Marble Sugar Cookie Bars

These pillow-soft, beautifully festive red and green Marble Sugar Cookie Bars are going to be on everyone’s wishlist this Christmas! The cookie base is buttery and sweet with a light fruity note and topped with a homemade buttercream frosting. One should not question if they will make these; only question whether you will call them bars, squares, cookies, or even cake!

I absolutely love baking for Christmas! If you need evidence of that you only need to hover over the Christmas tab at the top of this page and select Christmas Recipes from the drop down menu. Christmas baking just brings out the kid in all of us, doesn’t it? And, when it comes to baking for kids, I can’t think of anything better than these Marble Sugar Cookie Bars complete with buttercream frosting and sprinkles too!

My love of Christmas has always been a part of me, but the baking thing came a bit later. Sure, I would bake cookies with McKenna when she was younger, but for the most part, the baking was done by my mom or my ex-wife. It wasn’t until I moved in with John.e ten years ago that my love of baking began to bloom. To be honest, I think it was because he doesn’t bake and nobody else was going to do it for me. So when I started doing it for myself, I realized just how much I loved it!

Since then, Lord Byron’s Kitchen was born in 2015 and I started to share my Christmas recipes with the world. At this point in time, there are well over 100 Christmas recipes on the blog already, and I’m still sharing more. I remember a few years back I had made a huge batch of gingerbread men to package up for friends and neighbours. Not one to cook or bake, John.e was all over the decorating part. He sat for hours at the table with icing and piping bags until each cookie was decorated. That was the moment I knew frostings and sprinkles were not just for little kids but for big kids too. So, this bar, Dear Reader, is for everyone!

LORD BYRON’S 12 BARS AND SQUARES OF CHRISTMAS

Marble Sugar Cookie Bars are the sixth holiday confection in my new series! Yes, that’s right, Dear Reader! I’m kicking off another holiday baking series, just like I have for the past few Christmases! Welcome to Lord Byron’s 12 Bars and Squares of Christmas!!!

If you have been reading my blog for while – well, at least anytime around Christmas for the past few years – you must have run into at least one of my Christmas baking countdowns. This particular countdown is all about bars and squares. For 12 consecutive days, I will share a holiday-based bar or square recipe with you. That means on Saturday and Sunday too! I usually publish new recipes three times a week, so I hope you’re up for this!

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! Like in previous holiday baking countdowns, I like to mix up the recipes in the series so that there is something for everyone. There will be bars and squares with chocolate, some with candy, and some with nuts too. Are you ready for day 6!!??

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

Ingredients for the Base:

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Baking Soda – This is a baking ingredient that’s activated by a liquid and helps with leavening or rising. 
• Salted Butter – Make sure your butter is softened and at room temperature! I always use salted butter, unless stated otherwise.  If you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt when you add the flour and baking soda.
• Sugar – Sugar has more than one function in baking.  Not only does it add sweetness, but it will caramelize too, which will help to brown cookies and cakes. 
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Almond Extract – This extract certainly makes up the bulk of the flavour. If you don’t have any, you can use all vanilla extract instead, but almond extract adds that fruity flavour I spoke about in the introduction.
• Green Food Colouring
• Red Food Colouring

Ingredients for the Frosting:

• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often. 
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! You should use unsalted butter for buttercream frosting. (You can substitute the butter with vegetable shortening for a whiter buttercream, which is exactly what I did in this recipe.)
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 
• Sprinkles

FOOD COLOURING

Before I get too far into this, I am just going to get this one thing out of the way. Yes, I did use food colouring to dye the cookie dough. Using food colouring is not ideal for some people, but I don’t personally have an issue with it. I know there are many “natural” ways of colouring food, so if you already employ those in other recipes, feel free to do so here too.

I have used only red and green. The white part of the cookie is made up of the frosting. Together, they will give you that red, white, and green collaboration that is synonymous with Christmastime. I usually preach that using the gel type of food colouring is best, however, in this case, the liquid is much better. Normally, I would tell you that the gel will allow you to tint the cookie dough without changing the viscosity of the dough and that you may have to use too much of the liquid colouring to get the dough tinted enough. Adding more than 8-10 drops of liquid colouring will change the firmness of the dough and may result in a flatter cookie once baked.

Those rules do not apply here and I’ll tell you why. Gel food colouring takes longer to work into a dough, which means that you need to mix the dough longer. Do you know what happens to dough when you mix it too long? It becomes tough. So, that beautiful cookie you’ve just baked becomes quite the letdown when you bite into it and it’s not soft and moist like it should be. Using the liquid type of food colouring allows you to beat it into the dough more quickly, which means your dough will still be light.

If you’ve been reading Lord Byron’s Kitchen for any length of time, you will know that I’m a fan of gel food colouring. In fact, 99% of the time, I use Wilton brand gel in all of my recipes. I’m not sponsored at all by Wilton, but that particular brand is always reliable. When it comes to liquid food colouring, I trust the Club House brand to give me control over how much colour I want and it never disappoints when it comes to being vibrant.

LET’S TALK SPRINKLES!

