Make your Christmas eggs-tra special with these soft and chewy Eggnog Bars topped with an Eggnog Buttercream frosting!! This is a quick and easy cookie bar recipe that is perfect for the holiday season.
Making Christmas cookies and holiday desserts is basically my life at this time of year, from the end of November onwards - ok, sometimes all the way through October AND November, but no judging here, right?
When you have tasted the warm spiced sweetness of these delicious eggnog bars, you will understand!
Eggnog is a classic American spiced holiday drink that is filled with warm autumnal and Christmassy flavors. It's also filled with protein from being made mainly from eggs!
Using Homemade Eggnog for this recipe is best, as eggnog that you find in grocery stores is often loaded up with way too much sugar, and just not the correct ratio of spices for my taste.
If you can only get eggnog from the store though, don't worry! You can customize the flavors of these cookies easily to your preference.
With these eggnog cookie bars, I can enjoy those signature Christmas eggnog flavors in a delicious cookie bar bite! These eggnog cookie bars are also great for m
Get into the full festive swing and serve these Eggnog Cookie Bars with a cold glass of milk, a cold glass of eggnog, or a cup of hot eggnog!
If you love these eggnog bars, you will also love my Classic Sugar Cookie Bars, this Christmas Sugar Cookie Pie, and these Christmas Magic Bars that would all make great additions to your Christmas cookie platter!
Shopping List
Wet Ingredients. Butter, Egg, Egg Yolk, Vegetable Oil, Eggnog, Pure Vanilla Extract, Rum Extract
Dry Ingredients. All Purpose Flour, Granulated White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Powdered Sugar, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Nutmeg
Topping: Holiday Sprinkles (Optional)
Supplies / Equipment
I like to gather all the supplies I will need to make cookies before I begin. It also helps to clean the kitchen and wife off counters. That way I'm not tripping over myself as I'm working in my kitchen. A few of my favorite supplies are:
- Kitchen Scale. I use this for accuracy in measuring and it's a life saver when it comes to consistent baking
- Wire Rack for cooling cookies. I like to have at least 2 cooling racks
- Mixing Bowls. A Large Mixing Bowl for mixing ingredients and small and medium mixing bowls for other ingredients
- Cookie Sheet. Most recipes will take 2 batches to bake. It's great to have multiple baking sheets available
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mat. Line Cookie Sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up and to prevent sticking.
- Cookie Scoop. A small #60 Cookie Scoop or a Medium Cookie Scoop #50 are great choices for uniform drops of cookie dough.
- Storage Container. An Airtight Container to store cookies or ZipLoc Bags work great too.
- Additional supplies. Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons along with silicone spatula are all helpful
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How to Make Chrismas Eggnog Bars
Bar Cookies
Firstly, preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F and spray a baking dish or ¼ size cookie sheet with baking spray to help prevent the bars from sticking.
In a large mixing bowl with a hand electric mixer, or using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together Butter and Granulated Sugar until light and fluffy.
Add Egg, Vanilla Extract, Rum Extract, and Eggnog to the butter mixture and continue to combine ingredients together. Scrape the sides of the mixing bowl as needed.
Then drizzle Vegetable Oil into the butter mixture and add Brown Sugar, and cream ingredients together.
In a separate medium size bowl combine All-Purpose Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg together.
Gradually add dry ingredients to the butter mixture a little at a time making sure the ingredients are fully combined.
Once you have your cookie dough, spread the cookie dough into the prepared baking dish, or a prepared ¼ size cookie sheet. Bake at 350 Degrees F for 18-20 minutes.
The cookie bar slab is done when the edges have turned a light golden brown and the center is set.
Remove from oven and allow cookie bar slab to fully cool before frosting.
Eggnog Buttercream Frosting
While the cookie bars are baking, you can make the frosting. In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the softened Butter, Powdered Sugar, and Rum Extract until fully mixed. The mixture will take a bit to fully combine and will be very thick.
Gradually add in the Eggnog, a tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Typically 4 or 5 tablespoons are needed.
Once the cookie bar slab has fully cooled, put all of the frosting onto the cookie bar slab.
Then spread the frosting over the cooled bar slab in an even layer.
Finally, sprinkle the top with ground nutmeg or holiday sprinkles, slice, and serve!
Storage and Freezing
- Storage: Store these eggnog cookie bars in the fridge, in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Enjoy these cookie bars within 2-3 days for the best flavor.
