Enjoy these fun and colorful Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars. Made with a sugar cookie crust and topped with a colorful sprinkle of hundreds and thousands, these are perfect for events where you need to a plate.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and substitutions for Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars
- Butter: Unsalted butter is used for the cookie, but if all you have on hand is salted, that works as a fine substitute, just leave out any salt suggested in the recipe.
- Sugar: Confectioners or icing sugar dissolves into the buttercream and the superfine or caster sugar adds to the sugar portion of our cookies creating a nice balance without making them overly sweet.
- Eggs: The egg binds and adds structure to our cookies resulting in that soft interior that compliments the sugar and butter.
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best for a nice light cookie crumb.
- Baking powder: This helps our cookies rise so they are not stodgy.
- Raspberry Jam: The color and flavor of the buttercream is thanks to jam which means we don't need any food coloring.
- Sprinkles: Traditional hundreds and thousands sprinkles work best here, but you do you and add whatever sprinkles you wish!
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars:
Step 1: Butter base: Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy before adding in the egg and vanilla extract.
Step 2: Dries: Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined and toss into the tin, pressing evenly.
Step 3: Lightly golden: Bake until ever so lightly golden on the edges.
Step 4: Buttercream: Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl until pale and add in the jam, stirring to combine.
Step 5: Swoosh topping: Smear to the very edges, swooshing a little and sprinkling the hundreds and thousands on top.
Serve 6: Cut and serve: Cut into equal pieces and serve up.
Step 7: Enjoy: Dig in!
Variations
You can definitely change up the dish by changing the following:
Chocolate: You could use cocoa powder in the cookie base (omiting a portion of flour so as not to create dry cookies) or add melted chocolate or cocoa powder to the buttercream.
Fruity cookie base: Adding a few tablespoons of freeze dried fruit powder from blueberries to raspberries for a twist on the vanilla cookie base.
FAQ's for the best Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars
Yes!! They are great up to two days after baking with the buttercream frosting, before it's better to put them in the fridge, though that might dry the cookies out a little.
Absolutely! One of the joys of Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars is their versatility. You can customize the flavor by adding extracts or zest to the cookie dough, or even mix in different types of sprinkles for a unique twist.
Absolutely! Making these sugar cookie bars is a fun and family-friendly activity. Kids can help with measuring ingredients, spreading the cookie dough, and decorating the bars with colorful sprinkles.
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Hundreds and Thousands Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Vanilla butter cookies
- 100 grams / 3.5 ounces butter room temperature
- 100 grams / ยฝ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 55 grams / 1 large egg room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 267 grams / 1 โ cups plain flour
- 6 grams / 1 ยฝ teaspoons baking powder
Raspberry buttercream
- 100 grams / 3.5 ounces butter softened
- 90 grams / ยพ cup + 1 tablespoon confectioner/icing sugar sifted
- 20 grams / 2 tablespoons raspberry jam seeds strained
- ยผ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons hundreds and thousands sprinkles
Instructions
Vanilla butter cookies
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a 18ร18 cm or 7ร7 inch square baking tin with parchment paper.
- Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat on medium until pale and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and combine until smooth, approximately 1 minute.
- Add your flour and baking powder and beat on the lowest setting until the flour has just been combined and no dry portions remain in your bowl.
- Pour the mixture into your tin and press firmly with your hand and then even out with an offset spatula into your baking tin.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until ever so slightly golden.
- Remove and allow to cool completely.
Raspberry buttercream
- To make the buttercream filling, place the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat on medium with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, approximately 4 minutes.
- Add in the raspberry jam and salt and stir until fully combined.
- Remove the bars from the tin and mark out the edges where you will cut your cookies.
- Spoon the buttercream on top of the cookie and smear to the very edges, swooshing a little.
- Sprinkle over the hundreds and thousands sprinkle.
- Slice and serve.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Raspberry Jam: The color and flavor of the buttercream is thanks to jam which means we don't need any food coloring.
- Square tin: A square baking tin was used, though a rectangle tin would also work well.
- Customizing the recipe: You can customize the flavor of the sugar cookie base by adding extracts or zest to the cookie dough, or even mix in different types of sprinkles for a unique twist.
Nutrition
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