Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars

Hi everyone today I'm posting a recipe for these yummy Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter,I know I did. The kiddos had a great time hunting eggs and having their traditional Easter Scavenger Hunt. We had a cookout with friends, so our day was filled with great food, good friends and lot's of fun. I even brought a new recipe home that I cant wait to share with all of you but, that will have to wait for another day. 

I don't know about you but my favorite cookie is Sugar Cookies. I have to admit though I don't always have the time to make them. All that fuss of cutting out all the shapes and getting them frosted and decorated it can get very time consuming. Well Easter Sunday was no different, time was the one thing I really didn't have a lot of. I had 4 other dishes to get prepared to take over to a friends house.

But the kids still wanted Frosted Sugar Cookies. Well I'm not one to disappoint! So instead of making cookies we simplified the whole project and made sugar cookie bars instead. I have to say this really is so much easier than traditional frosted sugar cookies.This sugar cookie recipe is also a bit different, because cream cheese is added to the cookie dough as well as in the frosting.

 So double the cream cheesy goodness. I was really surprised on how fast this recipe came together. I prepared and baked the bars the night before Easter. Then on Easter day I just had to prepare the frosting and decorate the bars. Just like that we had sugar cookies in a snap. I also frosted the sugar cookie bars in two festive Easter colors. If you love sugar cookies you need to try this recipes. I'm also sharing a few photos from our Easter fun. I hope you enjoy the recipe. 

Here are a few photos from the Kiddos doing their Easter Scavenger Hunt.

They were so excited to find Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakual as their Scavenger Hunt Prize.

Hunting Easter eggs

Mackenzie enjoying her Easter day eats

Festive Sugar Cookie Bars. When I was done frosting the sugar cookie bars. I used a chop stick and made lines in the frosting to score the bars for easy cutting.

Frosted Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - cups sugar
1 - cup butter, softened
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 - egg
1/2 - teaspoon almond extract
1 - teaspoon vanilla
1/2 - teaspoon baking soda
1 - teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 - cups all purpose flour

Frosting:
1/2 - cup butter softened
4 oz - cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 - cups powdered sugar
3-5 - tablespoons milk
1 - teaspoon vanilla
food coloring or icing paste

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until nice and frothy. About 4 minutes. 

Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. 

Mix them around so that all ingredients are well incorporated. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes.

Press the dough into a large jelly roll (baking sheet with a rim) pan (12 x 16) that has been sprayed with non stick spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Let the pan cool completely. To make the frosting, in a medium sized bowl (or your stand mixer) combine the butter and cream cheese. 

Beat for about 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Frost your pan of cookies. Cut the cookies into bars and serve!

As a fun decorative option, you could pipe a bit of white frosting onto the bars. Just take about 1/4 of the frosting out of the mixer before you add the food coloring. 

Put the white frosting into to sandwich sized zip loc bag. Carefully snip the tip and pipe some fun decorations onto the bars.

If you don't have time for all that you can just use festive sprinkles. 

Store frosted bars in the refrigerator.

adapted from: Jamie Cooks It Up

Cook's Note: If you don't want to use almond extract you can substitute with all vanilla extract.