Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars

Soft like a pillow!

Cooking and baking really is constant exploration; you can never stop learning or finding a better way to do things. My family loves the cinnamon-y sugary goodness that is a snickerdoodle. Whether its in cookie form or bar form its all good. I have my own go to recipe for snickerdoodle bars but like I mentioned before I'm always looking to see if I can improve on what I already had. I found a recipe for snickerdoodle cookie bars at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. I fell in love with the picture of the cookie bars, I thought the bars looked chewy just like how I love my cookie bars so I was up for the challenge of making them. I gathered my ingredients and got to work. The recipe uses sour cream which I'm not used to putting in my bars but I heard that it adds moisture to your baked goods. The recipe also didn't call for vanilla or any extract for that matter so I decided to add a teaspoon for flavor. I followed the recipe exact otherwise and baked for the suggested time of 30 minutes. After allowing the recipe to cool for a while I cut into the bars for a taste. I cant say I wasn't disappointed...it just wasn't what I was accustomed too. The texture was cake-y and the flavor had a over bearing egg presence. I also ignored the suggestion of using shortening and opted for all butter...HOW CAN ANYTHING WITH ALL BUTTER GO WRONG???? Well all wasn't lost, instead of a cookie bar I had a snack/tea cake.
 So this recipe just didn't do it for me although my girlfriend thought it tasted good. My mom told me to leave it overnight and taste it the next day to see if the flavor develops further.
I think if you're looking for a cinnamon sugar snack cake that would be perfect with tea then this recipe is for you.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bar

makes 12 bars

1 cup butter or shortening

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1/4 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

- Heat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9x13in bar pan.

- Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl. Set to the side.

- In stand mixer combine butter/shortening and 1 1/2 cup sugar, mix with paddle until fluffy.

- Add eggs one at a time, scaping the bowl in between additions. 

- Add in sour cream.

- Add in dry ingredients and mix just until no streaks of flour remain. 

- Mix cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar together. 

- Sprinkle the bottom of the prepared pan with some of the cinnamon sugar mixture, reserve the rest for the top.

- Pour the batter into the pan and spread it around evenly. 

- Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar on top.

- Place pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

- Remove and cool. Cut and enjoy!