Where do you buy sprinkles?  Do you have a favourite vendor or brand?  A few Christmases back, I changed my sprinkle game.  I would always buy sprinkles from the baking supply section at Bulk Barn, but not anymore – no way!  Let me tell you how this all went down.

In November 2018, I was baking a few Christmas goodies and just could not source sprinkles that looked anything like what I was imagining in my head. John.e was on a major sprinkle hunt.  He used to work in close proximity to Michael’s, HomeSense, Winners, and Marshall’s.  He purchased at least ten different sprinkle colours, shapes, and brands.  But, I wasn’t impressed with any of them as much as I was with Sweetapolita.

After Christmas, I needed Valentine’s sprinkles, so I tracked down the brand and found their online store.  I ordered enough sprinkles to last a lifetime!  Shopping for sprinkles online might seem a little over the top, but I’ve never once pretended to shy away from getting what I want!

For these Marble Sugar Cookie Bars you can use any sprinkles really, but I do find that the smaller sprinkles work best. The elongated shape – like a miniature rod – they’re usually called Jimmies, work great and so do nonpareils, which are the small balls. I’m using holiday confetti sprinkles. They are flat and the colour is slightly muted rather than shiny like most sprinkles. I think they work so well with the red and green sugar cookie bars.

HOW TO MAKE MARBLE SUGAR COOKIE BARS

Begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper. Fold the parchment paper so that it fits snugly in the pan. I use two sheets – one folded to fit the length of the pan and another folded to fit across the pan. Allow the excess parchment paper to hang out over the side of the pan. Once the confection is firm, use the excess parchment to lift the whole block out of the pan to make it easy to cut into squares.

Next, add the softened butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Beat until creamy and well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Next, beat in the almond extract. Finally, add in the flour and baking soda. Beat until just incorporated. Now, divide the dough in half and transfer one half to a separate mixing bowl. Add 8-10 drops of green food colouring to one bowl and 8-10 drops of red to the second bowl of cookie dough. Beat the food colouring into the dough until just mixed, being sure to wipe the beaters clean after you have finished with the first colour. We don’t want any mixing of the colours at this point!

Using a small spring-action cookie scoop like this one here, scoop alternating spoonfuls of the red and green dough into the prepared baking dish in a random pattern. Try to cover the bottom of the pan. Once all of the dough has been randomly transferred to the pan, set aside the cookie scoop and use your hands to press the cookie dough flat into the pan. Really get in there so that there are no air pockets or gaps between the scooped cookie dough portions.

Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the bars comes out clean. Once done, remove the baking pan from the oven and allow the bars to fully cool before frosting them with the buttercream frosting.

HOW TO MAKE THE FROSTING

Beat the butter (or vegetable shortening) in a large mixing bowl. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Next, beat in the vanilla extract and milk. Note that my frosting is really bright white. If you use butter, your frosting will have a yellow tint to it. Actually, different brands of butter can be more yellow in colour than others. Your frosting might have more than a yellow tint; it might actually turn out yellow!

There is a secret used by bakers to get perfectly white buttercream frosting. Instead of using butter, they substitute the butter with vegetable shortening. Another secret is to use white vanilla extract rather than the regular amber or brown-coloured stuff. It can also tint the frosting. To get the whitest frosting possible, I used vegetable shortening rather than butter in this particular case.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Once the sugar cookie base is fully cooled, you can frost it. If you want to remove the base from the pan before frosting, lift it straight up and out using the excess parchment paper you left draped over the sides when preparing the pan for baking. If you prefer, you can leave the sugar cookie base in the pan and frost it as is. Lifting it out makes it easier to slice it into squares.

Make sure your frosting is at room temperature. Smear the frosting evenly onto the sugar cookie base. Once the frosting is applied, add the sprinkles. You can now slice the bars, but if you want a cleaner, professional-looking slice, place the entire baking pan in the fridge for 30-40 minutes. This will firm up the frosting which will allow you to cut through the frosting and the bar without too much smearing or smudging. Once done, transfer the bars to a food-safe container.

FAQ’s

1. Can I use anything other than buttercream-style frosting? Cream cheese frosting would be a great alternative! Beat half a cup of softened butter with 8 ounces of softened cream cheese. Beat in 3 cups of confectioner’s sugar and two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
2. Is the food colouring optional? Yes! I tinted the sugar cookie dough with green and red food colouring, but if you want a less festive look, omit the food colouring completely. The bar will be an off-white colour but will still taste amazingly delicious. You then colour the frosting! If you’re not making these bars for Christmas, you could colour them pink for Valentine’s or Orange for Halloween, etc.

STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING

These bars will stay fresh for about 3-5 days in a covered container and in a cool place. But, if you plan to freeze these bars, use a food-safe container that can be frozen. You’ll want to ensure a very tight-fitting lid too. (I use these quite often when freezing baked goods.) I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that freshness locked in!

You can freeze these Marble Sugar Cookie Bars for up to three months. They will come out of the freezer looking just like they did when you put them in there as long as you don’t stack them. If you must stack, lay a sheet of parchment paper between each layer. To thaw, remove bars from the freezer and place them on a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes. Once you thaw them, they will taste just as fresh, and be just as soft, as the day you first baked them.