It’s raining sprinkles!! Meaning, I made a giant sprinkle mess in my kitchen while decorating these. I couldn’t get enough! Moving on. I want you all to know that I went wild and bought three jumbo sized jars of sprinkles with this recipe in mind. I also want you to know, that was completely unnecessary, and now I have two big old things of sprinkles left that will sit on my counter for who knows how long because they are literally so big they won’t fit in my cabinet. Lesson learned, and totally worth the outcome for extra sprinkly, soft, buttery, cookie bars.
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Speaking of rain, one of the things I enjoy most about rainy days is making sugar cookies with my kiddos. We can keep busy for quite some time rolling out that dough, cutting shapes, and decorating. Which, if you have kids, you know that the most important thing about rainy days stuck in the house is keeping them busy before they start climbing the walls and giving you near heart attacks. Thank you sugar cookies for being my saving grace.
These cookie bars are equally amazing, because they don’t take all the work of chilling dough, rolling out, and all that jazz. You can have this dough together super quick, spread them right into the pan, and in a short amount of time later, have enough cookie bars to feed a whole lot of sprinkle loving people.
The worst part is waiting for them to cool so you can frost them and get one into your mouth. If you happen to have a spot in your fridge, which I usually don’t, but did today…..you can absolutely lift them right out of the pan by your foil handles, place them right onto a cutting board, and into the fridge for 30 minutes or so then they’ll be ready. Isn’t life grand?
You can use pretty much any shape or size of sprinkle that suits your fancy for this recipe. I just don’t recommend using nonpariels–those are the little round guys. Save those for sprinkling at the end. They sometimes bleed color and could make your batter look a little funky.
A note on your almond frosting–if you don’t do almond, go ahead with vanilla, it’s just as delish. I think the amount of frosting called for in the recipe is perfect. But, if you like a heaping ton of frosting, go ahead and make 1 1/2 the recipe, or double it and refrigerate the rest for another delicious baked good that you whip up.
Enjoy!
Printable recipe for you below!
Funfetti Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tsp baking powder
- 1/2 Tsp salt
- 1 Cup butter softened to room temperature
- 1 3/4 Cup granulated sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 Cup rainbow sprinkles
- FROSTING:
- 2 Sticks butter softened to room temperature
- 2 Cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp heavy cream can use half & half or milk
- 1/4 Tsp almond or vanilla extract
- 1/8 Tsp of salt tiny pinch
- Food coloring of choice
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13 inch pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper leaving an overhang on both sides for easy removal.
- Spray foil with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl use a hand mixer, or stand mixer with paddle attachment and beat butter together with sugar and vanilla on medium speed until fluffy (2-3 minutes) then, beat in the eggs.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- With your mixer running slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until completely combined.
- When dough is combined, turn of mixer and fold 1/2 cup of sprinkles into batter.
- Spread and press dough evenly into pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, just until very very lightly golden and edges are set. Careful not to over bake.
- Allow bars to cool completely before frosting and slicing.
- For the frosting:
- In a medium bowl using your hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter for 1-2 minutes until smooth and creamy.
- With mixer on low, add powdered sugar, cream or milk, vanilla and salt.
- Turn mixer to high and continue to beat for 2-3 more minutes.
- Beat in food coloring if using.
Hi Nicole! Wondering if I can use your cake mix cookie bar recipe to do a quick version of these? And just sub sprinkles for the chocolate chips? Thanks so much!