Harvest Sugar Cookie Bars

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These Harvest Sugar Cookie Bars fits right in with the Fall Season of baking!  Whether it be Thanksgiving, Halloween or Harvest!  We baked up soft, chewy sugar cookies and transformed them into cookie bar form.

Then we iced them with a tempting orange cream cheese frosting with lots of fall festive candy sprinkles!

Now all we need is a hayride, a bonfire and a party to take them too!  Along with these 3 Fa’BOO’lous Halloween Jello Shots, these Double Chocolate Orange Cookies, these Orange Butter’Scream’ Oreo Brownies and this gorgeous Orange Creamsicle Cake!

And of course, it would be remiss not to mention that these cookie bars are pretty much awesome for any afternoon treat!

Helpful Cookie Bar Tips

• The bars are totally delicious, easy to prepare!  2 great tips for you!  Do not overmix the cookie dough and do not over-bake your cookie bars, so check them at 20 minutes and go from there.
• When testing for doneness, you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick.
• The creamy frosting is a cream cheese frosting, tinted a pretty orange color and definitely fall inspiring.  I’ve added in the recipe notes, what to do if you want to flavor it with orange, but you should still add the food coloring.
• I love using Americolor Gel Paste when I color my frostings. It has coloring strength superior to any other food color I’ve used.
• By mixing and measuring using “drops” of  gel paste, you can achieve precise, easy-to-repeat colors every time.  Also, a little paste goes a long way.
• So my recommendation to you is, add a little gel into your frosting, mix and add more as needed to get the color you are going for.

For a super easy shortcut, you can cheat and use ready-made frosting in a pinch and add food gel to it.

But these are really amazing with home-made cream cheese frosting if you ask me.  Besides vanilla extract, you could add in different flavor extracts, like lemon, orange or maple for a twist as well.

The kids will love these and these would also be fun for them to help decorate with the sprinkling of the sprinkles, right?

If you’re on the fence of trying to figure out something to make on a whim or just didn’t have time to plan, these must be calling your name!  They are easy to make, you probably have all the staple ingredients and they taste delicious!

Other Cookie Bars? 

• Sheet Pan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Sheet Pan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Brookie Bars
• Home-made Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars!
• Patriotic M&M Party Cookie Bars
• Super Easy Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Bars (Sugar-free)
• Sheet Pan Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Hocus Pocus Brownie Bites

Harvest Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars

Kim Lange

These Harvest Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars are basically soft, chewy sugar cookies transformed into cookie bar form and decorated with a orange, creamy frosting and lots of fall festive, fun sprinkles. 

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 Servings

Calories

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Harvest Sugar Cookie Bars

• ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
• ⅔ cup white sugar
• 1 egg room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 4 ounces cream cheese softened
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 –3 tablespoons of milk
• Optional: orange gel sprinkles

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Harvest Sugar Cookie Bars

• Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until just combined. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat well.
• Add the salt and flour, and continue beating for about 1 minute.
• Transfer the cookie dough to prepared pan, spreading all the way to the edges and smoothing out the top. Bake the bars for 20 to 30 minutes. You’ll want to take them out when the edges are golden brown, but the center of the bar is still gooey.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Once cookies are cooled, in a medium sized bowl, using a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together well. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla extract and salt and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting in an even layer over the cooled bars. Sprinkle with your favorite sprinkles, cut into 16 squares and enjoy!

Notes

Notes:

For a shortcut, You can use a tub of frosting to frost the bars for a shortcut, instead of making the frosting.  Add food color gel to make it the color you desire.

If you want orange flavor add the following:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest (from 1 small orange)
• 2 teaspoons fresh orange juice

Keyword bars, cookie bars, cookies, cream cheese frosting, fall desserts, sugar cookies

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