Sugar cookie bars with cinnamon sugar swirls and cream cheese frosting. You’ll love these Cinnamon Roll Bars for bake sales and family treats!

cinnamon bars

Cinnamon rolls are a HUGE hit in my house. The kids love them, so a cinnamon roll inspired dessert was an obvious choice for us! What a hit it is. The cookie consistency with the perfect sugary swirl and icing…amazing!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE CINNAMON BARS:

cookie dough

• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups, sugar
• ¼ of milk (or more depending on dough*)
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

filling

• ¼ cup melted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons cinnamon

cream cheese frosting

• 2 tablespoons cream cheese (“whipped” variety is easiest for this)
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS TO MAKE THESE CINNAMON BARS:

1. Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, scraping sides of bowl when necessary.
2. Add milk and vanilla, mix again to combine.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to mixing bowl and mix to combine all dough ingredients.
5. Lay out wax paper, and roll out cookie dough until about ½″ thick, in a rectangular shape (see photo).
6. Combine filling ingredients in small bowl. Using spatula or spoon, add a thin layer of filling to cookie dough, leaving a couple inches on all sides.
7. Starting at the long side, roll up cookie dough into a log, gently peeling it off the wax paper as you go. It’s fine if it cracks a bit, just use fingers to smooth over.
8. Lay cookie dough log on plastic wrap and chill in freezer for 30 minutes (you can skip this step, but it makes the next part much easier).
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
10. Prep a 8″ x 8″ baking dish with non-stick spray. You can also use a larger pan for thinner bars.
11. Pull cookie dough out of freezer and remove plastic wrap. Cut cookie dough log into rolls (see photos) about 1″ thick.
12. Place cookie dough rolls in pan– does not have to be perfect.
13. Lay a sheet of wax or parchment paper on top of dough and press gently to flatten dough and (mostly) close off spaces between rolls.
14. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until center is just set.
15. Allow bars to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile whisk up frosting ingredients. If powdered sugar is hard to blend, microwave mixture for about 10 seconds to melt ingredients together.
16. Cut the bars and drizzle with cream cheese frosting.

Tips for Perfect Bars!

• The goal is to get the dough to just stick together in the mixing bowl, then it’s ready to roll out. If it’s too crumbly, add more milk 1 Tablespoon at a time. If it’s too wet to roll out, add more flour in Tablespoons.

• You can make this recipe a day ahead so that you just have to pop it out of the fridge and bake. If you are looking for fresh cinnamon roll bars – but have a busy day ahead – mix, roll and chill on day one, then on day two you would just pull out the dough, bake and frost! You probably need to pull it out of the freezer for about 10-15 minutes before slicing.

handy tools to easily make these cinnamon bars:

• stand mixer – mixing, blending, whipping…THE BEST
• 8×8 pan – best non-stick, will last forever

Frequently Asked Questions

Things to bake with cinnamon. Cinnamon is so great for baking! I love using it to make cinnamon coffee cake, cinnamon scones, and apple crisp – just to name a few!

How do you make cinnamon bars with cake mix? According to my pal Betty Crocker, you mix the cake mix with butter, eggs and milk and then swirl in a brown sugar, cinnamon and butter mixture. YUM!

How do you know when cookie bars are done? You will know when the edges are slightly golden and then center is set. If the center is slightly jiggly the cookies with be soft and gooey. Just bake them a bit longer if you like a bit of crisp edges!

Loving these Cinnamon Roll Bars? Give my Salted Caramel S’mores Bars and Churro Cheesecake Bars a try!

Bookmark my Recipes for other great family favorites!