This is a sponsored recipe on behalf of the American Dairy Association Mideast.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Sugar cookie bars are a great option for holiday baking because they save you time by not cutting and frosting individual cookies.

You can also slice sugar cookie bars into small, bite-sized pieces for cookie trays or leave them a traditional size if serving for dessert.

Peppermint Bark Cookies and Cream Bars

These Peppermint Bark Cookies and Cream Bars are soft and thick with a delicious homemade frosting. The crushed chocolate cookies and candy canes make these bars festive and delicious!

How to Make This Festive Holiday Dessert

• Prepare the cookie dough
• Bake the cookie bars
• Prepare the frosting
• Crush chocolate cookies and candy canes
• Frost and decorate the cookie bars
• Slice and serve!

American Dairy Association Mideast

I am very proud to partner with the American Dairy Association Mideast.

Dairy farmers are committed to help nourish communities and provide wholesome, nutritious, affordable food.

In Ohio and West Virginia, cows on about 1,600 dairy farms produce about 663 million gallons of milk each year. Did you know that 95% of U.S. dairy farms are family-owned and operated?

Milk and Cookie Bars for Santa

Using milk vs. water when cooking makes recipes creamier and adds nutrition. Milk can make scrambled eggs fluffier, too! Get more ideas for easy hacks that make recipes tastier and add bone-building nutrients—simply by using milk.

And don’t forget to leave out a glass of milk and a plate of these sugar cookie bars for Santa!

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If you know me at all, you know that sugar cookies are kind of my thing. My friends and I started making the BEST Sugar Cookies ever over 25 years ago. They have become a baking tradition for thousands more of you every year, and I’m so very grateful!

As much as I love my cut-out sugar cookie recipe, I know that sometimes you don’t want to sit down to cut out and frost sugar cookies- especially for a large group.

That’s why you’re going to want to grab my recipe for these delightfully easy and wonderfully delicious Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookie Bars. With a few tips (and a few shortcuts), you can make these bars for a crowd in about an hour.

Tips for Making Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookie Bars

• To pipe the frosting, you will need piping bags and cake decorating tips. In some recipes, you can get away with substituting zip-top bags for piping bags, but I would not recommend that for this frosting since it is thick. Piping bags are more durable than zip-top bags and will not break when you apply pressure to squeeze out the frosting.
• Have fun piping a sweater design or spread the frosting. I applied the frosting with a small offset spatula.

These icing decorations are so festive and easy! They come in many designs.

For the reindeer, I took a little inspiration from my Reindeer Pretzel recipe because they are adorable, and I love that sweet and salty combination.

If you’re going to cut mini pretzels, do it fast to avoid breaking. You may be tempted to try to slice the pretzels slowly, but a swift cut straight down does the trick. Be sure to keep your fingers out of the way!

The suggested serving size is 24 slices, but you can cut them even smaller since these are sweet, chewy cookies piled high with frosting and candies.

Everyone will be coming back for more!

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Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookie Bars

Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookie Bars are the quickest way to make soft frosted sugar cookies for a crowd. No chilling, no cutting, no mess!

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 24 bars

Calories 282kcal

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract see notes
• 3 cups flour all purpose
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• candies for decorating

Frosting

• 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract see notes
• 1/4 cup milk or whipping cream

Instructions

For the Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13 baking dish (or use parchment paper), set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes.
• Add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.
• In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to wet ingredients 1 cup at a time until incorporated. A dough will form and pull away from the sides of the mixer bowl when ready.
• Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking dish, and press down with your fingers to flatten evenly.
• Bake for 20 minutes until golden in color. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting

• In the bowl of your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for 2 minutes. Slowly add powdered sugar, salt, and extracts. Use milk or cream (more or less) to thin the frosting to the desired consistency.
• Separate any frosting you would like to color (I only used a small amount of green in this design).
• Pipe over cooled sugar cookie bars in different patterns.
• Decorate with sprinkles, sugar transfers, etc.

Notes

• For the cookie bars, you can omit the almond extract. Substitute with vanilla if desired.
• For the frosting, vanilla extract will give a slight tint to the frosting so use clear vanilla if you want a brighter frosting.

Nutrition

Calories: 282kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 56mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 21g | Calcium: 22mg

Looking for More Christmas Recipes

Our Grinch Cookies are made and loved by thousands each year! There’s something lovable about that mean old grinch.

Grab our frosting recipe- it truly is The Best Christmas Cookie Frosting.

Are you crazy about peppermint bark like we are? Try a new spin on a classic treat with our Peppermint Bark Rice Krispy Treats.

Christmas Tree Meringue Cookies are delicious and straightforward. If you’ve never made meringue, you will fall in love with this recipe; I promise!

Our EASY Christmas Candy promises to be the quickest, most fun treat on the dessert table. You’ll see why!

Items Used in This Post

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This recipe is for all of us who are busy making the Christmas magic happen- busy being the key word there.

