Frankensquares

How franken’ cute are these little guys for Halloween?! … And so easy to make which is always awesome. I used a recipe from The I Heart Naptime Cookbook for Sugar Cookie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s my food blogging friend, Jamielyn’s first cookbook full of quick and easy recipes perfect to pull off in an hour. Love that!

Instead of the pretty in pink, party-worthy frosting and sprinkles in her book, I took a twist with the tops and turned them into Frankenstein faces. While these are super easy to make, the decorating will take you over the hour mark. But feel free to make them in any frosting and sprinkle color combination that you love. They’ll still be so cute.

Making the sugar cookie bars is simple … whip up the dough, press into a baking pan, frost and sprinkle when baked and cooled. Cut into bars and done.

Or break out the extra candies and go full on Frankenstein.

For the faces, I used black jelly beans, black jimmies, and jumbo candy eyes.

Place 5-6 jelly beans on top of square sugar cookie bar for Frank’s hair. Use a toothpick to position if necessary and when in place, gently press into frosting.

Set the eyes in place and use black jimmies for mouths and eyebrows. Most of the time, there are some curved jimmies in the sprinkle bottle which totally makes a subtle little smirk.

Okay, but now we need some bolts to finish the look.

My mini marshmallows worked great to press into the sides of the frosting. Perfect proportions and lightweight enough not to fall off the sides. Win!

Yep, the faces look much cuter with bolts in place.

Sugar Cookie Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Frosting
(amended slightly from the book)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

• For the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 15 X 10 X 1 jelly roll pan with nonstick spray. (Note: I used a 9 X 13 inch pan for thicker bars and greased and lined the pan with parchment paper to easily lift bigger bars out of the pan.)
• In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter using a mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add flour mixture to the sugar mixture until combined. Lightly flour your hands and press dough evenly into baking pan with palms of your hands.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Don’t let tops brown or over bake.
• For the Frosting: In a medium bowl, beat butter and cream cheese using a mixer until fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Mix until combined, smooth and creamy. Add any food coloring if desired and frost cooled sugar cookie bars. Top with sprinkles or cut into bars and then decorate into Frankenstein faces with black jelly beans and jimmies, jumbo candy eyes and mini marshmallows.

Recipe adapted slightly from The I Heart Naptime Cookbook by Jamielyn Nye, © 2016

Enjoy!

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