You gotta love sugar cookie bars.

They’re all that’s yummy about a sugar cookie with just a fraction of the work.

They are a perfect treat to serve for a crowd.

This recipe is adapted from the Keeping Up Cookbook.

Here’s how to make them:

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 cup butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

1-1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. almond extract

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2-3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a stand mixer cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar.  Blend in egg, almond extract, and vanilla.  Sift together flour and baking soda.  With mixer on low, add flour mixture until just mixed.

Press into a greased baker’s half sheet pan (13″ x 18″) with a floured knife or your hand.

Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Allow to cool and frost.

Frosting:

1/2 cup softened butter

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla

3-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Makes 4 dozen cookies.

I didn’t take step by step photos of this recipe, but it’s so easy, you don’t need them.

I will share a few tips.  The original recipe suggests pressing the dough into the pan using a floured knife.  I think it’s much easier to press it in with your hand.  It’s a very sticky dough, so it works best to dip your hand in flour.

Valentine’s Day anyone?  This is such a great treat to make for a gift or to bring to a party.

I get asked all the time, how do I cut my bars or mint brownies so evenly?  I could say it’s from lots of practice, but actually it’s really easy.  I decide how many rows I’d like to cut.  Since I make a lot of brownies and bars in Baker’s Half Sheet cookie sheets, I often cut them 6 rows by 8 to make 48 brownies or bars.  For brownies, I always cut the very edges off, so all my brownies are even.  (Did you know the edges also have no calories, and are a favorite treat at my house ; ).)  For most other bars, I leave the edges.  Since I am cutting 8 rows in the length, the first cut across the center of the pan, the next cut cuts the two halves into quarters, then cut the quarters in half again.  It’s much easier to get even rows that way.  For the 6 row, I again cut down the center.  Then I make a small mark at the edge of the pan in thirds.  If they look even, then cut the rows.

That’s a lot info!  But since I get asked so often, I thought it would be worth sharing.

I never worry about them being too perfect.  You still want folks to know they’re homemade, right?

Sugar Cookie Bars are quick, easy, and totally delicious!  Enjoy!

Yesterday my girls participated in the 5th Grade Science Fair.

It is a joy to have two daughters who share many of my interests…. they love to sew, they love to watch “Jane Eyre” and “Dial M for Murder” with me.  And they also love to bake.

So when we were wading through ideas for the Science Fair, they were thrilled to come across food experiment ideas.  And after excited discussion, they decided on the question: “Which fat makes the best pie?”

Well of course, this mama was supremely confident in the outcome…

My girls shared my bias since they’ve made pies with me ever since they were old enough to help in the kitchen.

Here was their hypothesis:

“We think that lard will make the best pie, because our Great-Grandmother, our Grandmother, and our Mother all make their pies with lard.  Their pies are really good.”

To test our theory we made 6 pies together.  3 Banana cream pies – each using one of the pie fats and 3 pumpkin pies – again one of each pie fat.

The recipe was the same for each pie, the only change was the fat.

We took notes making each pie.  The lard and the shortening were similarly easy to make.  The butter was not easy to cut the cold fat into the flour.  The butter was also more fiddly to work in the liquid and roll out the crust.

When all the pies were made, we invited some friends over for a blind taste test.

The girls gave each of our testers a slice of pie from each pie- A, B, and C and a test sheet.  They rated each pie on a scale of 1-5, 5 being best.  The girls decided the categories should be flakiness, flavor, looks, texture and strength.

When the results were calculated, I think my jaw dropped.

Guess what pie fat won?

I didn’t guess it that’s for sure.

SHORTENING.

While my favorite fat, lard, won on flakiness, the shortening pie was the hands down winner in every other category.

DOH!

The butter crust was a dismal last place.

The results were so surprising for me, I’d like to do more experiments…  my own test kitchens to find my perfect pie crust.

But for now I’ll just have to serve myself up a slice of humble pie… made with shortening.