---
title: "Gingerbread Cookie Bars - Sally's Baking Addiction"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/c723d7a4-a0ed-41c3-bfae-bcc7a74b55e1
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summary: "Gingerbread cookie bars are soft and chewy desserts made without dough chilling or rolling, perfect for serving a crowd with optional spiced cream cheese frosting. The recipe uses melted butter, molasses, warm spices, and can be customized with white chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels."
tags: "gingerbread, cookie-bars, baking-recipe, dessert, molasses, holiday-baking, frosting"
key_entities: "Sally (person), Christi (person), Rebecca (person), New York Times (organization), molasses-spice-flavor (concept), cream-cheese-frosting (concept)"
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# Gingerbread Cookie Bars - Sally's Baking Addiction

These soft and chewy gingerbread cookie bars are so easy to make—no dough chilling, no dough rolling, no cookie cutters required! They’re delicious plain, or topped with spiced cream cheese frosting. Skip the fuss and make gingerbread bars instead! This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy . This recipe is such a fan favorite, that it deserved a spot in print! You’ll also find it in my New York Times best-selling cookbook, Sally’s Baking 101 . One reader, Christi, commented: “ These gingerbread cookie bars are so good, I found myself returning to ‘taste test’ them again and again—and that was before adding the spiced cream cheese frosting! The flavor and texture are irresistible! ★★★★★ ” One reader, Rebecca, commented: “ My husband and I made these yesterday, and they are so good! They taste just like a delicious cookie! Soft, slightly chewy, with creamy warm icing… I can see myself making these whenever I need a little Christmas in my day throughout the year. So easy and comforting. ★★★★★ “ When you need a big batch of cookies but are pressed for time, cookie bars are the way to go. This dessert recipe makes a generously sized 9×13-inch pan of soft, chewy gingerbread cookie bars, perfect for sharing, especially at the holidays. If you love the holiday-favorite flavors of warm spice and molasses, like you enjoy in gingerbread cookies and crisp molasses cookies , you’ll find those same cozy flavors here; but the texture is oh-so soft and chewy—like a gingerbread version of a brownie! Why You’ll Love These Gingerbread Cookie Bars Cookie bars are super soft and chewy, not cakey Packed with that nostalgic molasses and spice flavor associated with the holidays Makes a large pan to serve a crowd No dough chilling, no dough rolling—no fuss! Quicker and easier to make than many cookie recipes Can add white chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels for texture variety Top with a layer of cinnamon-spiced cream cheese frosting Unlike these soft molasses cookies , gingerbread latte cookies , or traditional gingerbread cookies , there’s no dough chilling like these gingerbread blossoms , no rolling dough into individual balls or rolling out dough to cut into shapes (and then re-rolling), and no baking in batches. The only waiting you’ll have to suffer through is for the pan to cool for 1 hour before you cut them into bars. (I’m sorry!) Simple Ingredients Like with these favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies , using melted butter makes for the softest, chewiest bar cookies. I usually like to use melted butter in bar recipes like homemade brownies and blondies because the bars taste chewy, not cakey. I tested this recipe with creamed softened butter, and the baked result ended up looking more like a puffy sheet cake. Here’s everything else you need for these gingerbread cookie bars: Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of this recipe. Baking Soda: Baking soda helps these bars rise as they bake, and we use a good amount of it to stand up to the heavy melted butter and molasses. A Generous Amount of Spices: Ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg; plus, a pinch of black pepper—the same secret ingredient I always add to pumpkin pie ! Salt: Salt adds flavor and balances the sweetness. Sugar: Use a mix of brown sugar and white granulated sugar. Molasses: Use unsulphured; blackstrap is too bitter for these. Egg: An egg binds everything together. Vanilla Extract: For flavor. White Chocolate Chips (Optional): If you love white chocolate chip molasses cookies , feel free to add some white chocolate chips to these bars, too. Fold them in as the last step in making the dough, just like we do with chocolate chip cookie bars . Have I Mentioned No Dough Chilling? Just melt, mix, press, and bake! The dough will be slick from the melted butter, but should be easy enough to spread/press into the pan. Pat it down as best you can. It may seem like it isn’t enough dough, and the layer will be thin. But the bars rise as they bake. Success Tip: Line the pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Once the bars are cooled and frosted, simply lift the whole thing out using the parchment overhang. Set it onto a cutting board and slice. Easy! Bake just until the top is set, and avoid over-baking. Cool the bars for at least 1 hour inside the pan before frosting and/or slicing. Top With Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting These gingerbread cookie bars are fabulous on their own, but then again, a little frosting is always a good idea. My favorite cream cheese frosting is far from basic; it’s incredibly creamy, silky smooth, and has that subtle tang to it. We’re scaling it down, and also kicking the flavor up a notch by adding pinches of some of the spices used in the cookie bars. The result is similar to the spiced cream cheese frosting on these pumpkin bars . And, of course, some sprinkles are the perfect festive accessory on top. I used gingerbread cookie-shaped sprinkles, something like these , and some Christmas-colored nonpareils. Here’s a 4-pack of Christmas sprinkles , and I really love these snowflake sprinkles , too. Lots of options! If you’re not planning to frost these gingerbread cookie bars, I recommend sprinkling the top with coarse sugar or festive colored sugar sprinkles before baking. Because a little sparkle is always welcome at the holidays! You could even top with a sprinkling of chopped crystallized ginger, like we do for these chocolate ginger sparkle cookies . This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page. 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