Strawberry Sugar Cookie Bars

We stayed true to Ryan’s original recipe and only tweaked it slightly by baking our bars in a brownie pan to give them some extra thickness and nixing the frosting altogether to cut out some calories.

No matter how you make them there’s no doubt that these cookie bars are a real crowd pleaser. Visit RyanBakes.com for the original recipe or simply read below:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
  4 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• zest from 1 lemon
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 cups fresh diced Terry Berries
• 1/8 cup sugar 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease a 13 x 18 brownie pan
3. Wash your Terry Berries and cut off the stems
4. Finely dice a cup and a half of the berries (a little less than 1 clamshell) and place them in a bowl with the 1/8 cup sugar, stirring occasionally as you continue on with the next steps
5. Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together until smooth (about two minutes) using either an electric mixer or a mixing bowl and a handheld mixer
6. Mix in the eggs, one at a team, and beat well until smooth after each addition
7. Blend in the vanilla & zest of 1 lemon
8. In a medium bowl, combine the salt, flour, and baking soda and whisk together before pouring (a third or fourth at a time depending on the size of your mixer) into the bowl with your batter–making sure to beat well after each new addition
9. Mix in the 1 1/4 cup diced strawberries making sure not to overmix
10. Place the cookie dough into your greased brownie pan in an even layer and bake in your preheated oven for 20-30 minutes.
11. Remove from the oven when a toothpick placed in the center of the pastry comes out clean & let cool before cutting into thick rectangles