Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

It's been over 3 years since I last posted here, and a lot has happened. First, I no longer live in Chicago. The relationship I was in ended abruptly, leading me away from Illinois and back to Florida. Secondly, I was studying for my Master's in Special Education. I graduated with my Master's almost a year ago. So, quickly after I got it, I was thrown into teaching and loved every minute of it. I loved the kids and the teachers I worked with. But, coming with all that excitement, also came a lot of stress and exhaustion. To the point where even thinking about picking up a whisk exhausted me. Because of that, I threw myself into reading, something low-stakes and required me to rot on the couch. Third, life has thrown so much at me in the last two years that I just needed to show up for myself in ways that allowed me to function day-to-day. Unfortunately, baking didn't fall into that. 

Today, I'm not sure what came over me. I was sitting and doomscrolling on my phone when I started craving sugar cookies. I didn't want prepackaged sugar cookies, oh no. I wanted MY sugar cookies, the recipe I made from scratch years ago. So, that's what I did for myself today. I ordered the ingredients I needed (and some things that I wanted), and I made the most delicious sugar cookie bars with store-bought frosting. I am not at all embarrassed to say that store-bought frosting is delicious and easy, and made baking today more fun than I thought it would be. It was just me, Christmas music, my kitchen, and sugar cookies. They look so festive and taste like Christmas, so I thought I'd share my recipe with you all, just like I used to 3 years ago. 

Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

Ingredients: 

1. 
   1 cup salted butter (2 sticks)
2. 2 cups of white sugar
3. 2 room temperature eggs
4. 2 teaspoons of vanilla (honestly, I used more & measure with my heart. Do you.)
   
5. 2 teaspoons of baking powder
6. 4 cups of flour
7. 1 container of vanilla frosting
8. Sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper (A trick I use to get it to stay in the pan is crumbling it up first and then placing it in the pan). 
2.  In a large bowl, combine the sugar and butter until creamy. Once fluffy, add in the two eggs. Mix. Then add in vanilla. 
3. Using a sift over your bowl, add in the baking powder a flour. Sift it. Then mix until the wet ingredients and dry ingredients are combined. The dough will be a little wet, but it should be able to
   be picked up without breaking apart. 
   
4. Place the dough in your 9 x 13 pan, pushing it into corners and along the sides evenly. 
5. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick can be put in and pulled out clean. 
6. Let it cool in the pan for 5 minutes before moving it to a wire rack where it should cool for 25 minutes. 
7. Once it's cool to the touch, frost and sprinkle. After decorating, cut into bars. Mine made 12 in total.

Before I frosted and decorated my bars, I trimmed off the ends to make them more even. I then took some of the excess cookie and sprinkled it on top of the bars. Then, I took some leftover frosting and turned the excess cookie bites into cookie balls. 

Turns out, I missed baking. When baking, the only thing you have to focus on is making sure the math is correct. For people like me, who teach ELA, having to focus only on math and nothing else is beyond helpful. I enjoyed mixing and dancing to Christmas music. I enjoyed being with myself in the kitchen. 

This was such a fun activity and would be fun for a family or just to keep the kids busy! Or, if you just want some delicious sugar cookies, this would be the recipe to go with. With this recipe, you get festive and Christmas and deliciousness. 

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