Description
These Poptart Cookie Bars feature a delightful sugar cookie base layered with sweet strawberry preserves and topped with a smooth vanilla glaze and colorful rainbow sprinkles. Perfect for a fun dessert or snack, they combine the nostalgic flavors of poptarts in a shareable cookie bar form.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Sugar Cookie Dough
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 2 ½ cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅔ cup strawberry preserves
For the Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½-2 tablespoons whole milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Rainbow sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
- Prepare the Pan and Preheat: Line an 8×8-inch square metal baking pan with parchment paper, ensuring the paper overhangs all sides. Preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C).
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a stand mixer bowl, cream the unsalted butter and granulated sugar together for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add Eggs and Vanilla: Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract until just combined. Scrape down the bowl again.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Add the all-purpose flour, fine sea salt, and baking soda to the bowl and mix until the dough starts to come together.
- Chill the Dough: Wrap the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to firm up, which makes it easier to spread in the pan.
- Press First Layer: Press half of the chilled dough evenly into the prepared baking pan. Lift it out using the parchment overhang and place it on a baking sheet. Freeze this layer to keep it firm.
- Prepare Second Layer: Replace the parchment paper strips to cover all sides of the pan. Press the remaining dough evenly into the pan.
- Add Strawberry Preserves: Spread the strawberry preserves evenly over the dough layer in the pan.
- Layer Dough on Top: Take the frozen first dough layer off the baking sheet, peel off the parchment, and press it firmly over the preserves to seal the layers together.
- Bake: Bake the cookie bars for 28 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
- Cool and Invert: Let the bars cool completely on a wire rack. Then use the parchment overhang to lift the bars out of the pan and flip them upside down so the original bottom is now the top.
- Make the Glaze: Whisk together powdered sugar, whole milk, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Glaze and Decorate: Pour the glaze over the bars and sprinkle with rainbow sprinkles.
- Set and Serve: Let the glaze set at room temperature for 2 hours before cutting into 15 bars to serve.
Notes
- Use the spoon-level method or a kitchen scale to measure flour properly to avoid dense dough.
- Only use an 8×8-inch square metal pan with square edges for best baking results; glass or ceramic may bake differently.
- Allow the glaze to set fully at room temperature to avoid wrinkles; do not refrigerate or freeze the glaze.
- Feel free to swap strawberry preserves with grape, blackberry, blueberry, or any other favorite flavor.
- Work with clean hands as the dough can be sticky when pressing into the pan.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 250 kcal
- Sugar: 18 g
- Sodium: 120 mg
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 7 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 32 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 45 mg
