Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

A deliciously sweet traybake of Christmas sugar cookie bars based on the classic cookie, with a sweet frosting and decoration

A simple but sweet traybake that is perfect for the festive season, and can be decorated however you want. It’s delicious, moreish and everyone will adore it. 

Christmas traybakes

I have written endless amounts of recipes for the festive period, hundreds by this point. Amongst those, are endless amounts of traybake ideas from my Christmas tree brownies, to my mince pie crumble bars, and even my caramel gingerbread cookie bars. They are all ends of the spectrum when it comes to traybake. 

I adore giving traybake a festive theme because it levels the up even more than normal because the decoration is by far more fun, usually the flavours are even better, and I just LOVE anything with some Christmas sprinkles on top. 

Sugar cookies 

So I have a sugar cookie recipe on my blog, and it desperately needs an update. It’s a very old recipe with the original formatting, photos and so on… and it’s a little embarrassing. However, it’s a great recipe in itself. 

Sugar cookies are iconic, and a classic recipe for cookies that you want to decorate with royal icing and perfect for the festive period. However, I wanted to level this delicious bake up to create something a little different that is more of an American treat, is sugar cookie bars. 

Cookie dough

So when it comes to a cookie dough like this, I have essentially copied the sugar cookie dough I have already posted. I adore the cookie dough, you all adore the cookie dough, why change it. 

• Butter – unsalted block butter is best for the taste you are after in this bake, not a spread or margarine. 
• Sugar – caster sugar is important because it creates the light and sweet flavour from a basic bake like this
• Vanilla – optional, but again it makes the wonderful flavour of the sugar cookie 
• Egg – this makes the dough richer, and wonderful 
• Flour – plain flour is vitally important, and necessary for this recipe. You don’t want any raising agent. 

Frosting 

The frosting is a simple American buttercream frosting because I want this bake to purposely be simple. Also, I find this sort of frosting will set hard once it dries, and that’s helpful for a bar like this. 

• Butter – unsalted butter is important to make a frosting as it creates the thick spread you need, and will help it set
• Icing sugar – just basic icing sugar as always! P.S. I never sieve it
• Vanilla – a little bit of vanilla for the delicious taste 
• Salt – a pinch of salt may sound odd to some, but trust the process
• Colour – you can colour the frosting whatever colour you want – it’s up to you! 

Tips & Tricks 

• These bars will last 4-5 days at room temperature 
• These will freeze for 3+| months
• You can flavour the sugar cookie bars with any flavouring you prefer – lemon is delicious
• You can flavour the frosting as well really easily 
• I use this traybake tin for this recipe 
• I used this pink food colouring

Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

A deliciously sweet traybake of Christmas sugar cookie bars based on the classic cookie, with a sweet frosting and decoration

Print Pin Rate

Category: Traybakes

Type: Christmas

Keyword: Cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 22 minutes minutes

Cooling & Decorating: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 42 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 pieces

Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Sugar cookie bars

• 250 g unsalted butter
• 200 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 medium egg
• 425 g plain flour

Decoration

• 150 g unsalted butter
• 300 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of sea salt
• food colouring
• sprinkles

Grams - Ounces

Instructions

Sugar cookie bars

• Preheat the oven to 190ºc/170ºc fan and line a 9x9” tin with parchment paper
• Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy 
• Add the vanilla and egg and mix again
• Add the flour and beat to a dough
• Press into the base of the tin firmly
• Bake for 20-22 minutes and then leave to cool fully
• In a new bowl, beat the butter on it’s own until smooth
• Add the icing sugar and beat again
• Add the vanilla, salt and colouring
• Spread and fluff over the bars and decorate with the sprinkles 

Notes

• These bars will last 4-5 days at room temperature 
• These will freeze for 3+| months
• You can flavour the sugar cookie bars with any flavouring you prefer - lemon is delicious
• You can flavour the frosting as well really easily 
• I use this traybake tin for this recipe 
• I used this pink food colouring

ENJOY!

Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!

You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube

J x

© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.