Eggnog laden cookie dough is swirled with spicy cinnamon and warm vanilla, then baked until rich and tender. Fresh eggnog buttercream, a pinch of nutmeg, and a crown of crushed candy cane give these eggnog cookie bars a festive finish!
So I have to admit, these eggnog cookie bars were the first ever cookie bars to be made in my kitchen. How did I not know this was a thing? Apparently I've been stuck in a cookies = round world for my entire cooking career.
Time to shake things up. As I always say when I'm not sure how something is going to turn out, "We'll find out together" 🤷♀️
As soon as you're done mixing up your cinnamon + nutmeg spiced, eggnog swirled cookie dough, you can immediately press it into a small cookie sheet and toss it in the oven. No chilling, dropping-by-the-tablespoonful, or cookie cuttering required.
Once baked, your cookie slab (love that word and I'm going to be using it a lot in the next 3 minutes so prepare yourself) gets to hang out for a bit while you do other things. I.e. wrap gifts, drink coffee, meditate, read your book club's December pick The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (10/10, cute and fun!), get some work done, or simply watch the Hallmark Christmas movies channel until you feel convinced that if only you could just leave your big city job and take a trip upstate, all of your problems would somehow evaporate.
No matter what you've filled your time with, the cookie slab will be ready for a crown of cinnamon-eggnog buttercream frosting in just a few hours. A few sprinkles add sparkle while crushed candy canes contrast coolly and crunchily against the richness of your eggnog icing.
Where other eggnog cookie bar recipes have eggnog in just the cookie dough or the frosting, I double down, mixing a generous amount of nog into both components. If we're going for it, let's go for it! It's Christmas after all. Merry wishes to you and yours 🎄❤️
ingredients for eggnog cookie bars
ingredient notes & swaps
- When it comes to baking these cookie bars, using room temperature butter, egg, and eggnog is essential! These fat rich ingredients combine more readily when they are room temperature and also emulsify more smoothly, creating tender and airy eggnog cookie bars as opposed to lumpy or dense ones. Simply pull these ingredients out of the fridge about 1 hour before you plan to start baking.
- You can use any type or brand of eggnog you like best. I used Whole Foods Organic Eggnog here, as it has a classic eggnoggy flavor and a nice medium weight to it. I haven't tried making these cookie bars with boozy eggnog (yet!) so I would avoid that.
- When sipping eggnog, I dust mine with both ground cinnamon and nutmeg, so I used both spices to make these cookie bars! The ground cinnamon adds an essential warmth to the dough as well as the frosting. Nutmeg adds an earthiness that really grounds your eggnog cookie bars and serves as the finishing touch that makes your undeniably eggnoggy.
- The sparkly gold coin shaped sprinkles I use on my eggnog cookie bars are called cake sequins and I had to buy an unfortunately large bag of them years ago for a freelance contract I was working. Use any shape or color sprinkles you like!
eggnog cookie bars recipe
Eggnog laden cookie dough is swirled with spicy cinnamon and warm vanilla, then baked until rich and tender. Fresh eggnog buttercream, a pinch of nutmeg, and a crown of crushed candy cane give these eggnog cookie bars a festive finish!
- Total Time: 3 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookie bars 1x
Ingredients
For the dough:
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup eggnog, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
For the frosting:
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup eggnog, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch salt
For topping:
- Festive sprinkles
- Crushed candy cane
- Ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉. In a large mixing bowl, use a handheld electric mixer to beat 1 stick of room temperature butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy and well combined.
- Add the egg, ⅔ cup of eggnog, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and ½ teaspoons each salt, cinnamon, and ground nutmeg.
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the butter mixture and fold the two together until the dough comes together. Do your best to get all of the flour that tracks up the sides of the bowl incorporated into the dough, as the flour is what gives your cookie bars their sturdy structure which will be important when it comes time to move and frost your cookie slab after baking
- Transfer your eggnog cookie dough into a quarter sheet pan (also known as a 9x13 baking sheet) or other shallow baking dish lined with parchment. Leave a bit of parchment paper overhang to help you lift the cookie bars out once they're baked.
- Smush and smooth the cookie dough out into the pan, aiming for an even layer all the way across. Make sure to get dough into all of the corners; this will give you nice square edges that don't need much trimming later.
- This step is optional, but I usually sprinkle a little crushed candy cane over the dough before the bake, giving the eggnog cookie bars an extra layer of crunchy texture and really letting that Christmas candy cane flavor bake right in.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until fully set in the center and lightly golden around the edges.
- Remove your cookie slab from the baking sheet and let it cool completely. This is a great time to break if you are making these ahead! After it cools, just wrap the slab in plastic and store at room temperature until tomorrow.
- When you're ready to frost and decorate, combine 1 stick of room temperature butter with the powdered sugar and ¼ cup of eggnog.
- Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, then add your vanilla, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.
- Beat again until smooth and creamy and thoroughly impossible to resist dipping your finger into!
- Plop your eggnog frosting onto your cookie slab, then spread and smooth it into an even layer.
- Slice the slab into cookie bars! I like to make them into baton shapes like this, which will yield about 20 cookies, but you could definitely make yours square or rectangular or even use cookie cutters if you like. Trim the edges if you like; this will give them that distinctively cookie bar square edge!
- Decorate your eggnog cookie bars as desired. I went with more crushed candy canes and some shimmery gold sprinkles for a festive look. Serve and Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cooling Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: desserts
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: holiday
FAQs
Do Eggnog Cookie Bars Need to be Refrigerated?
Yes, due to the eggnog in the frosting, these eggnog cookie bars do need to stay refrigerated once frosted. However! If you want to keep them room temperature friendly, just hold off on applying the frosting until you're ready to decorate and eat them. The baked cookie slab can be stored tightly sealed in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days at room temperature.
What can you do with leftover eggnog?
Making eggnog cookie bars is a great way to use leftover eggnog, but if you have even more leftover, here are a few ideas:
- Add a splash of eggnog to your morning coffee for a festive and decadent twist on typical coffee creamers
- Use eggnog to replace milk in pancake, waffle, or french toast recipes to whip up a holiday themed breakfast
- Drizzle eggnog over plain vanilla ice cream and sprinkle with nutmeg for an extra rich (extra easy!) dessert option
Looking for more festive treats? Try my other holiday recipes like this Gingerbread Crème Brûlée. Or, for more cookie bar style vibes, this Spiced Chai Cake recipe and Pumpkin Spice Blondies are similar square-edged delights.
dig in!
Enjoy & let me know what you think 🌙 💛
