Perfectly spiced gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting are soft, chewy, and an irresistible crowd-pleasing holiday treat. Skip cookie cutters and make this easy recipe!
Gingerbread Cookie Bars
When the holidays get busy and I don’t have time to cut out gingerbread man cookies, these delicious gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting come to the rescue!
The cookie base is soft and chewy with warm spices and a twist on my pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. I love to decorate these holiday bars with festive sprinkles and include them on a Christmas dessert board. No one can resist one!
Why I Love This Recipe
- Easy to make: Gingerbread bars have the same great taste as cut-out cookies but without the hassle!
- Flavorful: The perfect amount of ginger and molasses make these gingerbread cookie bars a favorite for both kids and adults alike.
- Serves a crowd: This recipe for gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting is one of the best holiday desserts, perfect for December cookie trays or gifting!
Ingredient Notes
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Baking staples: All-purpose flour, an egg, baking soda. It’s important to measure your flour correctly and ensure your baking soda is fresh.
- Softened unsalted butter: Salt amounts can vary from brand to brand and unsalted butter allows the flavor of the recipe to shine. Follow these tips on how to soften butter, if you have forgotten to take it out ahead of time.
- Light brown sugar: Light brown is best as dark brown sugar has nearly twice the amount of molasses and may overpower the gingerbread bars.
- Molasses: Light, unsulfured molasses has a sweeter, mild flavor and is the best choice for baking. It’s easily found in the baking aisle at grocery stores. You can also use dark molasses. Avoid blackstrap molasses as it is very intense.
- Spices: Classic gingerbread flavors of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. You’ll notice I don’t use nutmeg, but by all means, you can if you’d like.
- Frosting: Cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Sweet, tangy, and creamy!
Frosting Variations
While I love gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting, you could add variety with these other icing flavors or even just use a simple cream cheese glaze, instead!
Try cinnamon cream cheese frosting, sour cream frosting, classic buttercream, or even leftover cinnamon roll frosting from homemade cinnamon rolls!
How to Make Gingerbread Bars
The best thing about gingerbread cookie bars with cream cheese frosting is that there is no cutting into shapes and no chilling! You get the same holiday flavor in ean easy bar!
- Combine dry ingredients: Measure flour then add it to a medium bowl along with baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Whisk the flour mixture to combine and remove any lumps.
- Make cookie bar base: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar, then egg, and finally molasses. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Fold in dry ingredients then cover with plastic wrap and chill for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Bake: Press the dough into a 9×13-inch baking dish evenly with the palm of your hand. Bake it for 17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Frost: Once the gingerbread bars have cooled, spread frosting evenly over the top. You can use a spatula or an offset spatula for this. It doesn’t need to be professional looking, it’s too delicious for that!
Recipe Tips
- Timesaver. Make the cream cheese frosting while the gingerbread bars are cooling, then store it in the refrigerator until it is time to use.
- Don’t overbake. Remove gingerbread bars when the toothpick comes out clean! The darker color may give the appearance that they are not done, but overbaking will lead to dry bars.
- White chocolate glaze. Skip the frosting and drizzle with melted white chocolate as I do in ginger molasses cookies.
- Line the pan with parchment paper. Sometimes it’s easier to remove the entire slab of dough from the pan to frost and slice. It’s up to you, but having parchment lining with the edges high enough for lifting, can make things easier.
- Toppings: Holiday sprinkles, crushed gingersnaps, mini marshmallows or even a dusting of cinnamon and sugar are great. I love to add sugared cranberries to my gingerbread cake recipe!
Storage
- Store: Gingerbread cookie bars with cream cheese frosting will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. I actually find them more flavorful on the second day!
- Freeze: Place sliced gingerbread bars on a pan and freeze for 1 hour. This helps to solidify them, so they don’t stick together when kept frozen. Once frozen, you can stack it in a freezer container or ziploc bag and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight or for a few hours on the counter.
I love easy cookie bar recipes! Start with salted caramel butter bars, easy pecan pie bars, and M&M cookie bars.
More Christmas Cookies and Bars
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Gingerbread Bars
Ingredients
Gingerbread bars
- ¾ cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar , packed
- 1 large large egg
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Cream cheese frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar , more as needed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Gingerbread bars
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream 3/4 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar 1 minute, or until fluffy. Add in the egg and beat until smooth. Mix in the 1/4 cup molasses until combined.
- In a medium bowl, sift or whisk 2 1/4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix into the butter mixture with a spoon just until combined. Be careful not to overmix. Cover and chill 10 to 15 minutes.
- Press into baking dish evenly with the palm of your hand. Bake 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean. Be careful not to over bake. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Cream cheese frosting
- In a medium bowl, mix 1/4 cup butter and 4 ounces cream cheese with an electric mixer 2 minutes, or until creamy. Mix in 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. Add more powdered sugar, if desired.
- Once the bars have cooled, spread frosting evenly over the top. Slice when ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
Easy and delicious!
So glad you enjoyed the gingerbread bars!
The cream cheese frosting with the gingerbread is a heavenly combination! Adding these to my annual Christmas baking list. They were quick and easy to make. Ate this last batch way too fast!
So glad you enjoyed the gingerbread bars :)
The perfect treat for the holidays. I love enjoying one with my coffee!
These gingerbread bars are so soft and delicious! Everyone loves it with extra cream cheese frosting on top. Highly recommended!
I think the baking time recommended is too high. I baked these at exactly the right temp for 17 minutes as suggested but they are overdone, dry and not a fudge texture at all. I’m going to try again but bake for much less time. I note that at the very top the baking time says 8 minutes but in the recipe itself (printable version) it says 17 minutes
Sorry they got overdone :( Thanks for letting us know. I typically start checking them around 13-15 minutes. Every oven cooks so differently, so if your oven runs hot I would check them around 10 minutes.