Soft Sugar Cookie Bars

These soft sugar cookie bars are topped with a fluffy layer buttercream making them a fun and easy treat. Cookie bars are so much quicker to make than individual cookies, and they taste just as good if not better. If you like Lofthouse cookies, you are going to love these delicious sugar cookie bars.

If you like your sugar cookies soft and piled with frosting, these bars are for you! You don’t have to chill, roll, or cut the dough, so they are fast and easy. Bake them just until they are barely done for a soft and sumptuous texture. 

We love them topped with vanilla or chocolate buttercream and plenty of festive sprinkles. They are good enough for a party and easy enough for just because.

About the Recipe

My family has always had a thing for frosted sugar cookies. When I was a kid, we would get together with my aunts and grandma to bake and decorate cookies for the holiday.

We would spend all day rolling out cookie dough, cutting it into shapes, and decorating them with different colors of sugar before baking them. Then we graduated to using royal icing to decorate them.

They take hours, but do you know what? My siblings always gravitated to the slice and bake sugar cookies topped with frosting and sprinkles instead.

Add to that the fact that Little Dude loves Lofthouse cookies, it seemed like having a recipe for soft sugar cookies with fluffy buttercream frosting was in order.

Rather than scooping a bunch of cookies and making them individually, baking them as bars makes them even easier. Of course they are quicker too, because there is only one trip to the oven.

I pretty quickly decided to make these cookie bars with a recipe from one of my favorite cookie experts, Big Rigs ‘n Lil’ Cookies.  Hers look so pretty with the pink frosting, but I had chocolate on the brain.

So the first time I made a batch, I topped ours with chocolate sweetened condensed milk frosting. Though most batches since then have been topped with vanilla frosting.

The best part is all you have to do is match the sprinkles to the occasion to make a festive treat. We have used colorful sprinkles for birthday treats and holiday sprinkles for Christmas.

No matter the festivity, these cookies are a hit.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

There is both butter and cream cheese in the dough. This makes them really rich, soft and delicious.

You don’t have to chill the dough before you bake it. Just put it together, pat it into the pan, and bake it.

I included a buttercream recipe, but you can use any frosting you want. Add flavors or colors if you prefer.

Tips and Tricks

The hardest part of this recipe is spreading the dough in the pan. If it is sticking to your hands, moisten them a bit with water and try again.

Little Dude and I worked together to whip up the dough and made a video for you.  He also shows you his sprinkle application technique, so be sure to check that out!

We like these cookies a bit underbaked, so they sink a bit when they cool.  So sometimes we bake them a couple of minutes shy of the time in the recipe.

If you bake them the full 25 minutes, they should be baked through but maintain that soft texture. It’s really a matter of preference.

More Cookie Bar Recipes

For an extra festive spin, you can make funfetti sugar cookie bars. They are loaded with sprinkles in the cookie itself and in the funfetti buttercream.

For something different, check out the recipe for oatmeal cream pie bars. They taste a lot like Little Debbie’s but homemade in cookie bar form.

Or try making some thick gingerbread cookie bars. Topped with sprinkles, they are a really yummy treat with plenty of spice baked in.