Strawberry Sugar Cookie Bars

What makes these Strawberry Sugar Cookie Bars the BEST?

• Easy. These sugar cookie bars are SO easy to make. They have very few ingredients, most of which you probably already have on hand. Also, they only take 16 minutes to bake so from start to finish we’re talking 30 minutes.
• Soft and GOOEY! They’re so soft. You can pick them up and eat them with your hands, but if you’re not careful they will fall apart because they’re just incredibly soft and perfect, and they stay soft for days.
• Fresh Strawberry Buttercream. It’s an American style cream cheese buttercream flavored with fresh strawberry puree that’s super easy to make and so delicious. You can also use freeze dried strawberries for the frosting when strawberries aren’t in season to still achieve that same punch of strawberry flavor.

Ingredients

• Butter. You’ll need butter for the cookie bars and the strawberry frosting. I used salted butter for both, but if you’d rather use unsalted for the frosting, that’s fine! Or if you only have unsalted, just add an extra pinch of salt.
• Cream Cheese. These sugar cookie bars are topped with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I recommend using full fat Philadelphia cream cheese. If you want to omit the cream cheese, you can make a regular strawberry buttercream by replacing the cream cheese with an equal amount of butter.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar for the cookie bars and powdered sugar for the frosting.
• Vanilla Bean Paste. I love using vanilla bean paste for sugar cookies and sugar cookie bars, because you can see the little flecks of vanilla. Pure vanilla extract is perfectly fine to substitute, but add a 1/2 tsp extra since vanilla bean paste is stronger.
• Sour Cream. I like using a tiny bit of sour cream in these for creaminess and texture. I use this same trick in my viral lemon sugar cookie recipe!
• Cornstarch. This will help to create a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth texture!
• Flour, Baking Soda, & Salt. Regular all purpose flour, and just a touch of baking soda to help get a little rise, but not so much that the bars sink while cooling.

How to Make Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8″ square baking pan with parchment paper. I like to leave a parchment overhang so that the bars can easily be lifted from the pan to serve.

In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar and use a handheld electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar until it’s just combined – about 1 minute. Usually in cookie making, I’d recommend creaming for at least 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy, but in this case, whipping that much air into the dough will cause the cookie bars to rise fast in the oven, and then sink in the middle. So, cream until JUST combined.

Next, add the egg, vanilla, and sour cream and mix until combined. Fold in the flour, cornstarch, and salt, until just combined. The dough will seem dry at first, but just keep folding until it’s a nice thick dough as pictured below. Spread the dough into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 16-17 minutes. The cookie bars should bake evenly, if the center sinks slightly, you can use the back of a spoon or spatula to press the edges down slightly so that the bars are one even layer, but you have to do that while they are still warm! Then, let cool completely.

While the cookie bars bake, prepare the strawberry frosting. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix for 10 minutes – until the butter and cream cheese are very well combined, lightened in color, and there are no lumps of cream cheese remaining. Add half of the total powdered sugar, and mix on the lowest speed for 3 minutes. Repeat with the second half of powdered sugar. Mix in the strawberry puree until combined. To adjust the thickness – add powdered sugar to thicken and room temperature (or slightly warm) heavy cream to thin.

Once you are happy with the consistency of your frosting, spread it into an even layer on the cooled cookie bars. Top with sprinkles, fresh strawberries, or freeze dried strawberries, then slice and serve.

Equipment & Tools

• Large Mixing Bowls. I love these glass mixing bowls and use them the most often. I also recently splurged on these stainless steel mixing bowls from caraway and they’re dreamy!
• Electric Mixer & Spatulas. You can definitely make this recipe in your stand mixer, but it’s not a ton of dough, so I find that the electric hand mixer is the better option! I use a large spatula to fold dry ingredients into the dough, and a small offset spatula to spread the dough into the pan.
• Square Metal Baking Pan. I love this one from USA Pan. I love all of their pans actually and they’re all I’ve been using lately.
• Parchment Paper. Parchment paper makes it super easy to lift the bars out of the pan to serve. I love these precut parchment sheets that lie flat. No more wrestling with parchment that won’t stop rolling up!
• Kitchen Scale. Using a kitchen scale to bake using gram measurements is the only way to make sure your desserts turn out exactly as the recipe developer intended! It’s SO easy to over measure flour and end up with dry desserts. TRAGIC!

Strawberry Sugar Cookie Bar FAQs

• Can I make these bars gluten free? I have not tested a gluten free version of this recipe yet myself, but you should be able to swap out the all purpose flour for a cup for cup gluten free flour like this one from Bob’s Redmill or this one from King Arthur Baking.
• Can these sit at room temperature? YES! The high sugar to fat ratio in the frosting makes it shelf stable for up to 2-3 days. Any longer than that, I’d recommend popping them in the fridge – they actually taste fantastic cold!
• Can I prep this ahead of time? Yes! The sugar cookie bars will stay fresh for days. You can prep them a day or so in advance and then just cover with plastic until ready to serve. I would wait to frost them until day of just to make sure the frosting doesn’t start to separate as it sits. As for the frosting – you can prep that days, weeks, even months ahead! Just make it and store it in an airtight container in the fridge (or freezer if you’re prepping WAY ahead) then whip it back to silky perfection when ready to serve.

Strawberry Sugar Cookie Bars

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• Author: Elizabeth Buuck
• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time: 16 min
• Total Time: 36 minutes
• Yield: 16 Cookie Bars

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Description

Soft and tender vanilla bean sugar cookie bars topped with fluffy and silky fresh strawberry cream cheese frosting. 

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Ingredients

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For Sugar Cookie Bars

• 1/2 C (113g) Salted Butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 C (150g) Granulated Sugar
• 1 Lg Egg at room temperature
• 2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste (or 2 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract)
• 2 tsp (30g) Sour Cream
• 1 1/4 C (165 g) All Purpose Flour
• 2 TBSP Cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt

For Strawberry Buttercream

• 4 oz (55g) Full Fat Cream Cheese, at room temperature
• 4 TBSP (55g) Salted Butter, at room temperature
• 2 C (250g) Powdered Sugar
• 1/4 C (50g) Fresh Strawberry Puree)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2–3 TBSP Heavy Cream (optional to thin frosting if needed)

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Instructions

For Sugar Cookie Bars

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8 inch square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving a parchment overhang to easily lift bars from pan after baking.
• In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar until JUST combined – about 1 minute.
• Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla bean paste, mix to combine.
• Fold in the dry ingredients – flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt, until the dough comes together into a thick and slightly sticky ball.
• Use a small offset spatula to spread the dough into an even layer in the pan and bake for 16-17 minutes. The center will seem slightly under baked, but will finish setting up in the hot pan on the counter.
• Let bars cool completely, then frost and serve.

For the Strawberry Buttercream

• Puree about 1/2 C of fresh strawberries and set aside. Optional – run the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove any larger chunks of berry and seeds. 
• In the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium high speed for 10 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.
• Add 1 C of powdered sugar and mix on the lowest speed for 3 minutes. Then, repeat with the remaining 1 C of powdered sugar. 
• Add the strawberry puree and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
• Adjust the frosting consistency to your preference. Add a little extra powdered sugar if you like it thicker, or thin it out using a bit of heavy cream.
• Spread the frosting into an even layer on the cooled sugar cookie bars, top with sprinkles or freeze dried strawberries, slice, and serve. 

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