Gingerbread Cookie Bars
These festive gingerbread cookie bars are the perfect wintertime treat! Personally, I don’t love it when the molasses flavor in gingerbread recipes is too overpowering, so these gingerbread bars are made to my liking. The molasses flavor is still there, but you can also taste the other delicious warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and more. Topped with a luscious cream cheese frosting, these soft gingerbread cookie squares might be my best gingerbread recipe yet!
When the holiday season rolls around, I can’t get enough of gingerbread. I love to have it in the morning, whether it’s Gingerbread Waffles served with Gingerbread Syrup or Gingerbread Granola and yogurt. And obviously, I love gingerbread treats like Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies and eggless Gingerbread Cookies. For a real showstopping dessert, my Gingerbread Bundt Cake is always a hit. If you’re a fellow gingerbread fan, I know you’ll love all of these recipes, as well as these gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting!
Why This Recipe Works
- Easy gingerbread cookie recipe. How do you make an easy recipe even easier? Make it in bar form! No need to spend time rolling gingerbread cookie dough into balls, cutting them into shapes, or going through several rounds of baking cookies. These easy gingerbread cookie bars all bake in one pan.
- Best gingerbread cookie bars. The texture and flavor of these bars is seriously insane. Honestly, they’re good on their own, but when topped with the delicious cream cheese frosting? It is next level. You are going to love these!
- Perfect holiday treat. Baked in a 9×13 inch pan, this recipe for gingerbread bars makes a lot, ideal for bringing to holiday gatherings.
Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted butter: The basis of any good cookie, butter adds rich flavor. In line with keeping these cookie bars easy, the butter for this recipe is melted. No need to remember to take it out to soften!
- Sugar: A combination of brown sugar and white sugar helps create the ideal chewy texture in these gingerbread bars.
- Molasses: Molasses is one of the key components to authentic gingerbread flavor, but I don’t like it when it’s the only thing you can taste. This recipe uses just enough so you can taste the molasses, but still taste everything else.
- Spices: All your favorite holiday spices are present in every bite of these chewy gingerbread cookie bars. Cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg make for perfectly spiced gingerbread cookie bars!
- Cream cheese: My gingerbread cookie frosting of choice is cream cheese! Sweet, creamy, and tangy, it’s a wonderful complement to this gingerbread bars recipe
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prep oven and pan. Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a 9×13 baking dish with parchment paper. Leave some parchment paper hanging over the sides of the pan to help with removal of the bars.
- Mix wet ingredients and sugar. In a large bowl, add ¾ cup of melted, unsalted butter, a ½ cup of light brown sugar, a ½ cup of granulated sugar, ⅓ cup of molasses, 1 large egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Whisk the ingredients together until smooth and combined.
- Add dry ingredients. To the wet ingredients, add 2¼ cups of all purpose flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking soda, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, and ¼ teaspoon each of ground allspice, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and salt. Use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon to gently mix everything together until no flour streaks remain in the dough.
- Press and bake. Press cookie dough into an even layer in the prepared pan. Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until the top is set and and toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, but no wet batter. Remove the pan from the oven and let the bars cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
- Cream butter and cream cheese. To a medium bowl, add 6 oz of softened cream cheese and 4 tablespoons of softened butter. Beat together until smooth.
- Add remaining frosting ingredients. Add 2¼ cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Mix until smooth. You may add milk, a tablespoon at a time, to soften the frosting to your desired consistency.
- Frost and decorate bars. Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled gingerbread cookie bars. If you wish, you can add some festive sprinkles to the top. Slice and enjoy!
Recipe Tips
These gingerbread bars would be delicious with 2 cups of white chocolate chips in the batter. Or, jazz up the fluffy cream cheese frosting by browning the butter or adding cinnamon to it. I also think a lemon twist could be tasty—just add some lemon zest and juice to the cream cheese frosting.
To ensure a moist and chewy cookie bar, make sure to not overbake.
Holiday sprinkles are a great way to a festive twist to these bars, but you can also top these bars with chopped crystallized ginger for more ginger flavor, chocolate shavings, dried cranberries, and anything else you think goes with gingerbread.
If you love the shape of traditional gingerbread cookies, you can use cookie cutters to cut the bars into little gingerbread men after they have been baked, instead of cutting them into bars. Eat the scraps for a snack!
Make sure to let the bars cool before frosting, otherwise the frosting will get melty.
If you don’t have molasses, you can substitute honey in a pinch. You can also use dark brown sugar for more molasses flavor (brown sugar is molasses and granulated sugar).
Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing
Make Ahead: You can keep the unfrosted bars at room temperature for 4-5 days. Just frost them before serving. Frosted bars keep well in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also make the dough and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Learn more about freezing cookie dough in my How to Freeze Cookie Dough post.
Storing: Store leftover gingerbread cookie bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezing: You can freeze these bars frosted or unfrosted for up to 2 months. Flash freeze, then wrap individual bars in plastic wrap before storing them in an airtight container. Defrost in the fridge before serving. If you do plan to freeze these, you can add sprinkles, but they will get soft.
Recipe FAQs
Because of the high dairy content in the cream cheese frosting, these bars do need to be refrigerated. If you don’t have a lot of room in your fridge, you can store the unfrosted bars in an airtight container at room temperature and keep the cream cheese frosting separate in the fridge for a week.
I do not recommend using this dough to make gingerbread cookies, since the balance of the ingredients is altered for bar cookies. Instead, try my gingerbread or gingersnap cookies!
Use unsulphured or dark molasses. I like the Grandma’s brand. Do not use blackstrap molasses, as it is extremely bitter.
More Holiday Recipes
- Cinnamon Roll Snowflake
- Peppermint Bark Brownies
- Christmas Crack
- Orange Cranberry Cake
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Gingerbread cookie bars
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter - melted
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar - packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 oz cream cheese - softened to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons butter - softened
- 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- milk - if desired (to soften frosting to desired consistency)
Equipment
Instructions
Make Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13” pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang on the sides for easy removal once baked.
- In a large bowl whisk the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. Add the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Use a rubber spatula or large wooden spoon to mix until no flour streaks remain.
- Press the dough into the prepared pan until its in an even layer. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until the top is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.
Make Cream Cheese Frosting
- Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and mix again until smooth. If the frosting isn't as slack as you want it to be add a tablespoon of milk until it reaches your desired consistency. Spread the frosting overtop of the cooled gingerbread cookie bars. Slice and serve.
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4 Comments on “Gingerbread Cookie Bars”
Amazing!! So soft, and the frosting was incredible.
Happy to hear you loved these, Alex!
How can I make this in a 8×8 inch pan?
Jody, you can try halving the recipe OR make the full amount of dough and freezing half the dough to use later. Hope this helps!