I love cookies of all kinds but I have a soft spot for snickerdoodles cookies.
However, it’s faster to make bars than it is to make cookies.
As I always say with bars, they are wham-bam-slap-it-in-a-pan whereas cookies require individual loving and more one-on-one attention.
And the frosting on top makes me extra happy.
I do like sugar cookies but I like snickerdoodle cookies more so I tweaked the ingredients and reduced the yield to an 8 x 8 pan because I didn’t “need” a 13 x 18 pan of bars.
I knew this post was going to be revealed on the day before Valentine’s Day, so I made pink vanilla cream cheese frosting, sprinkled the bars with red sanding sugar, and added red, white, and pink candy bits.
I hope Cupid approves.
These bars are like snickerdoodle cookies, but in bar form.
The cinnamon and sugar and the vanilla undertones tickled my snickerdoodle fancy.
The texture is soft and chewy, like a deep dish cookie.
The frosting is vanilla-infused, and has a little bit of a tang from the cream cheese, balancing the sweetness.
And everything tastes better when it’s pink and has candy bits and sprinkles on top.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Pink Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Pink Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 to 4 ½ + cups powdered sugar
- splash of milk or water, if needed
- pink food coloring, optional
Instructions
- Bars – Preheat oven to 375F and prepare a 8×8 or 9×9-inch pan by lining it with foil and then spraying it with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. The batter will be very thick and sticky, like cookie dough. Use your hands if necessary to spread it evenly. Bake at 375F for 19 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean. While the bars are baking, prepare the frosting.
- Pink Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting – In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and cream cheese until combined and it begins to fluff. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar (one-half cup at a time after 3 cups) and mix until desired frosting consistency is reached. I like very thick frosting and used 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar with a splash of half and half. Carefully add the food coloring, one drop at a time, until desired color is reached. After the bars have cooled, frost them. Optionally, garnish with sprinkles, candy bits, sanding sugar, or any optional garnish of your choice. Consider storing the bars in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese and butter in the frosting; the bars freeze well and will keep in the freezer for up to three months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
If you prefer Snickerdoodle cookies in cookie form, try these White Chocolate Snickerdoodles that are dead ringers for the Mrs. Field’s Snickerdoodles I used to eat in the food court at the mall in high school.
And if you haven’t already completed your Valentine’s Day baking (or springtime, baby-shower, bridal shower, Easter, or girlie birthday party baking needs), there’s:
Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookies with PB Cups & PB M&M’s
Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies (No-Bake, Vegan, GF)
Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
And here’s a Valentine’s Day Roundup post with Food, Kitchen items, and shoes
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I am eating one of these as I’m writing this and oh my goodness, it’s criminally good! So sweet, I may even reduce the sugar in the frosting next time, but just what I wanted on this icy December morning. Thanks so much for the recipe! Perfect!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad these hit the spot on an icy December morning!
I am eating one of these as I’m writing this and oh my goodness, it’s criminally good! So sweet, I may even reduce the sugar in the frosting next time, but just what I wanted on this icy December morning. Thanks so much for the recipe! Perfect!
next time I will add either making powder or baking soda as the recipe did not call for either….. Which would you recommend? I bake at 9000′!
I could only recommend baking the bars just as written in the recipe since that’s the way I did it and cannot speak to what to add or alter. You’d have to play around with things on your own if you want to change the recipe. Good luck!
Just wanted to clarify that there’s no raising agent in these, right? Or did I just miss them in the recipe?
No rising agent (i.e. baking power or baking soda), correct. They would make the bars cakey and I don’t like cakey bars so it’s not included.
Thank you for the nice recipes.
I made these last night! I’ve been sick for a while and eating has been a chore. I figured cooking/baking might help bring back my hunger so I made these, and the chocolate ganache cake. They look amazing in the picture and mine look similar but I have a problem with not reading directions well. I read the ingredients and then my mind goes blank and throw everything together and mix away. They fell flat and very gooey in the middle… oops! that’s my fault. And I guess I need more cream cheese in my frosting. But besides almost putting all my roommates into a sugar coma they were tasty lol. I had chocolate cake mix so I cheated and just used that for the cake. I had a lot so I made a two layer cake in pie dishes(i didn’t know there was a difference between pie and cake!) so they had weird shapes. And I stacked them on top of each other and made a strange butter frosting for the middle cus I had no more chocolate and the ganache for the top. The ganache is tasty but it looks like a mud pie mountain and nothing like yours lol. I’m just learning to cook/bake so I need way more practice but I had fun attempting your pretty recipes!
Yes the most important thing you can do with cooking if you’re trying to follow a recipe is actually read it :) I get so many comments from people who don’t fully read them all the way through but hey, at least it worked out somewhat for you with the bars.
As for the cake…ganache frosting isn’t really a ‘layer cake’ frosting b/c it’s runnier and thin, compared to buttercream or cream cheese frosting. I’m sure it tasted good but I bet it was messy. And yes, there’s a big difference between pie plates and cake plates.
Thanks for LMK you tried a couple recipes and hey, you gotta start somewhere :)
it was messy! i actually named it ‘chocolate blob mountain’… very tasty though! i ate the whole thing by myself