Gingerbread Bars
Ingredients:
For the cream cheese frosting*:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup molasses
For the cream cheese frosting*:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- red food colouring (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Line a 9x13" pan with parchment paper enough to that the paper just hangs over the ends to remove the bars later. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, vanilla and molasses until combined.
- Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold until batter is well incorporated.
- Press batter onto pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until edges just start to brown.
- Remove pan from oven and cool completely.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, and vanilla/eggnog and food colouring until light and fluffy. Add additional powdered sugar or eggnog to reach desired consistency or drops of food colouring for colour preference. Spread frosting onto cooled bars.
- Cut bars into squares and refrigerate in a sealed container for up to a week.