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Fun Patriotic Cookie Bars made with swirled red, white & blue icing making them perfectly festive! Easy sugar cookie bar recipe for 4th of July & Memorial Day.
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5 from 4 votes

PATRIOTIC COOKIE BARS

Patriotic Cookie Bars made with swirled red, white & blue icing making them perfectly festive! Easy sugar cookie recipe for 4th of July & Memorial Day! 
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookie bars
Servings: 28
Calories: 166kcal

Ingredients

Cookie Bars

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 cups flour

Vanilla Icing Layer

  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 TBSP softened butter
  • 2 TBSP milk

Red & Blue Icing Layer

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 5 TBSP milk
  • 2 TBSP corn syrup
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • red and blue food coloring I use the Wilton Color Right bottles and they're amazing!

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Cream together sugar and butter.  Add egg, sour cream and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt to butter mixture, beat until smooth.  
  • Transfer dough to a 9x13 pan or quarter bakers sheet that's been sprayed with non-stick spray. Spread dough to edges and gently flatten until it's mostly even. 
  • Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. 
  • Whisk vanilla icing together and spread the thin layer over the cookies. This gives the royal icing a smoother surface and makes it easier to marbleize the icing. 
  • Whisk royal icing ingredients together until smooth. Separate roughly 3 TBSP worth of icing each into 2 small bowls. Add a few drops of red coloring to one of the bowls and blue to the other. Stir until color is even. Transfer blue and red icing to separate baggies. 
  • Pour white icing onto the cookie bars and quickly spread over the entire surface, until smooth and even. Cut the corners of each of the baggies holding red and blue icing. Pipe red and blue lines of icing down the length of the cookie bars. Take a thin knife and swirl icing in even motions. Don't over-swirl or you'll start to see purple sections forming! 
  • Let cookie bars cool and set for several hours before cutting. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 166kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 98mg | Potassium: 21mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 145IU | Calcium: 10mg | Iron: 0.5mg