Gingerbread Cookie Bars. A cross between a cookie and a brownie, these bars are soft, chewy, dense, yet so light and full of cozy gingerbread spices. Perfect served warm with vanilla ice cream or served room temperature or chilled with an easy fluffy cream cheese frosting!
If you’re looking for more holiday treats, be sure to check out all our easy holiday dessert recipes. You also love our chewy ginger cookies.
I’m not gonna lie to you guys.
I’ve never really been a big fan of gingerbread.
I’ll skip the gingerbread and take allll the peanut butter cup cookies, easy chocolate fudge, puppy chow . . . you get the idea. 😉
H.O.W.E.V.E.R.
I’m not gonna lie to you guys.
I’m kinda really diggin’ these gingerbread cookie bars.
They’re sweet, but not overwhelming sweet (hellooo too much Christmas candy over here), cozy spices, and can we talk about the texture of these bars?!
They’re super light, yet chewy, dense, and moist, and they have a little crackle on top. I’d say they’re a mix between a cookie and a brownie . . .
aka
heaven.
The best part? These are great plain. Served warm with vanilla ice cream.
OR
These are great cold or at room temperature. Served with a generous spread of cream cheese frosting.
The choice is yours.
You ready?!
Ingredients in gingerbread cookie bars:
- Melted butter
- Molasses
- Vanilla extract
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Flour
- Spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt
- Baking soda
How to make chewy gingerbread cookie bars:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer, beat together butter, molasses, vanilla, brown sugar, and eggs in a large bowl.
- Add in flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda.
- Again, beat together until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes.
- Cool.
How to make an easy cream cheese frosting:
- Using a hand mixer, beat together softened cream cheese and softened butter until well combined.
- Beat in heavy cream and vanilla extract.
- Beat in powdered sugar.
- Spread over cooled bars.
Now.
Like I said before, you don’t HAVE to serve these with cream cheese frosting.
I personally LOVE these bars without the cream cheese frosting, served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
If you go this route, you can store these bars, covered, at room temperature.
If you DO serve these with cream cheese, make sure the bars have cooled completely before frosting.
You’ll then need to store these bars, covered, in the fridge. I like these served cold OR you can bring them to room temperature before serving.
Either way, these bars are absolutely de-LISH . . .
Perfectly spiced, so soft and chewy, maybe a little rich and tangy cream cheese frosting or vanilla ice cream . . .
Holiday baking at it’s finest, my friends!
– Jennifer
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Equipment for this recipe
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted
- ¼ cup molasses
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Vanilla ice cream optional
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer, beat together butter, molasses, vanilla, brown sugar, and eggs in a large bowl.
- Add in flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
- Again, beat together until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Then, cover pan with tin foil (that’s been sprayed with cooking spray to prevent sticking), and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, remove the tin foil, and cool.
- If serving without cream cheese frosting, serve these warm with vanilla ice cream.
- Cover leftovers and store at room temperature.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter, using your hand mixer for about 2 minutes.
- Beat in heavy cream and vanilla extract.
- Beat in powdered sugar until all ingredients are well combined.
- Spread over completely cooled bars.
- Cover and store in the fridge.
- Serve chilled or bring to room temperature before serving.
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Notes
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Nutrition Information
*Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.
Teresa
Jennifer @ Show Me the Yummy