The year my first son was born I ran out of energy to send Christmas cards. I felt REALLY guilty about it for a few years until one day I just decided that I am no longer the person who sends Christmas cards. I’m not offended by people who don’t send me cards so why should I be ashamed if I never get around to it?

I sign up to bring juice boxes for school parties, and it has been years since I’ve hand-crafted an ornament for our relatives. Sometimes I make homemade treats because I forget to purchase teacher gift, mail carrier gifts, bus driver gifts, pharmacist gifts, and garbage collector gifts.

This year we actually got a nice personalized card from our garbage collector saying that he will be out of town until January so if we could please hold off on any holiday gifts until he got back that would be great. Until that moment I had never even considered leaving out gift for him perched atop our recyclables.

I did chase down a different garbage collector one time with a tin full of cookies because to my horror I watched as a bag full of dirty diapers bottom out and spill everywhere when he lifted it to his truck. That saint picked up every last one and I never even saw him mutter a swear word.

I’m not a complete monster. As I’ve aged I’ve thankfully been able to afford to be a better tipper and I email Starbucks gift cards when I notice someone needs a pick-me-up. Let’s not forget the value of a genuine kind word or paying it forward in the drive through either.

I spend lot of hours baking for and with my family and friends so I don’t mind cheating here and there with quick EASY desserts like these Peppermint Bark Rice Crispy Treats. You can have a whole sparkling tray of these beauties ready in under 30 minutes. And all of us responsible for making the Christmas magic said AMEN.

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Everyone should have a go-to chocolate cake recipe. But what happens when you need a party cake and you know that one of the guests has dietary restrictions?

Sign up to bring the paper plates. (I’m kidding!!)

I get it- my son has a dietary restriction. It can be stressful to bake for someone who has special dietary needs, but don’t let a little hesitation keep you from making someone’s day! When you take the time to listen and to make everyone feel welcomed and involved in whatever the celebration is then you can more fully experience that special feeling of baking for those you love.

When I was at Hershey’s Test Kitchen I had the most wonderful Gluten-Free HERSHEY’S “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake. In fact it was my favorite treat from the whole weekend… and I sampled lots of treats! I know you’re going to love this gluten free version of their classic HERSHEY’S “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake.  And that frosting?! Do yourself a favor and make it today!

I love being a Hershey’s Shared Goodness ambassador because Hershey is a company that is committed to high standards when it comes to wholesome ingredients. You can learn more about Hershey’s Cocoa in this Our Story of Cocoa video. If you are at all concerned about where your ingredients come from take the few minutes to click through and see how The Hershey Company is committed to cocoa sustainability and the well-being of the cocoa farming community.

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I hope you came here today looking for the BEST Christmas dessert for your holiday cookie platters. This brownie is the most perfectly indulgent holiday recipe!

The brownie base is thick and rich, topped with a crisping chocolate frosting that reminds me of my favorite Texas sheetcake icing, then loaded with fluffy marchmallows and MORE borwnie?! Seriously-  To be totally basic… “I can’t even!!!!”

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Sometimes don’t you just want to eat ALL THE ICE CREAM? I am not normally and ice cream person. When I was pregnant with both of my boys I craved popsicles, slushies, and smoothies. The saddest part of it all was that I had a built-in, living excuse to eat all the ice cream I wanted and there are 2 creameries within a few minutes walk From my house. But I was young and stupid so I passed up the ice cream cones for popsicles and the milkshakes for all fruit smoothies.

I mean- who doesn’t eat ice cream when they are pregnant?

Weirdo.

Well, we’ve fixed that. Only I’m not pregnant, but I still can walk down my street and have my choice of 2 local creameries within 5 minutes of deciding if I want a double or triple scoop.

Also, I’m all about the brownies and milk these days. Do you guys love a big glass of icy cold milk with your brownies? And since these brownies were frozen it just made the cold milk even more refreshing. It was like eating a giant Oreo straight from the freezer.

If you’red looking for more patriotic food try these non alcoholic Layered DrinksLayered Drinks. They are so festive and fun!

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Hi everyone! My name is Roxana and I’m the baker, wanna be writer and photographer and full time kitchen cleaning lady behind Roxana’s Home Baking. On my blog I share original and adapted recipes and my mission is to show readers that baking from scratch can be simple and uncomplicated. Most of my recipes rely on easy techniques and everyday ingredients that even the novice home cook can use.

I’m so happy to be invited this year to bring cookies, here on Katrina’s beautiful blog.  Technically, I did not bring cookies, but I brought you something better – chocolate macadamia bars!

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Anyway, can we talk about Katrina for a second?

The first (and only) time I met her was at a food conference. I walked in the door and she ran right up to me, grabbed my arm, and said “you can sit by me!” Then she felt like a weirdo and started apologizing for kidnapping me. You guys. I had never loved her more than I did right then. I hate walking into a conference and wondering who is going to be nice to me and let me sit by them. I feel like the new kid in the cafeteria on their first day of high school. She totally saved my life by letting me sit with the cool kids. I will love her for always. Katrina is just as sweet in person as she is online.

