Recipes

Gingerbread bars – just so delicious

Sanem December 1, 2019

These simple gingerbread bars have a delicious ginger-molasses flavor and a soft, tough texture. Instead of the royal glaze, they are doused with a thick layer of cream cheese to achieve the perfect Christmas treat!

These gingerbread bars with cream cheese frosting are the perfect alternative to making gingerbread cookies. Not only are they easier to prepare, they are also softer, tougher and more delicious thanks to the cream cheese frosting. Unlike traditional gingerbread cookies, where you bake the cookie dough, refrigerate in the refrigerator, roll out, and then slice into shapes – the cookie dough is squeezed and baked into the bottom of a 9 × 13-inch pan. They are simple, delicious and much less messy!

Making gingerbread bars

If you've made all the gingerbread cookies, the recipe for the cookie dough looks very similar:

First whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt. The ginger adds to this classic gingerbread taste and the cinnamon and nutmeg complete it.

Stir froth butter and brown sugar in a separate bowl. Then add molasses, vanilla extract and eggs. I like to use 1 egg plus 1 extra egg yolk because it makes the bars softer and tougher. The brown sugar not only gives flavor, but also contributes to the chewing texture, as it contains more moisture than white sugar.

Slowly stir in the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. I do it about halfway at the same time to avoid flour from getting everywhere.

Squeeze the cookie dough into a lightly greased 9×13-inch pan and place in the oven to bake.

After the bars are baked and cooled, they are doused with cream cheese. It's creamy, fluffy and much tastier than the typical use of icing on gingerbread men (in my opinion). You'll love how the spiciness of the cream cheese paired with the cinnamon and ginger of the bar.

Back Tips

Be sure to use unsulphured molasses – sometimes called molasses or chic molasses. Do not use molasses with black ribbons. The taste is too strong for baking.
For this recipe you can use a glass or metal pan. A metal pan makes the bars at the edges a bit crunchier and the bars bake a little faster than a glass pan.
To push the cookie dough into the pan without making your fingers sticky, lightly spray your hands with non-stick cooking spray and squeeze the mixture into the pan.
Make sure you use high-fat cottage cheese-type cream cheese to make the icing. Otherwise it is too thin. If you want to know more about cream cheese frosting, read a lot of tips and tricks in this post.