Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Loaded with the essential gingerbread flavors. The tangy cream cheese frosting on top is the perfect complement.
Texture: Thick and soft yet chewy.
Ease: Super quick and easy.
Pros: These travel well so they’re perfect for bringing to a party, or delivering to your friends, neighbors, or school teachers!
Cons: I can’t think of one!
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
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These Gingerbread Cookie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting are ultra simple and easy. They check every box for what you’d want from a Christmas-time recipe!
Is there anything better than the aroma of sweet warm spices coming from your kitchen when it’s a chilly winter day? Baking during the holiday season is one of life’s greatest simple pleasures.
There’s something so comforting about it. This time of year is usually busy with events, shopping, family, and work. But when you take a couple of hours away from the craziness to just unwind in the kitchen, all of that stress seems to just melt away.
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I love the tangy flavor cream cheese brings to these gingerbread bars, but feel free to leave it off if you prefer. The bars are delicious all on their own!
Enjoy these easy homemade gingerbread cookie bars with a mug of something warm and near the twinkling lights of your Christmas tree.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Tips for Soft, Chewy Gingerbread Cookie Bars
- Be sure to measure your flour correctly by weighing it with a digital scale. If you don’t have one, use the spoon and level method to avoid creating cakey, dense, or tough cookie bars.
- Measuring your dry ingredients accurately is one of the best ways to improve your baking.
- Additionally, make sure your oven temperature is accurate – if not, shave a few minutes off baking time, to avoid overbaking your bars.
What Can I Use Instead of Molasses?
If you cannot get molasses where you live, you can try substituting honey or dark corn syrup – but the flavor and texture of your Gingerbread Cookie Bars will change.
Be sure to use regular unsulphured molasses (like Grandma’s or Brer Rabbit brands). Don’t use blackstrap molasses, as it has a harsh and bitter flavor.
The Spices in Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Check your spices to ensure they’re not expired. Even if they’re not expired, give them a sniff and make sure they’re still very aromatic. Older spices carry less flavor; fresh spices will carry a LOT more flavor. So, just be aware of that and feel free to adjust accordingly, to avoid bland, flavorless Cookie Bars.
The Best Baking Pan for Cookie Bars
This recipe was written to use a 9 by 13-inch baking pan. This is my favorite pan for cookie bars. I prefer to use light-colored metal pans, for even baking.
I don’t recommend using glass or ceramic pans. Learn more about that in my Glass vs. Metal Baking Pans post here. Avoid using dark-colored pans to bake Cookie Bars, as they tend to dry out or even burn the cookie bar edges.
Gingerbread Cookie Bar Frosting Options
If you’re not a fan of cream cheese frosting, top these cookie bars with simple Buttercream Frosting or Brown Sugar Frosting.
Topping any frosting with Christmas sprinkles would be adorable on these Gingerbread Cookie Bars!
How to Store Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Store Gingerbread Cookie Bars inside an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you opt to leave off the cream cheese frosting, these bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
More Christmas Dessert Recipes:
More Gingerbread Desserts:
Gingerbread Cookie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (170 grams) unsulphured molasses*
- 1 large egg
For the frosting:
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla paste (or extract)
- 2 cups (250 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions
Make the cookie bars:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 by 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to combine.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and beat until combined. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated.
- Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cooked through but still moist and soft. Cookie bars can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Make the frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on medium-high speed until very light, creamy, and smooth. On low speed, gradually add in the sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Spread the frosting all over the cooled cookie. Cut into squares and serve. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with additional baking tips. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Wonderfully soft and full of flavor! I made with just vanilla buttercream. Husband said this is one of his new favorite desserts now!
This recipe was the BEST EVER! I darn near ate the whole cookie sheet myself as I doubled the recipe!
Wholy moly!!! Five Stars!!!
This recipe is devine. The KEY is to slightly underbake them, so when you pull them out they still look underdone. They are like the gingerbread version of a brownie. But again, if you over bake even slightly, they are pretty drab. I like them spicy so I tend to triple or quadtruple the ginger. SO so good.
made it with changes. added ground mandarin orange peel.
absolutely hate any and all cream cheese frosting. made a powdered sugar glaze with ground white pepper and drizzled it with melted chocolate.
Very good! I don’t get the dryness everyone is talking about in fact mine was moist for the most part, almost cake like. I only did half the salt but otherwise followed it all the way through.
Pros – super easy and quick dessert to make, tastes good and would make again
Cons ( personal con not con on recipe)- cook 5 min longer ( I live at 5k elevation) and lessen amount of frosting I put on
Taste was really good along with fantastic frosting, but bars came out really dry. Measured correctly and I have oven temperature thermometer. Did bake 20 mins, maybe should have come out at 15. I was surprised at the 3 cups of flour to fat content, so maybe to avoid dryness a little less flour would correct.
Hi Donna! It sounds like you may have added too much flour accidentally. How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe – and in this case, create bars that are too dry and dense. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here! I hope this helps 🙂
This recipe is off – three cups of flour is excessive and produces very dry bars. I made the recipe with two cups, and it’s just right.
Hi Julie! I’m glad you were able to make these bars work for you with your modification! It sounds like you might be packing too much flour into your cups when measuring. Do you use the spoon-and-level method? This ensures you don’t add too much flour to a recipe! Find out more about this in Tessa’s article here! Alternatively, we really recommend using a digital scale to measure ingredients, for best accuracy – and fewer dishes, too 😉
How would you describe the textural and taste differences between these and your gingerbread blondies?
Hi there! Think of these cookie bars as being an ultra thick and chewy cookie, whereas the blondies have the texture of a brownie (with a crinkly top!). They’re both chewy, but two completely different types of desserts. Taste-wise, they’re both loaded with the flavors of gingerbread, but while the cookie bars having tangy cream cheese frosting on top, the blondies have white chocolate chips inside. Each are both perfect for this time of year, but just a bit different! I hope that helps. Let us know what you think if you give either recipe (or both!) a try 🙂
I’ve loved gingerbread in cake form since I was a kid. I love it as soft cookies, too. These bars are a nice way to change it up, and the frosting puts them over the top!
I’m thrilled you enjoyed these cookie bars!
These worked out and were quite pretty when I decorated them with green and red sprinkles on the white icing. But the bottom was quite dry, despite me being careful not to overbake them. But fun to try. Thanks for the recipe.
Made this last night, so delicious! Definitely I am going to make this again. Thanks for the great recipe 🙂
Thrilled to hear that you enjoyed these cookie bars!
I would make it again. It was a little dry but it was very cold today. I warmed up the butter but I think the house cooled it down. Great flavour!!
Be sure to measure your flour correctly to avoid dryness: https://handletheheat.com/how-to-measure-flour/
Or shaving a few minutes off the baking time 🙂