Homemade Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars

Unsalted Butter: You’ll use unsalted butter in this recipe. If you need to use salted butter, leave the salt out in the recipe! Using room temperature butter is so important, so make sure to leave your butter out 1-2 hours before baking.
Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar provides sweetness, flavor, moisture, and structure!
Light Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar needs to be packed into your measuring cup. This means you should use your hand or the back of a spoon to push the sugar down when measuring. As always, you can just weigh your ingredients to ensure accuracy!
Eggs: Use room temperature eggs by leaving them out 1-2 hours ahead of time or placing them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before baking.
Vanilla Extract + Butter/ Almond Extract: Though there is a small amount of vanilla, it is powerful!
Flour: All purpose flour needs to be spooned and leveled into your measuring cups to ensure the bars stay soft and chewy. Packing your flour into your measuring cups will lead to over-measuring, creating dry, dense bars.
Salt: Salt brings out sweetness and rounds out the flavor in these bars. DO NOT skip it.
Baking Soda: Baking soda helps these bars rise a bit. They help with the chewy texture too! Do not substitute baking powder for baking soda.
Cinnamon + Sugar: The cinnamon sugar mixture is the perfect topping for these snickerdoodle bars! Simply mix the two together before pouring the mixture on top of the dough.

diagonal line of homemade cookie bars surrounded by cinnamon sugar

Step by Step Process

*Please see recipe below for more detailed instructions

Preheat your oven and line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper.
Cream butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract to the batter.
Slowly beat flour, baking soda, corn starch, and salt into the batter, mixing carefully.
Transfer dough to prepared pan.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the dough and press it into the top.
Bake bars until golden brown around the edges.
Cool before slicing and eating.

horizontal line of snickerdoodle bars surrounded by cinnamon sugar

FAQ

What are snickerdoodles?

Snickerdoodles are a variation of a sugar cookie, though they are traditionally coated in cinnamon sugar rather than just sugar. These treats are a twist on the classic cookie, as they are baked in bar form.

Can I bake these into cookies?

I definitely do not recommend baking these into cookies! Though the taste of them would likely be lovely, the ratio of ingredients, specifically of the leavening agents, will not yield proper cookies.

How long do I bake cookie bars?

Cookie bars should bake for about 30-40 minutes in a glass pan. All ovens and pans cook differently, so make sure to keep an eye of the bars without opening the oven more than once or twice. The edges of the bars should look golden brown in color, and the cookie parts breaking through the cinnamon sugar should look light golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with crumbs on it.

Expert Tips

Room Temperature Butter: If you forget, slice your butter into tablespoon-sized pieces, and microwave them square-side down for 10 seconds. Flip the slices over and microwave for another 10 seconds. Repeat this process in 5 second intervals until butter is cool and soft to the touch. It should not be melted or gooey whatsoever.

Slicing: Though it may be difficult to be patient, waiting to slice these bars until they have fully cooled will guarantee that they cook and cool properly. The bars continue to cook as they cool, becoming . You will end up with messy, gooey bars as opposed to soft, chewy bars if you slice and serve before cooling.

Storing: Store these bars at room temperature for up to 4 days. Make sure to keep them fully covered or store them in an airtight container to preserve texture. They will lose some softness the longer they sit after they are baked. You can freeze these bars. I recommend individually wrapping them with a piece of cling wrap before sticking them in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Leave out at room temperature before serving or heat in the microwave to serve warm!

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