It’s December and time to start thinking about holiday baking. I got an early start as our family did a cookie dough exchange for Thanksgiving. Cookies were mixed and rolled into balls, frozen, and labeled with baking instructions. Everyone will have a nice cookie assortment with limited effort.
Another way to take the stress out of making cookies, instead of making individual cookies, is to make then as bars in one pan. These recipes are a great timesaving option.
These M&M cookie bars are filled with green and red holiday candy and topped with a buttercream frosting.
Frosted Christmas M&M Cookie Bars
10 ounces holiday M&M’s candies
holiday candies to garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 inch pan with parchment paper. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and whisk to combine. Set aside. In a mixer bowl, combine the butter, oil, sugar and light brown sugar. Mix together until well combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the M&M candies by hand. Spread dough evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the bars to cool for 30 minutes before frosting.
Butter cream frosting: Put butter in mixing bowl and mix to cream. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Add the cream and vanilla extract and mix until light and fluffy. Frost evenly over bars. Decorate with M&M candies and red and green sprinkles. Cut into squares or triangles. Store in airtight container. Makes 24 bars.
Snickerdoodle bars are as easy to make and you probably already have the ingredients needed. You do not use cream of tarter for this recipe. The bars are like cookies, only thicker. You can double the recipe and bake in a 9X13 pan. You can choose to use half the cinnamon topping if desired.
½ cup butter (1 stick), melted
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8X8 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Line with parchment paper ad set aside.
Cookie Bar Dough: Melt the butter and set aside. In another bowl, add the egg, white and brown sugar and mix. Pour in the butter and mix well. Add the flour, salt and vanilla and mix well. Press into casserole dish.
Topping: In a small dish add the sugar and ground cinnamon and mix. Sprinkle over the top of dough. Bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
This fast and easy bar recipe is not difficult to make as it only has 5 ingredients. The soft and chewy cookies are delicious and have festive sprinkles in the cookie dough. You can change the sprinkles and make for other seasons. The sugar cookie base is topped with a delicious creamy, fluffy frosting.
Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars
1/4 cup festive sprinkles
For the frosting: 2 cups powdered sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9X9 baking pan with parchment paper. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy, then beat in egg and vanilla. Finally beat in flour and baking powder, a little at time, until you have thick batter. Gently stir in sprinkles. Spread batter into prepared baking pan. Dough is thick so it will take a while. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Once finished baking, take cookie bar out of oven and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, carefully lift the sides of the parchment paper and pull whole cookie bar out of the baking pan.
To make the frosting: Blend together powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, vanilla and milk with electric mixer. Spread generously on top and sprinkle with additional sprinkles. Cut into 9 squares.
– Bev Barrett is a retired family and consumer science teacher who lives in Litchfield and operates the 4B’z Event Center in Litchfield. Her Baking with Bev column appears in the Independent Review every other week.
