, easy to make, and will be an instant family favorite.
Sugar Cookie Bars are one of our most favorite desserts. We have made them a couple of times for the blog. This time we did something special and added pretty rainbow sprinkles to the cookie bars. Wow! Do they look pretty! And as always, they taste amazing especially topped with our delicious homemade The Best Buttercream Frosting. This is a great dessert idea for a special occasion, a brunch, or just a random Thursday.
Ingredients You Will Need
How to Make the Sugar Cookie Bars
Step 1: Add the softened butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and mix until fluffy (at least 2 minutes.
Step 2: Add the eggs and mix for an additional 2 minutes.
Step 3: Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
Step 4: Add dry ingredients and mix just until the flour is incorporated into the cookie dough. (P.S. if you are someone who likes the taste of cookie dough and isn’t afraid of raw eggs, this dough tastes AMAZING!!!)
Step 5: Add 1/2 cup of sprinkles to the dough.
Step 6: Gently mix the sprinkles into the dough.
Step 7: Make sure the sprinkles are evenly disbursed in the cookie dough.
Step 8: Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. You can skip this step and grease the cookie sheet instead but the parchment paper will really help the edges of the cookies not to get brown during the baking process. Pour all of the dough out onto the prepared cookie sheet.
Step 9: Press the dough down onto the cookie sheet. The dough is soft and sticky so it is a little tricky to get the dough evenly distributed on the cookie sheet. It helps to use a piece of parchment paper to press down the dough.
Step 10: You want the dough to be about 3/4″ high. (It will rise to about 1″ high during the baking process.) It did not fill the entire cookie sheet for us. That is fine!
Step 11: Bake the Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars in a 375-degree oven for 18-20 minutes.
Step 12: Do not overbake the cookie bars. It will not come out of the oven a deep golden brown – in fact, it might look a little un-done but it is not. Use a toothpick to test it, if the toothpick comes out clean it is done. If you bake it too long the bars will be dry.
How to Frost the Bars
Step 13: While the cookie bars are cooling, make a double batch of our yummy The Best Buttercream Frosting. It is the perfect topping for these Sugar Cookie Bars. You can find detailed instructions on how to make our Buttercream Frosting here.
Step 14: Scoop the frosting onto the cookie bar.
Step 15: Spread the frosting with a knife or an offset spatula.
Step 16: Add some pretty sprinkles.
Step 17: Allow the frosting to set up for a bit and then cut into individual bars.
Other Decorating Ideas
These yummy Sugar Cookie Bars are a great dessert for a Holiday family gathering or party. Change up the color of the sprinkles and the color of the frosting and they are an easy way to add some colorful (and delicious) holiday festivity to your dessert table. A few Red and Green sprinkles are all you need for a Christmas Sugar Cookie Bar version. Add some pink and red sprinkles and frosting and your Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookie Bars will be the perfect way to show those special somebodies who much you love them.
Expert Tips and FAQ’s
Both the eggs and the butter should be at room temperature which will help your cookies turn out lighter and fluffier. For the eggs, room temperature simply means not cold out of the refrigerator. If you forget to take the eggs out before you start making cookie dough you can put the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up. The butter also needs to be softened to room temperature which means if you touch it you should leave an indentation on the stick of butter. Do not use butter that has been over-softened or melted. If that happens you should use a different stick of butter or put it back into the refrigerator to let it set up. We have a whole post about How to Soften Butter, click here if you need more information on how to do that.
Yes. In our opinion, you need some kind of a mixer to make a good cookie dough. A stand mixer, while expensive, is a great investment if you believe you have a lot of homemade baked goods in your future. An electric hand-mixer also works well and you can probably find one for around $20. You can hand mix cookie dough in a pinch (which is how we did it growing up), but you will really have to use a lot of muscle to cream the butter and sugar and eggs properly.
Creaming the butter, sugar and then mixing the eggs in is the most important part of the cookie dough mixing process. Creaming is when you fully incorporate the butter and sugar together and add some much-needed air to the dough. We recommend creaming the butter and sugar for 2 minutes at medium-high speed and then mixing the butter/sugar/eggs for another 3 minutes at the same speed. Once you add the flour, you want to mix the dough as little as possible. Mix it too much and you will get tough cookies. Mix in the flour at low speed and continue mixing ONLY until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the dough. Make sure you scrape down the sides and the bottom to make sure all the flour has gotten mixed in.
Everyone’s oven is different. We recommend starting with a test bake with a single cookie to help you hone in on the exact baking time for your oven. You should set your timer for 2 minutes less than whatever the recipe recommends. Once the timer goes off, open up the oven and see how your cookie is baking. Make corrections accordingly. Our oven has a hot spot in the back so we always rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time to get a more even bake. Although this may seem like an unnecessary step, it is better to do this than burn a whole tray of cookies.
Cookies should always be stored in an airtight container. They should be completely cooled before storing them. You can also keep them in the refrigerator and that extends their freshness for up to a week. If you need them to last longer, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. You can pull them out of the freezer and leave them on the counter for 1 hour and they will be ready to eat.
Other Funfetti Desserts You Will Love
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Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars
A unique take on a Frosted Sugar Cookie, these Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars are delicious, easy to make and will be an instant family favorite.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter (Softened, Salted Sweet Cream)
- 2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 4 Large Eggs
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 5 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 cup Rainbow Sprinkles
- 2 batches of our The Best Buttercream Frosting
Instructions
- Add the sugar and the softened butter to a mixing bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes and then add the eggs and mix for 3 more minutes.
- Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
- Mix in the flour, one cup at a time. Add the Baking Soda with the first cup of flour.
- Add the Sprinkles, mix until combined.
- The Sugar Cookie Bars dough is now ready to prepare for baking. No chilling is necessary.
- Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pour all of the dough out onto the prepared cookie sheet.
- Press the dough down onto the cookie sheet. The dough is soft and sticky so it is a little tricky to get the dough evenly distributed on the cookie sheet. If you cover the dough with another piece of parchment paper it makes the process a little less messy.
- You want the dough to be about 3/4″ high. It will rise to about 1″ high during the baking process. The dough may not fill the entire cookie sheet if you are using a large baking sheet as we did here.
- Bake the Sugar Cookie Bars in a 375-degree oven for 18-20 minutes. The cookie bars will be lightly browned around the edges and slightly golden on the top. You don't want to overbake the cookies. The cookie bar will not come out of the oven a deep golden brown – in fact, it might look a little undone but it is not. If you bake these cookie bars too long they will be dry. Let the cookie bar cool completely before you frost them.
- While the cookie bars are cooling, make a double batch of our yummy The Best Buttercream Frosting. It is the perfect topping for these Sugar Cookie Bars. You can find detailed instructions on how to make our Buttercream Frosting here.
- Scoop the frosting onto the cookie bar.
- Spread the frosting with a knife or an offset spatula.
- Add some more Rainbow Sprinkles.
- Allow the frosting to set up for a bit and then cut into individual bars.
Notes
Storage/Freezing TipsCookies should always be stored in an airtight container. They should be completely cooled before storing them. You can also keep them in the refrigerator and that extends their freshness for up to a week. If you need them to last longer, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. You can pull them out of the freezer and leave them on the counter for 1 hour and they will be ready to eat.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