- Freezing: Eggnog cookie bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Freeze the cookie bars unfrosted. Wrap the cookie slab tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the cookie slab in the refrigerator overnight, then add frosting before serving.
Substitutions & Variations
- This recipe is the same for making Eggnog Cookies except when making cookies, cookie dough needs to chill for 1 hour to help prevent spreading while baking.
- Homemade eggnog will taste better than eggnog from the grocery store. Making eggnog at home will also let you control the sweetness and the amount of spices used.
- If you want a stronger eggnog flavor, add some eggnog extract to your cookie dough and frosting.
- For less eggnog flavor, omit the eggnog from the frosting or use a Vanilla or Almond Frosting.
- Use food coloring to make your frosting extra Christmassy!
- Add some white chocolate chips for a bit of extra sweetness and different texture.
- Add some crushed macadamia nuts, almonds, or chopped pecans to the cookie bar dough, or crumble them on top.
Pro Tips
Softened Butter. Allow cold butter to sit on counter for 1 hour. Butter that sits out longer will turn to mush and will not cream well in recipes. Cream Butter with Sugars to create a light and fluffy mixture ideal for baking cookies.
Parchment Paper. I love to use parchment paper when baking. Cookie bars don't stick to parchment paper and it offers easy clean up too.
Measuring Ingredients. Using a kitchen scale to measure ingredients is very helpful.
| Volume | Ounces | Grams | |
| All Purpose Flour | 1 Cup | 4½ Ounces | 120 Grams |
| Bread Flour | 1 Cup | 4½ Ounces | 120 Grams |
| Granulated Sugar | 1 Cup | 7 Ounces | 200 Grams |
| Brown Sugar | 1 Cup | 7½ Ounces | 213 Grams |
| Confectionary Sugar | 1 Cup | 4 Ounces | 113 Grams |
Have you tried these Eggnog Cookie Bars?
Let me know what you thought of this recipe! Tag @bestcookierecipes on social media so I can see how great your cookies turned out! I would also love to read your comments below. Let me know what you thought of these festive cookie bars. It really does help!
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Easy Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Christmas Sugar Cookie Pie with Candy Canes
- Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Buttercream
- Christmas Magic Bars
Eggnog Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup Butter Softened
- ¼ cup Vegetable Oil
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar 100g
- ½ cup Brown Sugar 105g
- ¼ cup Eggnog
- 1 Egg Plus 1 Egg Yolk
- 3 cup All Purpose Flour 360g
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Rum Extract
- ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
Eggnog Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup Butter Softened
- 3½ cup Powdered Sugar
- 5 tablespoons Eggnog
- ½ teaspoon Rum Extract
- Ground Nutmeg Garnish (Optional)
Instructions
Bar Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F. Spray ¼ size cookie sheet with baking spray to help prevent sticking
- In a large mixing bowl with a hand electric mixer or use a larger stand mixer cream together Butter and Granulated Sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add Egg, Vanilla Extract, Rum Extract, and Eggnog to the butter mixture and continue to combine ingredients together. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.
- Drizzle Vegetable Oil into butter mixture and add Brown Sugar. Cream ingredients together.
- In a separate medium size bowl combine All-Purpose Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg together. Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture a little at a time making sure the ingredients are fully combined.
- Spread cookie dough into the prepared baking dish or a ¼ size cookie sheet. Bake at 350 Degrees F for 18-20 minutes.
- The cookie bar slab is done when the edges have turned a light golden brown and the center is set.
- Remove from oven and allow cookie bar slab to fully cool before frosting.
Eggnog Buttercream Frosting
- In a mixing bowl with a hand mixer combine softened Butter with Powdered Sugar and Rum Extract.
- Mixture will take a bit to fully combine and will be very thick.
- Gradually add Eggnog a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Typically 4 or 5 tablespoons are needed.
- Once the cookie bar slab has fully cooled, put all of the frosting onto the cookie bar slab.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled bar slab in an even layer.
- Garnish (optional) with a sprinkling of ground nutmeg or holiday sprinkles
Notes
- Storage: Store these eggnog cookie bars in the fridge, in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 1 week. They are best enjoyed within 2-3 days.
- Freezing: Eggnog cookie bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Freeze the cookie bars unfrosted. Wrap the cookie slab tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost the cookie slab in the refrigerator overnight, then add frosting before serving.
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