Okay, enough mushy stuff, because gross.

I made y’all some s’mores. I don’t know about you, but around this time every year I start thinking about all of the s’mores I missed out on over the summer. I’m not much of a campfire kind of girl (if we could only figure out how to bring the fire inside, with the air conditioning and lack of bugs…), so I don’t always get a lot of traditional s’mores. I have to go a little crazy in the kitchen to get my fix. This time around, I’m doctoring up a box of brownie mix. You can certainly use your favorite recipe, but I like to cheat every now and then. Shortcuts are my friend.

So, I hope you enjoy these heavenly little ooey gooey treats! And, Katrina? I love you, girl. Get better. I miss your face.

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S'mores Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 box brownie mix prepared according to the package, but not baked
• 12- ish graham crackers
• 2 cups mini marshmallows
• 3 Hershey's bars

Instructions

• Prepare the brownie batter as directed on the box and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
• Line the bottom of the baking dish with graham crackers, breaking them into pieces to fit as needed.
• Pour half of the brownie batter over the graham crackers. Top with 1 cup of the mini marshmallows. Break the Hershey's bars into pieces and place half of the pieces on top of the marshmallows.
• Top with the remaining graham crackers as evenly as possible. Pour on the remaining brownie batter, top with the rest of the marshmallows and Hershey's bar pieces.
• Bake according to package directions or until the brownies are baked through.

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It is now officially fall, so pumpkin is officially acceptable. I am a little slow to get on board this year though.  I am all for things with a little bit of a pumpkin spice, but I haven’t opened a can of pumpkin yet!  I know you come to In Katrina’s Kitchen for the sweets, so I am here to please!  I made pumpkin spiced Rice Krispie treats and I added frosting.  Thus “cake” in the name.   I am pretty sure these would be Katrina approved!

These Rice Krispie treats are flavored with a little pumpkin muffin mix.  You can use whatever mix you can find in the store; cookies, cake, muffins, pudding.  Anything that is powdered will work perfectly, and give that hint of flavor you are looking for.  Layered with a little bit of cream cheese frosting, and you have the perfect fall dessert that comes together in 20 minutes, without having to turn on the oven.

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Pumpkin Cake Rice Krispies Trats

Ingredients

• Krispie Treats
• 1 10 oz package marshmallows (about 40)
• 3 Tbls butter
• 6 cups Rice Krispie cereal
• 1/2 cup pumpkin muffin mix
•  
• Frosting
• 2 Tbls butter
• 2 oz cream cheese
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

• Prepare a 15x11 inch jelly roll pan with nonstick spray.
• Melt butter in a large microwave safe bowl.  Add marshmallows, stirring to coat.  Microwave for 1 minute.  Remove and stir until smooth.  You can heat for an additional 30 seconds if needed.  Stir in pumpkin muffin mix.  Add cereal, and stir to coat.  Press mixture firmly into the jelly roll pan.
• Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.  In a bowl mix together butter and cream cheese until well combined.  Stir in powdered sugar, and mix until fluffy.  Mix in vanilla.
• Cut the Rice Krispie treats down the center of the pan.  Smooth frosting over 1/2 of the treats.  Fold over the unfrosted half to make a "sandwich".  Allow to set up for about an hour before slicing.

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Have y’all been camping before? My husband and I just took our kids for the first time this past August. And actually, it was MY first time, too. (Which is crazy considering my father is a nature photographer, and growing up our summers were always filled with road trips to the national parks. My idea of camping was staying in a log cabin!) But friends, we had so much fun. Took us three days to wash off all the dirt, but worth it! Spending time near the water, seeing deer and lizards, and being unplugged from electronics was so therapeutic. And, of course, no camping trip would be complete without S’mores.

So, I know it’s Fall now. And it’s the rainy season. And ya, nobody’s going camping anymore. But who says S’mores have to be relegated to camping? And since Halloween is around the corner, these bars are perfect for any left-over candy you might have!

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Kit-Kat S'mores Bars

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 9 -16 bars

Ingredients

• • 1 stick unsalted butter
• • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• • 1 large egg
• • 1 teaspoon vanilla
• • 5 full sheets graham crackers crushed
• • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• • 1/4 teaspoon salt
• • 1 teaspoon baking powder
• • 16 miniature Kit-Kat bars crushed
• • 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
• In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. Add in the graham crackers, flour, salt, and baking powered until combined. (Dough will be sticky.)
• Coat the back of a spatula with nonstick spray; spread half of the dough into the pan evenly. Sprinkle the Kit-Kat pieces over the dough, followed by the marshmallows. Flatten pieces of the remaining dough and place them on top of the marshmallows.
• Baked for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let bars cool slightly before cutting and enjoy!

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