Lemon Cookie Bars
With the fourth of July just two days away, I’m in full-on food planning mode. I know some people will be enjoying their day off inside a cool air-conditioned room, but we’re sticking with the traditional BBQ at our neighbor’s house. I’m planning to bring a couple desserts and still working out the other details.
If you’re like me and trying to finalize plans for what to bring to your next get together, consider bringing these Lemon Cookie Bars. The lemon curd in the frosting provides a great subtle citrus flavor on top of a cookie bar base. The frosting is pretty liquidy as you can see in the pictures, so I would recommend making this a day in advance and storing them in the fridge so the frosting can set up.
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Lemon Cookie Bars
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
For the Bars
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
For the Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup lemon curd
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp sprinkles
Directions:
For the Bars
Heat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.
Mix in egg and almond extract; stir in flour, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt until soft dough forms.
Spread dough in bottom of a greased 8×8-inch square pan. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until light golden brown on the edges and a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
For the Frosting
Place cream cheese and lemon curd in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar until smooth.
Spread frosting evenly over cooled sugar cookie bars and top evenly with sprinkles. Cut into 16 bars.
Recipe from Cake Batter and Bowl
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
These look amazing! I’m trying not to lick my screen looking at these pictures.
I made these last winter and they were sooooo absolutely amazing. I purposely haven’t made them since because I would eat them all! Perfect holiday treat, aren’t they?
These sound really different, unique, and delicious!
oh what i’d give for one of those as a snack right now! yum!!
OK, I have a weird question since I have texture issues.
I assume the pumpkin portion of this is similar in texture to pie filling (hence “Pumpkin Pie” part of the name)? Or is it more cake/bar-like?
These are so unique!
Mmmm pumpkin and snickerdoodle…I’m on board 🙂 I bet this is great. I love bar cookies. Easy and delicious!
I start drooling everytime I see those yet for some odd reason I wind up just making the plain snickerdoodle version. I think it’s the kids thinking the plain one is perfection. They’ve actually told me not to mess with the recipe.
~ingrid
Yes Heather – it has a similar texture to pumpkin pie.
This looks great. You have a good variety of appealing recipes. You can keep me busy baking for months.
Hope you feel better – I suffered through the flu last month and it’s definitely amazing how quickly the crappy feelings hit you!
So glad you liked my recipe! 🙂