Easter Treats (of a sort)

As I usually like to celebrate the holidays in work with treats for my coworkers, I tried two new recipes for Friday in recognition of Easter/Passover/Spring:

Sugar Cookie Bars
(recipe from Beantown Baker)




I can't rave enough about this recipe - it was so easy to make, tasted just like soft sugar cookies, and saved me the hassle of rolling out and cutting out sugar cookies!

Ingredients
1 cup butter; room temp.
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg.
Add vanilla & mix well.
In a separate bowl combine flour, salt & soda & stir with a whisk to combine.
Add to wet mixture and mix just until combined.
Spread on a greased baking sheet (Like Beantown Baker, I lined my jelly roll pan with parchment paper).
Bake for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely and frost.

For the sugar cookies bars, I got to try out the decorating tool that I bought in Japan two years ago:


Frosting
1/2 cup butter at room temp
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
a pinch of salt
4 cups powdered sugar
5 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp almond flavoring (I added this since I felt like I was still tasting the powdered sugar too much. Plus, I love almond flavoring!)

Directions
Combine butter and shortening until smooth and creamy.
Add vanilla and salt.
Add powdered sugar in 1-2 cup increments until combined, then add milk & mix until smooth and spreading consistency.
Spread over cooled cookie (and add sprinkles), then cut into bars.

The tool and a rubber spatula made spreading the frosting easy. Although I originally was aiming to use Easter sprinkles, I couldn't find any in the stores near me and I ended up copying Beantown Baker's decorations - festive rainbow sprinkles that I already on hand:


If you can't tell from the photo, the bars ended up delicious - nice soft and chewy consistency on the bottom with soft and fluffy frosting on top.

In addition, I managed to score a great brownie recipe at the Birthday BBQ I attended last weekend. I'm calling these Melanie's brownies after the person who graciously shared her mother's brownie recipe with me. Although I overcooked these a smidge in my ancient oven, they still came out deliciously dense and chewy:

What struck me about these brownies is how beautifully they cut - definitely my go-to brownie recipe for the time-being.

My coworkers loved having both choices, and despite having supported me fully the previous day at the bake sale, assure me they were up to the task of devouring the sugar cookie bars and brownies.