Celebration cookie bars

These sugar cookie bars are perfect no matter the celebration, full of vanilla flavor and rainbow sprinkles and topped with a delicious and easy chocolate glaze.

The cookie bars themselves have a chewy and soft vanilla sugar cookie base with lots of rainbow sprinkles mixed in. They're made with basic ingredients, and use a combination of sugars to get their amazing soft texture. The sugars will melt into your butter before continuing to add your ingredients, including an extra yolk to add to the chewy texture. Once your sprinkles are mixed in you'll put your dough into your lined pan and chill in the fridge for about an hour prior to baking to make sure your ingredients have time to truly come together.

The chocolate glazed topping is inspired by the frosting you'd find on a classic chocolate frosted donut. You can use whatever cocoa powder you have on hand, and it comes together in just a couple of minutes making it the perfect, easy topping to add to the celebration.

You could absolutely leave these cookie bars without a glaze topping (though I love the added chocolate) or you could choose to swap in a vanilla glaze. To make a vanilla instead, leave out the cocoa powder, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and then follow the instructions just the same to add in your liquid, either water or milk - the difference in carbs would be only about 1 less carb per serving, so you can follow the same details at the bottom of this recipe for those who need!

These bars require no special equipment and though they take some time to chill and set, they're simple and easy to make. You can use any square pan you have on hand, though I don't recommend using glass.

For your sprinkles, my favorite are the rainbow sprinkles from Betty Crocker. In the final round of this recipe, I actually used a mixture of those and a different colored mixture of sprinkles from Whole Foods. I loved the variety in color so I plan to do this more in the future when making rainbow desserts!

Last note on this recipe - the reason they're called "celebration", aside from the sprinkles, is because I made this recipe in honor of reaching 50k followers on Instagram! I'm so excited to continue growing our typefoodie community, and to keep creating recipes like this.

Ingredients:

Cookie bar base

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted 170g

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 144g

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar 30g

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar 24g

• 1 large egg + an extra yolk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour 210g

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles

Chocolate glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 120g

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder 27g

• 2-3 tablespoons water (or milk)

Total time: About 3 hours including chill time

Prep time: About 20 minutes

Bake time: 21-24 minutes

Chill time: 2 hours

Servings: 16

Equipment:

• 9x9 square pan (or 8x8 and increase the bake time)

• Parchment paper

• Spatula & whisk

Cooking instructions:

Make your cookie bars. In a large bowl, melt your butter.

Add in all three sugars and whisk together for about a minute or two until your mixture is smooth and combined.

Add in your vanilla and one egg. Continue to whisk until your mixture thickens. Add in your extra yolk and continue to whisk until fully combined, about a minute.

Next, fold in your dry ingredients using a spatula or large spoon - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and your rainbow sprinkles. Be careful not to over mix here.

Once your dough is formed and your sprinkles are evenly dispersed, line a 9x9in square pan (or you can use an 8x8 pan and increase the cook time a bit) with parchment paper. I recommend ensuring all sides of the pan are lined, or you can lightly grease. Dollop your dough in and use a flat tool or even a spoon to spread flat and into the edges. Place your cookie bar dough into the fridge to chill for an hour.

When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake your cookie bar for 21-24 minutes. The top should be just lightly golden, and the cookie bars should just lightly jiggle when you shake the pan. Let your cookie bar cool for at least an hour.

Make your glaze. Once your cookie bar base is cool to the touch, it's time to make your glaze.

In a small bowl, combine your powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Then add in two tablespoons of water or milk and use a spoon to stir. Slowly drizzle in the additional tablespoon of liquid continuing to stir, and stop adding once your glaze is thick but pourable. Note that the glaze will thicken if left for too long, so be sure to keep moving to the next step once your glaze is made. If you need you can always add another teaspoon of liquid to loosen it.

Pour your chocolate glaze over your cookie bar and use a flat tool or a spoon to spread across your cookie bar base evenly. Allow the glaze to set for about an hour, or you can place into the fridge to help speed this up.

Finish, serve and store your cookie bars. Once your glaze has set, use a sharp knife to slice into 16 square cookie bars and enjoy!

You can eat and serve your cookie bars right away, or store the slices in the fridge in an airtight container for a few days. These will taste best when fresh baked the same day, but you can always refresh them in the microwave.

If you bake and cool your cookie bars and would like to make and add your glaze the following day, I recommend storing the unsliced cookie bars in the freezer. You can also freeze your glazed and sliced cookie bars by wrapping them in plastic wrap and storing in an airtight container in the freezer, then you can defrost them in the fridge or at room temperature to enjoy any time.

Carb and serving info:

Servings: 16

Carbs per serving: 34

Carbs for full recipe: 548

Carbs in cookie bar base (no glaze): 416

Carbs in glaze: 132

Carbs from sprinkles: 48

Note: Carb information is calculated based on the specific ingredients I used to cook with to help guide my own insulin to carb ratio when dosing before I eat my home cooked recipes.